The investors of Facebook have started to intensify the pressures on CEO and Chairman Mark Zuckerberg to step down after a New York Times investigation showed that the social network had hired a Republican-owned political consulting and PR firm that “dug up dirt on its competitors”.
As per a report in The Guardian on Saturday, Senior Vice President, Jonas Kron at the Trillium Asset Management which owns a considerable stake in Facebook, called on Mark Zuckerberg for stepping down as the chairman of the board in the wake of the report.
Jonas Kron was quoted as saying, “Facebook is behaving like it’s a special snowflake. It’s not. It is a company and companies need to have a separation of chair and CEO.”
The report published in New York Times says that the social media giant of Facebook hired Definers Public Affairs, Washington D.C. based conservative firm which carried out PR functions for Facebook “and dug up dirt on the company’s competitors and its critics”.
In a press call, Mark Zuckerberg refuted he had any prior information about this firm.
He stated, “After reading the article, I got on the phone with our team and we are no longer working with this firm”.
Definers reportedly “encouraged the depiction of Facebook’s critics as anti-Semites and had published news articles criticising Facebook’s competitors”.
Natasha Lamb, another investor of Facebook from Arujna Capital stated the combined role of chairman and chief executive means that “Facebook can avoid properly fixing problems inside the company”, stated the report.
As per TechCrunch, that is founded by a campaign manager of a Republican, known for his dirt-digging prowess, Definers is far from a normal, politically neutral contractor.
On the other hand, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg also denied any knowledge of the firm.
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