ESG Investor
Michael Connor
Keeping up with AI

With AI-related risks being inherently global in nature, the hope and anticipation is that there will be a suitably robust regulatory environment wherever the technology is deployed, Michael Connor, Executive Director at Open MIC, tells ESG Investor.

“Many companies have global activities, so we need to ensure that if they are applying a higher standard in Europe due to EU regulations, this should be the case wherever they operate to foster greater corporate accountability in the deployment and use of digital technologies,” he says.

Keeping up with AI

Google

Harvard doxing and content moderation

Harvard doxing and content moderation

Tech firms began reporting details about government interactions a decade ago, under pressure from investors. Takedown demands from private parties - as in the Harvard case - can put companies in the awkward position of choosing sides, said Michael Connor, executive director of Open Mic, which has successfully pressed companies for details about government requests. Connor said of Google that like other tech companies, "They don't like being in the position of being content moderators, and they'd rather they didn't have to."

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Tech activist pushes for Alphabet racial equity audit

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Tech activist pushes for Alphabet racial equity audit

"All the shareholder proposal asks, Is that an independent third party examiner come in and look at the evidence in an organized manner and try to help the company understand what its products are doing to people," Michael Connor, one of the activists, said in an interview Tuesday with Reuters.

Activists, workers press Google founders to support racial equity audit

Activists, workers press Google founders to support racial equity audit

“Alphabet is one of the most influential companies on the planet that shapes people’s attitudes about all sorts of things through search, through YouTube,” said Michael Connor, executive director of Open MIC, a corporate responsibility group that also signed the letters. “The proposal … is not an extraordinary request.”

Shareholders and regulators target big tech over social concerns

Shareholders and regulators target big tech over social concerns

“We need to be realistic about the outcomes, especially at companies like Alphabet and Meta which have ‘dual class’ shares that give the company founders and other insiders powerful voting rights that make shareholder initiatives extremely challenging,” said Michael Connor, Director at Open MIC, a nonprofit which campaigns for corporate accountability in media and tech.

Annual shareholder meetings: A new battlefront for tech workers

Annual shareholder meetings: A new battlefront for tech workers

To Michael Connor, executive director of Open MIC, a nonprofit that works with sustainable funds to organize shareholder proposals, that's a sign that things are trending in the right direction. "Over time even if shareholder proposals are voted down, it doesn't mean directors don't have a fiduciary duty to worry about those issues and be concerned about them," Connor said.

Shareholder activists demand reforms from Amazon, Google, and Facebook

Shareholder activists demand reforms from Amazon, Google, and Facebook

“Face surveillance dramatically expands law enforcement’s power and threatens rights including privacy, freedom of expression, freedom of association, and due process for everyone. But the threats are greatest for Black and Brown communities, Muslim communities, immigrant communities, Indigenous communities, and other people historically and currently marginalized and targeted by policing,” Michael Connor, executive director of Open MIC, a nonprofit advocating for Harrington, said in a statement.

Tech giants face rising pressure from shareholder activists

Tech giants face rising pressure from shareholder activists

Tech giants are facing increasing pressure from activists to adopt proposals aimed at expanding whistleblower protections, investigating potential civil rights violations and curbing hate speech online.

Activist shareholders are pushing for the proposals to be adopted during this week’s annual meetings, the first to be held after a year that’s included nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, a deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol and challenging working conditions for many on-site workers in the tech industry.

Institutional Investors Are Pressuring Boards To Focus On Whistleblower Protections. Could That Spur Change At Google?

Institutional Investors Are Pressuring Boards To Focus On Whistleblower Protections. Could That Spur Change At Google?

Brought by Trillium Asset Management, which holds shares in Alphabet valued about $150 million, the resolution calls for an independent third party to review Alphabet’s existing whistleblower policy and bolster protections for employees…Trillium worked with Open Mic, a non-profit that helps shareholders craft resolutions to force change at boards, to frame the whistleblower measure. Last year, Trillium’s resolution received about 5% of the vote, but the firm is confident that support will double or triple this year.

A Google shareholder is pressuring the tech giant to change its worker policies in a longshot bid

A Google shareholder is pressuring the tech giant to change its worker policies in a longshot bid

Hannah Lucal, Open Mic's associate director, told Insider that it often tries to engage with companies directly on issues, but when that doesn't work out it will try to apply pressure through company shareholders. Recent internal blow-ups at Google have been red flags for how the company treats employees who raise concerns, she said.

"I think we're seeing a domino effect," Lucal said. "Over the past few years there have been so many stories coming out about how Google has retaliated against workers who speak up against ethical and human rights concerns."

Google pressed to conduct racial equity audit

Google pressed to conduct racial equity audit

Hannah Lucal, associate director at Open MIC, said the coverage of recent high profile Google dismissals, is just “the tip of the iceberg” and suggests there's “more institutional harm happening” that the public is unaware of.

“The proposal is saying, ‘can we have a third party, an independent party come in, and uncover the whole iceberg and understand and assess what is Google hiding? What is actually going on?’ Shareholders want to know, the public needs to know,” Lucal said.

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