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Business Wire
27-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Shareholders to Demand Action from Mark Zuckerberg and Meta on Child Safety
MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tomorrow, Meta shareholders will vote on a resolution asking Meta to assess its child safety impacts and whether harm to children on its platform has been reduced. The vote follows reports that the company's Instagram Teens feature ' fails spectacularly on some key dimensions ', including promoting sexual, racist, drug and alcohol-related content. The resolution - filed by Proxy Impact on behalf of Dr. Lisette Cooper and co-filed by 18 institutional investors from North America and Europe - will be presented by child safety advocate Sarah Gardner. 'Two weeks ago, I stood outside of Meta's office in NYC with bereaved parents whose children died as a result of sextortion, cyberbullying, and drug purchases on Meta's platforms and demanded stronger protections for kids," said Sarah Gardner, CEO of the Heat Initiative. 'Meta's most recent 'solution' is a bandaid. They promised parents that Instagram Teens would protect their kids from harm. In reality, it still recommends sexual, racist, and violent content on their feeds. We are asking shareholders to hold Mark Zuckerberg and Meta accountable and demand greater transparency about why child safety is still lagging.' 'Meta algorithms designed to maximize user engagement have helped build online abuser networks, normalize cyberbullying, enable the exponential growth of child sexual abuse materials, and flood young users with addictive content that damages their mental health,' said Michael Passoff, CEO of Proxy Impact. 'And now, a major child safety concern is Meta's doubling down on AI despite the unique threats it poses to young users. Just this year, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children saw 67,000 reports of suspected child sexual exploitation involving Generative AI, a 1,325% increase from 2023. Meta's continued failure to address these issues poses significant regulatory, legal, and reputational risk in addition to innumerable young lives.' The resolution asks the Meta Board of Directors to publish 'a report that includes targets and quantitative metrics appropriate to assessing whether and how Meta has improved its performance globally regarding child safety impacts and actual harm reduction to children on its platforms.' Additional information for shareholders was filed with the SEC. Meta has been under pressure for years linked to online child safety risks, including: 41 States and the District of Columbia Attorney's General filing lawsuits alleging that Meta Platforms has intentionally built programs with addictive features that harm young users. 1 out of 8 eight kids under 16 reported experiencing unwanted sexual advances on Instagram in the last 7 days according to Meta's internal research. A leading psychologist resigned from her position on Meta's SSI expert panel on suicide prevention and self harm, alleging Meta is willfully neglecting harmful content, disregarding expert recommendations, and prioritizing financial gain. As many as 100,000 children were sexually harassed daily on Meta platforms in 2021. Meta took no action until they were called for Senate testimony 3 years later. Internal research leaked by Meta whistleblower Frances Haugen showed that the company is aware of many harms including Instagram's toxic risks to teenage girls mental health including thoughts of suicide and eating disorders. Since 2019, Proxy Impact and Dr. Cooper have worked with members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, pension funds, foundations, and asset managers to empower investors to utilize their leverage to encourage Meta and other tech companies to strengthen child safety measures on social media. Proxy Impact provides shareholder engagement and proxy voting services that promote sustainable and responsible business practices. For more information, visit Heat Initiative works to hold the world's most valuable and powerful tech companies accountable for failing to protect kids from online child sexual exploitation. Heat Initiative sees a future where children's safety is at the forefront of any existing and future technological developments.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Shareholders to Demand Action from Mark Zuckerberg and Meta on Child Safety
Investors will vote on child safety resolution at Meta's Annual General Meeting MENLO PARK, Calif., May 27, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tomorrow, Meta shareholders will vote on a resolution asking Meta to assess its child safety impacts and whether harm to children on its platform has been reduced. The vote follows reports that the company's Instagram Teens feature "fails spectacularly on some key dimensions", including promoting sexual, racist, drug and alcohol-related content. The resolution - filed by Proxy Impact on behalf of Dr. Lisette Cooper and co-filed by 18 institutional investors from North America and Europe - will be presented by child safety advocate Sarah Gardner. "Two weeks ago, I stood outside of Meta's office in NYC with bereaved parents whose children died as a result of sextortion, cyberbullying, and drug purchases on Meta's platforms and demanded stronger protections for kids," said Sarah Gardner, CEO of the Heat Initiative. "Meta's most recent 'solution' is a bandaid. They promised parents that Instagram Teens would protect their kids from harm. In reality, it still recommends sexual, racist, and violent content on their feeds. We are asking shareholders to hold Mark Zuckerberg and Meta accountable and demand greater transparency about why child safety is still lagging." "Meta algorithms designed to maximize user engagement have helped build online abuser networks, normalize cyberbullying, enable the exponential growth of child sexual abuse materials, and flood young users with addictive content that damages their mental health," said Michael Passoff, CEO of Proxy Impact. "And now, a major child safety concern is Meta's doubling down on AI despite the unique threats it poses to young users. Just this year, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children saw 67,000 reports of suspected child sexual exploitation involving Generative AI, a 1,325% increase from 2023. Meta's continued failure to address these issues poses significant regulatory, legal, and reputational risk in addition to innumerable young lives." The resolution asks the Meta Board of Directors to publish "a report that includes targets and quantitative metrics appropriate to assessing whether and how Meta has improved its performance globally regarding child safety impacts and actual harm reduction to children on its platforms." Additional information for shareholders was filed with the SEC. Meta has been under pressure for years linked to online child safety risks, including: 41 States and the District of Columbia Attorney's General filing lawsuits alleging that Meta Platforms has intentionally built programs with addictive features that harm young users. 1 out of 8 eight kids under 16 reported experiencing unwanted sexual advances on Instagram in the last 7 days according to Meta's internal research. A leading psychologist resigned from her position on Meta's SSI expert panel on suicide prevention and self harm, alleging Meta is willfully neglecting harmful content, disregarding expert recommendations, and prioritizing financial gain. As many as 100,000 children were sexually harassed daily on Meta platforms in 2021. Meta took no action until they were called for Senate testimony 3 years later. Internal research leaked by Meta whistleblower Frances Haugen showed that the company is aware of many harms including Instagram's toxic risks to teenage girls mental health including thoughts of suicide and eating disorders. Since 2019, Proxy Impact and Dr. Cooper have worked with members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, pension funds, foundations, and asset managers to empower investors to utilize their leverage to encourage Meta and other tech companies to strengthen child safety measures on social media. Proxy Impact provides shareholder engagement and proxy voting services that promote sustainable and responsible business practices. For more information, visit Heat Initiative works to hold the world's most valuable and powerful tech companies accountable for failing to protect kids from online child sexual exploitation. Heat Initiative sees a future where children's safety is at the forefront of any existing and future technological developments. View source version on Contacts Sloane Perry, sloane@ Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Shareholders to Demand Action from Mark Zuckerberg and Meta on Child Safety
Investors will vote on child safety resolution at Meta's Annual General Meeting MENLO PARK, Calif., May 27, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Tomorrow, