FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 17, 2022

Contact: Michael Clauw, mclauw@campaignforaccountability.org, 202.780.5750

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Campaign for Accountability (CfA), a nonprofit watchdog group that runs the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), is joining a national call for substantive corporate governance reforms at Meta in advance of the company’s annual general meeting next week. The #MakeMarkListen campaign is organizing a collection of activists and advocacy organizations to demand oversight and accountability at Meta on behalf of the general public and shareholders who have been subjected to countless harms under Mark Zuckerberg’s mismanagement of the company.

Campaign for Accountability Executive Director Michelle Kuppersmith said, “Through extensive research, TTP and many other advocates involved in this campaign have provided ample evidence for any rational executive to conclude that Meta’s products are damaging and reckless. From the company’s repeated failure to address these harms, we can only conclude that Mark Zuckerberg is either unwilling or unable to get the job done and additional checks are needed to protect users and investors from his mismanagement.”

As part of the campaign, CfA is endorsing two resolutions that will be considered at Meta’s annual general meeting and encouraging shareholders to vote in support of each. The first resolution (Proposal #14), offered by Harrington Investments, the Park Foundation, and SumOfUs, mandates a performance review of Meta’s audit and risk committee and its performance in overseeing company risks to public safety and the public interest. The second resolution (Proposal #9) filed by Arjuna Capital, SHARE, Storebrand and SumOfUs, requests the Board of Directors commission a third-party assessment of its metaverse project, specifically focused on the potential harms to users that may be caused by the use and abuse of the platform.

Earlier this year, Facebook reported losing users for the first time in its history, leading to a single-day valuation loss of more than $230 billion. After years of intentionally hiding vital information from the public, misleading about its research on adolescent safety, artificial intelligence, and its role in spreading divisive and extreme messages, it became clear that many users have finally had enough. As the only CEO the company has ever known, Mark Zuckerberg is undoubtably to blame for Meta’s cumulative mismanagement, misconduct, and dysfunction. CfA firmly believes that these resolutions are a positive step forward in establishing oversight to reverse some of this these harms and help to assure that the metaverse does not turn into simply the next iteration of this dysfunction.

Ms. Kuppersmith continued, “The harms caused by Meta’s products are nothing new to its users, but earlier this year shareholders woke up to the lasting damage caused by its top-level mismanagement. The benefits of these upcoming resolutions are twofold: by implementing real oversight of the company’s risk to public safety, the company can begin fostering a safer environment for its users. Then and only then, when users feel like the platform is a safe and productive place for themselves and their families, injured shareholders may start to experience some fiscal relief.”

Campaign for Accountability is a nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog organization that uses research, litigation, and aggressive communications to expose misconduct and malfeasance in public life and hold those who act at the expense of the public good accountable for their actions.