Mark Zuckerberg Comes Out Unscathed From The Leadership Vote

The attempt to make the Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg step down from his position as the chairman of the board ended in his favour.

The company held its general meeting last Thursday, which was also scheduled for board members to vote on his leadership, after several calls that he step down the position, following many fails and scandals.

Ex-staff member, Alex Stamos had called for his resignation on the ground that he was wielding too much power, which he thought wasn’t healthy. He also accused him of monopolising the internet. Facebook owns a photo-sharing app, Instagram and an instant messaging app, WhatsApp. Mark Zuckerberg attempted to acquire Snapchat, but was rebuffed at $4b in 2013.

Other investors also called for his resignation as board chairman. One of them, Trillium Assets which owns about $7m worth of shares had the senior vice president tell the BBC that Zuckerberg will do better and focus more as chief executive. “If he can focus on being independent board chair, that would be a much better situation,” he said.

He cited examples in Google and Microsoft, owned by Larry page and Bill Gates respectively. Both founders are not chairmen of the board.

It appeared quite hilarious that the members of the board proceeded with a vote given the circumstance that Mark Zuckerberg had repeatedly defended his errors and was unwilling to be unseated. “When you’re building something like Facebook, there are things that you are going to mess up,” he had said in April.  He controls about 60% of the voting power and would only be unseated if he willingly stepped down or voted against himself.

He repeated at the annual meeting that Facebook is open to regulations and that the regulators should set the rules and privacy for the social network to follow.

Nevertheless, despite the numerous privacy scandalous, Facebook has always come out unscathed, with its revenue growth exceeding the previous years and new members continue to sign up to use the platform.

According to news reports, a small group of protesters appeared outside the Annual General Meeting to accuse the social network of not protecting users from the minority group. Another faction of shareholders argued that Facebook is hostile towards users with conservations opinions. Some others requested for a report that reflects its public policy positions.

Amidst the outcry, the Facebook founder remains board chairman.