OPEN MIC CAMPAIGNS
Open MIC works with shareholders to strengthen corporate policies and practices in the media and tech sector and to increase companies’ responsiveness to investors and the public. Our corporate accountability efforts take the form of shareholder resolutions, sign-on letters, corporate dialogues, collaborations with civil rights and civil liberties groups, participation in annual shareholder meetings, public comments, and more. Here are some examples of our recent campaigns to cultivate a more open and democratic media and tech landscape at major, publicly-held companies:
Current Campaigns: 2023-2024
AI-GENERATED MISINFORMATION AND DISINFORMATION: Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft
Open MIC and partners Arjuna Capital, Ekō and Azzad Asset Management have filed shareholder proposals at Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft calling on each respective company to issue a report on the material risks of its generative artificial intelligence technology facilitating misinformation and disinformation, as well as assessing the effectiveness of its efforts to remediate those harms.
Microsoft shareholders were the first to consider the resolution, and over 21% voted in favor. Responsible Investor, a leading industry trade publication, called it an "impressive" result for a first-time proposal, showing that AI-generated misinformation is a key issue for shareholders.
In spring 2024, we seek to build on that positive result at the meetings of Meta (May) and Alphabet (June) through an advocacy campaign targeting shareholders, asset managers and proxy advisors that includes voices from global civil society. The campaign also highlights thought leadership in the form of op-eds, as well as a strong media component.
POLICY ENGAGEMENT WITH GOVERNMENT AGENCIES
In the past year the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) have all solicited engagement, and Open MIC has responded. Our goal is to urge these agencies to support human rights by enacting meaningful, effective technology policies.
Recently, in July 2023, we and several investors filed a joint comment calling on the NTIA to establish guardrails for AI development. The joint filing argues that it is imperative that both investors and society are able to trust in the safety and credibility of AI. Particularly for responsible investors seeking long-term value creation and financial gain, establishing trust in AI and the companies developing and deploying it will require government-imposed guardrails. Learn more
In December 2022, we filed a comment urging the FTC to prescribe new trade regulation rules concerning harmful commercial surveillance and data security practices. The filing explains how lax data security practices and routine collection, retention, and sharing of consumer data only create profits for individual companies by creating negative externalities that destabilize the broader economy. Consequently, investors with diversified portfolios—which represent the vast majority of shareholders—see the overall value of their investments drop while select firms claim illusory value by offloading the true cost of prevalent consumer data abuses. Learn more
In August 2022, we joined Heartland Initiative and Access Now in filing public comments with the SEC related to greenwashing and opacity in ESG funds. “Many ICT companies have poor governance practices and fall short on digital rights, labor rights, and other human rights issues,” said Audrey Mocle, Deputy Director at Open MIC. “Yet, ICT stocks are overrepresented in ESG funds due to the industry’s relatively low carbon footprint and high returns for shareholders. Investors need transparency into how ESG funds weigh each of the “E,” “S,” and “G” criteria and the methods used to measure them.” Learn more
Recent Campaigns: 2023
APPLE: APP STORE TRANSPARENCY
Open MIC and a coalition of investor advocates led by Azzad Asset Management filed a shareholder proposal with Apple. The proposal led to successful engagement with the company, prompting Apple to release plans to improve its transparency report. In light of this commitment, shareholders withdrew the proposal.
The proposal addressed concerns about freedom of speech in China and requested clearer explanations for app removals. Apple pledged to enhance disclosures, providing the number and reasons for app removals, with improvements to be implemented within the year.
The proposal was previously introduced in 2021, earning nearly 32 percent of shareholder votes.
ACXIOM/IPG: ENSURING PROTECTION OF REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH DATA
Acxiom is one of the largest data brokers in the world, with personal data for over 2.5 billion individuals. The Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade heightened concerns over the potential for law enforcement agencies to request sensitive personal data from companies like Acxiom for the purpose of criminalizing reproductive health. Open MIC filed a shareholder proposal with Acxiom’s parent company, Interpublic Group of Companies (IPG), calling for greater transparency and disclosure on Acxiom's data collection practices.
