Open MIC and ICCR recently collaborated to release “Dehumanization, Discrimination and Deskilling: The Impact of Digital Tech on Low-Wage Workers.” The investor brief explores how surveillance tech, algorithmic management systems, displacement by AI and automated hiring tools contribute to increased workplace discrimination, diminished autonomy, and reduced job quality.
Encouraged by strong votes at AI companies, as well as Microsoft’s inaugural Responsible AI Transparency Report, Open MIC and partners seek to build momentum for more disclosure and remediation of AI risks.
Investors in Meta Inc. and Alphabet Inc. used votes at their recent annual meetings to highlight serious concerns about the deployment of generative artificial intelligence (gAI) technology and its potential to generate harmful disinformation and misinformation. A shareholder proposal at Meta won 56.3% of the independent shareholder vote, while a similar proposal at Alphabet won 45.7% of the independent shareholder vote.
At Meta’s annual meeting last week, a majority of independent shareholders (53.6%), representing $635 billion in market cap, voted in favor of a proposition demanding more disclosure of the costs and risks associated with the development and deployment of generative AI products. Alphabet shareholders will vote on a similar resolution this Friday.
Over the next two weeks, shareholders at Meta and Alphabet will vote on first-time resolutions calling for more disclosure on the costs and risks of generative AI to the company and society, and on how the companies are mitigating those risks. To date, neither company reports on how well it adheres to the promises it makes with regard to AI, a trend with a long precedent in the social media era.
NEW YORK CITY - June 1, 2020 – Shareholders of Facebook and Amazon (whose names are not Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos) are sending an important message regarding a host of serious concerns affecting corporate governance, political advertising, facial recognition, surveillance and other critical civil rights issues.
Azzad Asset Management and other investors in Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, have filed a shareholder proposal seeking details on what content the company removes in response to government requests, which will be voted on at the company’s annual meeting on June 3.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Robert Menendez, Kamala Harris and Richard Blumenthal today released the text of a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg which echoes shareholder concerns over the social media platform’s policy regarding disinformation, “specifically as it pertains to hate speech, discriminatory targeting and the threats such disinformation poses to civil rights and voting rights in advance of the 2020 election.”
Leading up to the June 3 annual meeting of Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, investors have filed a shareholder proposal asking the company’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.
After 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.
Citing a host of concerns about social media platforms and their global impact on civil and human rights, shareholders have filed proposals at Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Facebook and Twitter 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.
In a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Open MIC voiced strong opposition to proposed changes to Rule 14a-8 that would severely limit the rights of shareholders to engage with corporations regarding risky social, environmental and governance practices, including shareholders’ ability to file shareholder resolutions.
Open MIC today joined a coalition of 40 organizations in urging the U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), an independent executive branch agency, to recommend suspension of facial recognition programs across the federal government. The organizations sent a letter to the PCLOB citing the dangerously rapid growth of government-supported facial recognition systems targeting American citizens within the United States.
Open MIC today joined with The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Color Of Change, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Muslim Advocates, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., and 41 civil rights, public interest, labor, faith, and technology organizations to urge Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg to consider the “protection of civil rights as a fundamental obligation as serious as any other goal of the company.” The letter follows Zuckerberg’s Georgetown University remarks and recent Facebook policy changes to exempt politicians’ speech from its Community Standards and fact-checking program.
On October 18th, Open MIC joined with 22 organizations and individuals in supporting comments filed by the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) opposing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s attempt to weaken protections against housing discrimination. For decades, HUD and federal courts have recognized disparate-impact liability under the Fair Housing Act (FHA). This means that people are protected not only from intentional housing discrimination, but also from practices that appear neutral yet still result in discriminatory effects.
Despite Google’s attempts to quell public outrage over Dragonfly, employees and shareholders remain concerned that work on Dragonfly has not fully stopped, and that the company must perform human rights due diligence during the product development phase, not after. The proposal (Proposal Number 14) asks Alphabet to publish a Human Rights Impact Assessment by October 30, 2019, to examine “actual and potential impacts of censored Google search in China,” with specific consideration of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
As federal regulators move to investigate platform companies like Facebook over antitrust violations, an Open MIC analysis of Facebook’s latest filing to the SEC, following last week’s annual meeting, shows that independent shareholders overwhelmingly support major governance changes at the company.
The reports from the proxy advisors come amid mounting pressure for change at the top levels of Facebook. In today’s open letter to Facebook’s largest institutional shareholders, investors and leading civil society organizations are seeking support for a “Vote No” campaign that would withhold votes from Mr. Zuckerberg as a member of Facebook’s board. “As Facebook’s largest institutional investors, your vote ‘no’ on Mark Zuckerberg will send a clear message that it is past time for new governance,” says the letter.
Citing unchecked hate speech, rampant privacy violations, discriminatory advertising and a host of other ills, shareholders and civil rights groups today launched a “Vote No” campaign urging Facebook investors to withhold their votes of support from Mark Zuckerberg as a member of the company’s board. The new push is taking place ahead of the Facebook annual meeting on May 30 and follows months of revelations of abuses and no persuasive evidence that existing corporate leadership can turn things around for shareholders.
Open MIC joined 25 other civil society organizations in sending a letter to Congress calling on legislators to ensure that any federal privacy legislation addresses the discriminatory impacts of commercial data practices and protects people of color, women, religious minorities, members of the LGBTQ+ community, persons with disabilities, persons living on low income, immigrants, and other vulnerable populations.
In a major victory for investors, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ruled late yesterday that Amazon must give shareholders an opportunity to consider and vote on two separate shareholder resolutions that address major business risks posed by the sale of Amazon's facial recognition technology to government agencies. The SEC’s ruling comes amidst mounting criticism of the Amazon technology, “Rekognition,” as racially biased.
A coalition of Google shareholders has filed a resolution asking the company to publish a human rights impact assessment for a controversial censored search product -- called "Dragonfly" -- that Google is reportedly developing for use in China. Led by Azzad Asset Management, the shareholders are concerned that Google's compliance with China’s repressive laws would facilitate and legitimize surveillance and censorship, posing serious human rights risks.
Open MIC joined with 43 civil society organizations in sending a letter to Congress calling on legislators to protect civil rights, equity, and equal opportunity in the digital ecosystem. As members of Congress continue to hold hearings and introduce legislation on digital privacy, they must address the data security and privacy abuses that disproportionately harm marginalized communities.
