Facebook investors have called on the company’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg. The investors want Zuckerberg to step down as Chairman of the company. This happened after reports came in that the company hired a public relations firm to smear its critics. This was given by a media report on Saturday.
The New York Times has recently published the report. It reveals that Facebook at times smeared critics as anti-Semitic. Or they have tried to link activists to billionaire investor Geroge Soros and tried to shift public anger toward rival tech companies.
A Republican public relations firm named Definers Public Affairs was also used by the company. Its purpose was to help repair its battered reputation following intense criticism of the social media platform’s handling of a scandal over Russian interference in the 2016 US elections and the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Trillium Asset Management is a US investor which owns a £8.5 million stake in Facebook. Jonas Kron, a Senior Vice President at the company called on Zuckerberg, telling him that investors want Zuckerberg to step down as Chairman. He said, “Facebook is behaving like a special snowflake.” He also added, “It’s not. It is a company and companies need to have a separation of chair and CEO.”
This attack on Zuckerberg will surely complicate the already herculean challenge facing Sir Nick Clegg, Facebook’s new global head of policy and communications, who joined last month and has been asked to conduct a review of Facebook‘s use of lobbying firms.
Allegedly, the Definers painted an anti-Semitic picture of Facebook’s critics and published news criticising the company’s rivals. In a recent interview, Zuckerberg has denied any knowledge of his business hiring the firm. He said, “As soon as I learned about this, I talked to our team and we are no longer working with this firm.”