Several months later, after successful engagement with the company, Open MIC withdrew the shareholder proposal. In response to shareholder and Open MIC efforts, IPG released a public statement that meets shareholder demands for greater public transparency.
AXON, INC: HALTING DEVELOPMENT OF AI-POWERED TASER DRONES FOR DEPLOYMENT IN SCHOOLS
Open MIC submitted a shareholder proposal at Axon calling on the company to abandon its dangerous proposal to deploy AI-assisted drones equipped with TASERs in schools and other public environments. The proposal highlighted a series of stunning governance failures from Axon’s leadership, exposing investors to unprecedented risks in flagrant disregard of the company’s own safeguards.
In Axon’s 2023 annual general meeting the proposal received nearly 14% of independent shareholder votes, which is a strong showing for a first-time proposal. The high level of initial support shows that Axon investors share our concern about the program, which creates a long list of risks for the company as well as for students and school employees.
AMAZON: TRANSPARENCY AND CUSTOMER DUE DILIGENCE
In 2023 Amazon faced an astonishing eighteen proposals from its own shareholders at its annual general meeting—a record number for any single company in a given year. Open MIC and our partners brought forward two of those proposals, which highlight the seriousness of digital rights concerns.
In response to reports that Amazon has censored user reviews and removed product listings on its e-commerce platform to curry favor with authoritarian governments, Open MIC joined the Adrian Dominican Sisters as a co-filer for Proposal 8. The proposal requested that the company revise its transparency disclosures to share important details about what it removes from its e-commerce platform, especially in response to (or in anticipation of) government requests.
Similarly, Amazon routinely sells surveillance technology to government-affiliated entities with a history of infringing on peoples’ freedoms. Proposal 7 called for an independent report on Amazon’s “customer due diligence,” which is the principle that companies have a responsibility to know who their customers are, and make sure that their products won’t be used to violate rights. The Investor Advocates for Social Justice filed this proposal on behalf of the American Baptist Home Mission Society, and Open MIC managed a digital ad campaign to encourage shareholders to support the proposal.
Recent Campaigns: 2022
MICROSOFT: ENSURING COMMITMENT TO LOBBYING DISCLOSURES
Open MIC and partners reached an agreement with Microsoft regarding the company’s commitment to advance its disclosures and value-alignment practices surrounding political engagement.
Investor advocates submitted a shareholder proposal calling on the board of directors to issue a public report explaining how the company’s lobbying activities aligned with its stated principles on AI, human rights and racial justice. Following dialogues, Microsoft committed to improving public disclosure policies regarding its lobbying engagement to clarify the company’s activities and positions, as well as how they align with company policies.
After engaging with Microsoft, advocates agreed to withdraw the proposal in light of these new commitments.
COMBATING HARMFUL NDAS WITH THE TRANSPARENCY IN EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENTS (TEA) COALITION.
While NDAs can be an appropriate tool for protecting competitively-sensitive information, they are often exploited as a means to silence employees who’ve experienced harassment, discrimination, or other unlawful behavior. The problem has been rife in the tech sector, affecting many thousands of workers, despite these companies’ commitments to transparency and human rights.
To tackle this issue, Open MIC partnered with a group of organizations including Earthseed, Whistle Stop Capital, and the Minderoo Foundation to form the Transparency in Employment Agreements (TEA) coalition during the 2021-2022 proxy season. We worked with shareholders to reach out to the companies and, in many cases, file proposals calling on companies such as Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Etsy, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Twitter to prepare public reports assessing the potential risks associated with the use of concealment clauses.
