A group of shareholders of social media giant Facebook has sought the removal of its founder Mark Zuckerberg from the post company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), a report has claimed.
A proposal by Facebook shareholders has been put forward claiming that an independent chairperson would be better able to “oversee the executives of the company, improve corporate governance, and set a more accountable, pro-shareholder agenda,” according to a report by the VentureBeat.
The proposal to remove Zuckerberg was filed by shareholders who are members of a corporate watchdog group SumOfUs.
SumOfUs said that 333,000 people signed the petition requesting Facebook to improve its corporate citizenship, but only 1,500 of them were actual shareholders in the company, VentureBeat reported.
SumOfUs identifies itself as “an online community that campaigns to hold corporations accountable on a variety of global issues such as climate change, workers’ rights, discrimination, human rights, corruption, and corporate power grab.”
“The shares held by four individual SumOfUs members enabled us to file this proposal,” Lisa Lindsley, the capital markets advisor for SumOfUs, said.
The proposal said that shareholder value will be enhanced with an independent board chair “who can provide a balance of power between the CEO and the board and support strong board leadership.”
It added that this individual would be “particularly constructive” at a time when Facebook “faces increasing criticism regarding its perceived role in the promotion of misleading news; censorship, hate speech and alleged inconsistencies in the application of Facebook’s community standards guidelines and content policies; targeting of ad views based on race; collaboration with law enforcement and other government agencies; and calls for public accountability regarding the human rights impacts of Facebook’s practices.”
