Meta public policy vice president Simon Milner to step down after 14-year run

Singapore: Simon Milner is calling time on a long and influential career in public policy. The vice-president of public policy for Asia-Pacific at Meta will retire from full-time work later this year, marking the end of a 14-year stint at the social media giant and more than two decades at the heart of media, telecoms and technology regulation.

Milner, who joined Facebook in 2012 and later led Meta’s public policy strategy across Asia-Pacific, said the second half of his career had been “off the scale” in terms of opportunity, challenge and impact. He plans to stay on for a few months to help identify and transition a successor before stepping away.

Based in Singapore, Milner has spent the past eight years steering Meta’s policy engagement across one of its most complex regions, overseeing teams from Delhi and Beijing to Tokyo, Wellington and beyond. His tenure included high-profile parliamentary hearings across Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore, where he was questioned for hours on issues ranging from misinformation to the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Before taking charge of Asia-Pacific in 2018, Milner served as policy director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He joined Facebook initially to head policy for the UK and Ireland, before building the company’s first policy teams across the Middle East, Turkey, Israel and Africa. He became a familiar public face for the company during debates on online safety, hate speech, countering violent extremism and internet regulation, particularly in the wake of the 2016 US election.

Prior to Facebook, Milner held senior policy roles at BT and the BBC. At BT, he helped lead the legal challenge that derailed key parts of the UK’s Digital Economy Act copyright regime. At the BBC, he served as secretary during one of the corporation’s most turbulent periods, including the political fallout over coverage of the Iraq war.

Alongside his executive roles, Milner has served on multiple boards, including the UK digital inclusion charity Good Things Foundation and the Authority for Television on Demand, reflecting a long-standing focus on access, regulation and public interest outcomes in the digital economy.

As he prepares to step back, Milner leaves behind a policy landscape transformed by platforms, pressure and politics. Few have spent as long defending, shaping and explaining Big Tech to governments. Fewer still have done it across so many capitals.