Zuckerberg In Trouble? Proposal For Independent Board Chairman In Facebook Gains Key Supporters

Public officials in United States, involving high-ranking state treasurers, have called for an independent board chair at Facebook. This could be construed as a call for the removal of Mark Zuckerberg as the company’s chairman. The pitch for his removal has gained strength after high-profile security lapses at the social networking giant came to light. Los Angeles Times reported the story.

The state of treasurers of three US states, Illinois, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, along with the city comptroller of New York, have expressed support for a shareholder proposal originally filed by the investor Trillium Asset Management in June.

The proposal called for a separation of the roles of CEO and the Chairman, that are currently held by Zuckerberg. It said this was “in the best interest of shareholders, employees, users, and our democracy.” A similar proposal was shot down by Facebook's shareholders last year.

The public officials are bringing the proposal in their capacity as overseers of various pension funds that own Facebook stock. Apart from the sharing of user-unauthorised data with Cambridge Analytica and the recent breach that leaked personal details of 14 million users, Facebook has also been accused of not doing enough to prevent the spread of fake news.