At Apple’s 2022 Annual Meeting shareholders made waves by voting for a proposal calling on Apple’s Board of Directors to investigate the company’s use of clauses that prevent employees from speaking out about harassment and discrimination. IBM and Twitter followed suite, with 65% and 69% of the vote shares, respectively. At Meta, the proposal earned 62% of independent shareholder votes, even though it was not technically approved due to outsized insider voting power. Taken together, these victories ensure that hundreds of thousands of employees will now be able to share their stories and hold bad actors accountable for unlawful workplace behavior.
APPLE: Detailed Transparency Reports on App Removals
Open MIC partnered with Azzad Asset Management to bring a shareholder proposal to this year’s annual meeting calling for better #AppleTransparencyReports that show the bigger picture. Isedua Oribhabor of Access Now presented the proposal to Apple shareholders during the meeting, and Open MIC worked with her in advance of the event to produce a video in support of the proposal.
Apple has reportedly taken down tens of thousands of apps from China’s App Store, but the company’s biannual transparency reports don’t say what the apps are or why they’ve been removed.
New York Times research shows they likely include pro-democracy organizing tools and other apps that may “run afoul of Chinese officials.” Shareholders are concerned that Apple’s failure to report any contextual information on app removals points to a contradiction between the company’s human rights policy and its actions, and poses significant legal, reputational, and financial risks to Apple shareholders.
The proposal did not pass, but achieved nearly 32% of the vote—a huge success for a first-time proposal, and well above the percentage often required to effect change in company policy.
Previous Campaigns: 2021
Microsoft: Human rights Impact Assessment
Open MIC supported shareholders in filing a proposal urging Microsoft’s Board of Directors to commission an independent, third-party report to evaluate how effectively the company implements its Human Rights Statement in products, contracts, and business relationships with government agencies. The proposal was filed in June of 2021, and in October of 2021 Microsoft Corp. agreed to commission an independent, third-party assessment to “identify, understand, assess, and address actual or potential adverse human rights impacts” of the company’s products, services and business relationships with regard to law enforcement, immigration enforcement, and other government contracts.
Following Microsoft’s commitment to publish the independent report, the shareholders have withdrawn their proposal.
“Microsoft’s surveillance technologies have an enormous impact on the human rights of millions of people around the world, so we’re hoping this assessment will be comprehensive, in-depth and solution-driven, and that Microsoft prioritizes incorporating the perspectives and needs of BIPOC communities most impacted by surveillance and policing into the report,” said Michael Connor, Executive Director of Open MIC, a non-profit shareholder advocacy organization which worked with IASJ to develop the proposal.
Holding Microsoft Accountable: Lobbying Alignment and Facial Recognition
Last year, Microsoft paused facial recognition sales to police. Still, the company said nothing about other government clients with a history of human rights abuses, like ICE or authoritarian governments.
Despite what it says publicly, Microsoft is spending its $9.5 million annual lobbying budget on fighting a bill that would ban discriminatory facial recognition. It even lobbies states to pass laws that would increase police use of dangerous surveillance tech.
We must hold Microsoft accountable. Major shareholders of Microsoft have filed two proposals:
First, asking Microsoft to make sure its lobbyists live up to its values and policies on racial justice, human rights, and privacy.
Second, calling for Microsoft to stop all sales of facial recognition to all government entities.
NO SAFETY WITH SURVEILLANCE: FIGHTING BIG TECH’S DANGEROUS PROFIT MODEL
No Safety with Surveillance is an 11-minute call-to-action to anyone who cares about racial justice, civil and human rights: the video explores Big Tech’s dangerous surveillance profit model through the lens of three leading experts: Brandi Collins-Dexter, Senior Fellow at Color of Change; Alvaro Bedoya, the Founding Director of the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law; and Mary Beth Gallagher, Executive Director of Investor Advocates for Social Justice.
