The organization or group called “Freedom From Facebook” announced that if you’re in Menlo Park, California, today, look up to the skies. Group representatives say the following in a communication to Zennie62Media:
“Freedom From Facebook launched a new multifaceted campaign to target company shareholders and employees and to highlight the need for the Federal Trade Commission to break up Facebook’s monopoly. Freedom From Facebook is flying a plane with a banner reading “You Broke Democracy FreedomFromFB.com” over the meeting at Facebook’s Menlo Park, California office.
There will also be a new Freedom From Facebook digital ad campaign targeting the meeting and Facebook’s offices around the country. The ad called ‘Don’t Get Zucked,’ features Mark Zuckerberg’s real Instant Messenger transcripts from when he called Facebook users “dumb f**ks” for sharing their personal information.
Additionally, Freedom From Facebook coalition member SumOfUs is a Facebook shareholder and:
1. SumOfUs members sent over 1,500 emails to 212 pension funds, urging them to vote ‘WITHHOLD” on Zuckerberg’s appointment, and in support of Proposals 4 and 6;
2. Filed an exempt solicitation letter calling on shareholders to vote “WITHHOLD” on Mark Zuckerberg’s appointment to the board, a recommendation shared by renowned proxy advisor firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS); and
3.Senior Campaigner Reem Suleiman and Capital Markets Advisor Lisa Lindsley will be present at the shareholder meeting in Menlo Park.
“Given what we know of the goings on at Facebook over the past 6 months, it’s clear that the company has little to no means of accountability when it comes to Mark Zuckerberg, who currently serves as his own boss. As consumers, we cannot rely on corporate behemoths like Facebook to voluntarily hold themselves accountable, which is exactly why the FTC must take matters into their own hands and regulate this communications mega-corporation.”” said Reem Suleiman, Senior Campaigner at SumOfUs.
“Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also held the role of Board Chair since 2012. Over half of non-insider shareholders supported our 2017 shareholder proposal for an independent Board Chair at Facebook. In 2018 the case for independent board leadership is stronger than ever. While shareholders do not elect corporate management, we do elect members of the Board of Directors, and Zuckerberg should no longer hold both positions.” said Lisa Lindsley, Capital Markets Advisor at SumOfUs.
Freedom From Facebook, a diverse group of organizations who share deep concerns about Facebook’s extraordinary power over our lives and democracy, is calling on the Federal Trade Commission to use its broad authority to break up Facebook’s monopoly, by spinning off WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger, develop interoperability standards that allow users to communicate between competing social networks, and implement strong privacy rules to give users more control over the collection and utilization of their personal information.
View the Freedom From Facebook website and petition demanding that the FTC breaks up Facebook and implements strong privacy rules at https://freedomfromfb.com
The view of this author is that Facebook’s not an organization that can be broken up, like AT&T. It’s popular because it’s design encourages one to basically waste time looking at what others are posting. It’s become a form of socializing unto itself. What’s needed is for Facebook to allow better exchange via API’s with other platforms, like YouTube. But, if the group “Freedom From Facebook” wants to achieve that, they need to invest in a new social network that will draw people away from Facebook. You should not be able to legislate what social media platforms to use – that’s unconstitutional.