Facebook investors OK new share class to keep Zuckerberg at helm

We are appalled that Peter Thiel would use some of his billions to fund litigation meant to put Gawker out of business”, the petition reads, “We call upon Facebook to remove Thiel from its board of directors.

In a shareholders meeting on Monday, all members of Facebook’s board were reelected to their positions. Zuckerberg is also keeping on a man who supports Trump, a presidential candidate whose campaign has been largely fueled by bigotry and xenophobia. Since Zuckerberg holds the majority of the voting rights, his decision on Monday was the most important.

“It will continue to become impossible for outside shareholders to have any input on company decisions”, said Christine Jantz of Northstar Asset Management, which owns $5.4 million in Facebook common stock.

More recently, Thiel was part of a gaggle of execs who met with leading conservatives at Facebook’s headquarters to ease their concerns in the wake of a controversy over potential bias against right-leaning media outlets in the Trending Topics section.

As more people around the world join Facebook, the company’s ability to control news distribution grows as well. The PayPal co-founder spent about $10 million bankrolling Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker, which is just one of several suits against the gossip site Thiel said he has financially backed, according to the New York Times. Hogan claimed that Gawker violated his privacy when it published portions of a sex tape involving him and the now-estranged wife of a friend four years ago. “I don’t think anybody but Gawker would argue otherwise…”

If Thiel is allowed to stay on, Gillmor wrote, it will show that Zuckerberg “wants to exploit [the free press], but doesn’t honor it”.

The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) even launched a petition last week demanding that Zuckerberg remove Thiel from Facebook’s board of directors. “If Zuckerberg did not have control over the reins of Facebook, it’s hard for me to imagine as a personal investor” what might happen.

Facebook Inc shareholders approved a proposal to create a new class of non-voting shares, a move aimed at letting Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg give away his wealth without relinquishing control of the social media company he founded.