Through news clips and expert interviews, No Safety with Surveillance examines the root cause of Big Tech’s first and biggest harm: the companies’ exploitative mass collection of our personal data. As the video shows, Big Tech’s original sin has enabled police departments to use racist facial recognition technology to justify false and discriminatory arrests. It has allowed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to purchase private information about people from for-profit data brokers in order to surveil immigrant communities and communities of color. It has facilitated predatory lenders, advertisers and others in carrying out discriminatory practices. In the video, the voices of leading researchers, organizers and advocates discuss these harms and make the case for increased vigilance and action — including by tech shareholders.
AD BUYER ACCOUNTABILITY: OMNICOM AND HOME DEPOT
For the first time, shareholder resolutions have been filed with companies that advertise or manage major ad budgets on Facebook and other social media companies, citing concerns with how advertisers may have inadvertently financed the spread of white supremacy, disinformation, voter suppression, government censorship, and more on social media platforms.
For years, social media platforms have faced criticism for failing to manage the spread of hate speech and disinformation online. After the white supremacist attack at the Capitol, companies like Facebook, Alphabet and Twitter are again scrambling to clamp down on increasing incitements to violence on their platforms. Amid a growing threat of violence both online and offline, these shareholder resolutions urge advertisers to independently assess their own proximity to this harm, and to ensure they are not complicit in violations of civil and human rights.
The resolutions—filed with top online advertiser Home Depot and ad agency holding company Omnicom—call on the companies to commission third-party reports investigating whether their ad buys contribute to “violations of civil or human rights” on social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
Previous Campaigns: 2020
CIVIL RIGHTS GOVERNANCE AT GOOGLE AND FACEBOOK
Citing a host of concerns about social media platforms and their global impact on civil and human rights, shareholders filed proxy proposals at Alphabet (Google’s parent company) and Facebook asking the companies to establish Director-level oversight and expertise on those issues. Shareholders are concerned by big tech’s ongoing negligence around enabling racism and discrimination online and threatening the human rights of consumers worldwide.
The proposals to Google and Facebook, organized by Open MIC alongside the investment management firm Arjuna Capital, ask that the respective companies’ Boards of Directors nominate for the next Board election at least one candidate who has “a high level of human and/or civil rights expertise and experience and is widely recognized as such.”
Amazon tried—and failed—to block a resolution filed by shareholders asking the company’s Board of Directors to conduct an independent review of the effectiveness of Amazon’s customer due diligence process, including whether customers’ use of Amazon products results in human rights violations. Shareholders were concerned that customers are using Amazon’s tech products and cloud-based services to violate human rights by enabling racism, violence, and mass surveillance.
The shareholder resolution was filed by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood, Investor Advocates for Social Justice and 8 co-filers from the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, with support from Open MIC.
Investors filed a shareholder proposal asking the Alphabet’s Board of Directors to evaluate its whistleblower protection policy, and to improve company practices to ensure the protection of employees who raise concerns about human rights abuses and other threats to the public interest.
Shareholders were concerned by increasing evidence suggesting that Google’s response to whistleblowers has been extremely inadequate, resulting in a loss of top talent, an erosion of the brand image, and a threat to shareholder value. The shareholder resolution, organized by Open MIC alongside Trillium Asset Management, a sustainable and responsible investment firm, urged the company’s leadership to check that the company was stewarding business decisions in ways that avoided legal, reputational, and human rights risks — including by facilitating and respecting worker voice as a mechanism to mitigate such risk.
Azzad Asset Management and other investors in Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, with support from Open MIC, filed a shareholder proposal seeking details on what content the company removes in response to government requests. Shareholders were concerned that content takedown practices between Google and governments threaten the right to freedom of expression and put the company in a position of censoring customers around the globe.
In addition to Google’s established, regular disclosures of the number and percentage of government requests the company accommodates, shareholders asked the company’s Board of Directors to consider disclosing more specific data in its transparency report, including: “by jurisdiction, the list of delisted, censored, downgraded, proactively penalized, or blacklisted terms, queries or sites that the company implements in response to government requests.”
