In January 2025, it was announced that Kaplan will become the president of global affairs of Meta Platforms, owner of Facebook, in Spring 2025.

A longtime Republican political operative, Kaplan served eight years in the George W. Bush administration, including as White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy.

[11] He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University in 1991 during which time he was active student democrat and also briefly dated his future colleague at Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg.

According to a friend of Kaplan's at Harvard, his political views shifted because of campus demonstrations opposing the U.S. invasion of Kuwait during the Gulf War.

Kaplan worked as a policy advisor on George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign, during which he was a participant in the Brooks Brothers riot on November 22, 2000.

[19][20] In October 2014, Kaplan succeeded Marne Levine as Facebook's vice president of global public policy.

[22] He played an important role in crafting an exception for newsworthy political discourse when deciding on whether content violated the community guidelines.

[22][7] During and after the 2016 US presidential election, Kaplan argued against Facebook publicly disclosing the extent of Russian influence operations on the platform.

His appointment has been described as part of Meta's efforts to improve its relationship with Donald Trump ahead of his second term in office.