Now Facebook shareholders slam Zuckerberg over voting shares
San Francisco, June 1: After facing the flak from different quarters including governments around the world over the Cambridge Analytica data leak scandal, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has now faced angry shareholders for unequal voting shares, the media reported.
At the company's annual meeting on Thursday, activist investors had forced votes on six proposals to change the company's governance or institute other reforms, the Guardian reported.
But thanks to the company's unequal voting structure, Zuckerberg and his board of directors escaped the election unscathed.
The event, however, provided a platform for crticising the leadership of Zuckerberg and his board of directors.
One of the attendees in the meeting, Christine Jantz of Northstar Asset Management,
Advertisement talked in favour of a proposal to reform Facebook's stockholder voting structure.
Under the company's current structure, Zuckerberg controls the majority of voting shares despite not owning a majority of the company.
This is because his shares have 10 times the voting power of the shares available to regular investors.
Problems like the Cambridge Analytica scandal were the results of that structure, according to Jantz.
He called it an "egregious example of when a board is formed by a CEO to meet his needs" rather than those of investors.
James McRitchie, a shareholder activist, termed the current voting structure a "corporate dictatorship".
"Mr Zuckerberg, take a page from history," he was quoted as saying.
"Emulate George Washington, not Vladimir Putin," he added.
The meeting also discussed the company's various initiatives to increase advertising transparency, improve content moderation, and prevent interference in elections, the report said.
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UP Cong chief Ajay Rai hospitalised after fainting, stable
Lucknow (PTI): Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Rai was hospitalised here after he fell unconscious due to low sodium levels, party leaders said on Saturday.
They said he was admitted to Medanta Hospital on Friday evening and is stable.
"Ajay Rai was admitted to Medanta Hospital in Lucknow at around 6 pm on Friday after he fell unconscious as his sodium levels had dropped. He fell unconscious at his residence in Lucknow. For the entire day, he was engaged in party programmes and had also gone to the airport," Uttar Pradesh Congress spokesperson Anshu Awasthi told PTI.
Congress in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Avinash Pande told PTI, "Now, he (Ajay Rai) is stable and I am also reaching Lucknow."
Medanta Hospital Director Dr Rakesh Kapoor told PTI that Rai collapsed at his home on Friday evening and was subsequently admitted to the hospital's emergency ward.
Medical examinations revealed that Rai was suffering from a sodium deficiency and elevated blood pressure. Doctors administered immediate treatment and he is doing significantly better now, Kapoor said.
A team of doctors is monitoring his health. Rai is conversing with others and his condition is stable, he added.
In a post on X late Friday night, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wished Rai a speedy recovery.
Rai hails from Varanasi and had contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections against Modi from the parliamentary constituency. The Congress appointed him as the Uttar Pradesh unit chief in 2023.
