NY Comptroller Goes After Facebook For Mishandling Personal Data, Fake News And Hate Speech
ALBANY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) — New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has written to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg demanding big changes in corporate governance.
DiNapoli, writing in his capacity as trustee of the state retirement fund, said he will vote against the nominees for Facebook's board of directors at next year's annual investor meeting unless the company agrees to a series of changes, such as the selection of an independent chairman who has no material interest in the company.
The retirement fund currently holds more than $1 billion in Facebook shares, making DiNapoli an important voice among shareholders.
In the letter released Tuesday, DiNapoli says Facebook's mishandling of personal data and slow response to false news and hate speech have exposed shareholders to increased risk.
Zuckerberg has led the board since 2012. Facebook has not responded to DiNapoli's comments.
In March, Facebook admitted it left hundreds of millions of user passwords readable by its employees for years after a security researcher exposed the lapse.
Late last year, Facebook faced another round of allegations that the company violated users' privacy on a much larger scale than previously disclosed.
The social media giant was accused of releasing private information to other tech companies, like Amazon and Netflix.
A New York Times report details how Facebook allegedly gave some of its partners a wide range of access to data from its 2.5 billion users for years and never told anyone.
READ: Facebook's Response To NY Times' Report
The report says Facebook allowed Microsoft to "see the names of virtually all Facebook users' friends without consent, the records show, and gave Netflix and Spotify the ability to read Facebook users' private messages."
(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
