A New York City official responsible for pension funds that hold about $1billion in Facebook stock has called on CEO Mark Zuckerberg to step down from the social media giant.
Scott Stringer, the New York City comptroller, thinks Facebook needs to clean house and overhaul its board of directors.
In March, the social network was found to have allowed a UK-based political consultancy, Cambridge Analytica, mine personal data that it used to target voters in the United States and Britain.
Stringer told CNBC on Tuesday that an independent chairman should be appointed in place of Zuckerberg and that the board should hire three new directors that would impose discipline on the company as it relates to protecting user data and privacy.
‘It is the eighth-largest company in the world,’ Stringer said.
Scott Stringer, the New York City comptroller, thinks Facebook needs to clean house and overhaul its board of directors. Stringer is seen above in Manhattan last October
Since news of the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke last month, Facebook has seen its stock plummet. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is seen above in San Jose, California last October
‘They have 2 billion users. They are in uncharted waters, and they have not comported themselves in a way that makes people feel good about Facebook and secure about their own data.’
The comptroller said that the Facebook scandal was a ‘risk to our democracy.’
Stringer said that as of now there are no plans for New York City’s pension funds to pull their money out of Facebook.
Still, he said: ‘We do have the right to ask these questions.’
It doesn’t appear that Zuckerberg is going anywhere anytime soon.
Though Facebook is publicly traded, Zuckerberg, as CEO, controls most of the voting shares even though in practice he owns some 16 percent of company stock, according to The Conversation.
Facebook’s governance structure was built to ensure that Zuckerberg and his team retain overall power within the company – thus minimizing the role of shareholders.
Stringer’s comments are a reflection of growing discomfort among Facebook investors with Zuckerberg’s leadership.
In an interview with Vox, Zuckerberg tried to reassure the public that the Cambridge Analytica scandal is a temporary setback.
‘I think we will dig through this hole, but it will take a few years,’ Zuckerberg said.
‘I wish I could solve all these issues in three months or six months, but I just think the reality is that solving some of these questions is just going to take a longer period of time.’
When asked to comment about how the company is run, Zuckerberg said: ‘One of the things that I feel really lucky we have is this company structure where, at the end of the day, it’s a controlled company.
‘We are not at the whims of short-term shareholders.
‘We can really design these products and decisions with what is going to be in the best interest of the community over time.’
Since news of the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke last month, Facebook has seen its stock plummet.
The company’s market capitalization has fallen by $86billion in the last few weeks.