Responsible Investor

Shareholders and regulators target big tech over social concerns

Shareholders and regulators target big tech over social concerns

“We need to be realistic about the outcomes, especially at companies like Alphabet and Meta which have ‘dual class’ shares that give the company founders and other insiders powerful voting rights that make shareholder initiatives extremely challenging,” said Michael Connor, Director at Open MIC, a nonprofit which campaigns for corporate accountability in media and tech.

Shareholder human rights concerns at Facebook, Google and Twitter

Shareholder human rights concerns at Facebook, Google and Twitter

Twitter has just filed its proxy statement, with an annual meeting which is also an audio webcast, is also on 27 May, and is also at 10 am Pacific Time. But, for some reason, the human rights resolution did not appear as a voting matter, despite there being no challenges to it at the SEC. Indeed, according to Michael Connor, executive director of Open MIC, none of the companies challenged any of the resolutions, even the second one covering human rights at Facebook. It is not clear, at this time, why Twitter was able to exclude the resolution.