Major Facebook investors want Mark Zuckerberg to step down as chairman of the company’s board following several high-profile scandals. Although the proposal is largely symbolic, it comes at a time when Facebook is reeling under pressure over a string of privacy issues. The social media platform is also in the radar for allegedly playing a role in the proliferation of fake news and foreign meddling in the US elections.
Four major US public funds — state treasurers from Illinois, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, and New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer — that hold shares in Facebook have proposed removing CEO Mark Zuckerberg as chairman, joining activist and original filer Trillium Asset Management. This is not the first time that public pension funds and state officials want the ouster of Zuckerberg as chairman. Something similar happened in 2017 as well but because Zuckerberg’s absolute control of the board makes outsider resolutions effectively null and void. At least three of the four public funds are said to have supported the 2017 resolution as well.
“We need Facebook’s insular boardroom to make a serious commitment to addressing real risks – reputational, regulatory, and the risk to our democracy – that impact the company, its share owners, and ultimately the hard-earned pensions of thousands of New York City workers,” New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer was quoted by CNBC as saying.
Looming controversies have cost Facebook its reputation, major Facebook investors said, adding that Zuckerberg’s ouster would in a way help “reestablish trust with Americans and investors alike.”
Facebook has been in the eye of the storm over privacy concerns after an upstart voter-profiling company, called Cambridge Analytica, was allegedly found to have harvested more than 50 million user profiles on Facebook with the help of academic researcher Aleksandr Kogan without any consent from users. It was a data breach like no other.
The recent data breach that led to data of nearly 30 million users being stolen added fresh fuel to Facebook’s troubles.
