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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Firing outside Salman Khan's home: MCOCA court remands three accused to police custody till May 8
Mumbai (PTI): A special court here on Monday remanded to police custody till May 8 three accused arrested in connection with the firing at Bollywood superstar Salman Khan's residence in Bandra.
Special MCOCA judge A M Patil remanded the accused, Vicky Gupta (24), Sagar Pal (21) and Anuj Thapan (32), to police custody and sent Sonu Kumar Chander Bishnoi (37) to judicial custody on medical grounds.
The police on Saturday invoked provisions of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against alleged shooters Gupta and Pal as well as Bishnoi and Thapan, who are accused of supplying two firearms and bullets, and gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his brother Anmol, shown as wanted accused.
The accused were earlier booked under the relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Arms Act.
In the proceedings held on camera, the court sent Gupta, Pal and Thapan to police custody till May 8 and remanded Bishnoi to judicial custody.
Public prosecutor Jaisingh Desai sought the custody of the accused, citing that the police needed to conduct a detailed investigation to unearth the conspiracy.
Police had registered the first information report (FIR) under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 307 (attempt to murder) after two motorbike-borne men fired at Galaxy Apartment in Bandra, Khan's residence, in the early hours of April 14.
Gupta and Pal, both residents of Bihar, were apprehended from Kutch in neighbouring Gujarat on April 16, while Sonu Bishnoi and Thapan were held from Punjab on April 25.
Anmol Bishnoi, who stays in Canada and travels to the USA, had claimed responsibility for the firing through a Facebook post, though its IP address was traced to Portugal, as per police.
Lawrence Bishnoi, accused of several crimes, is lodged in a jail in Sabarmati in Gujarat.
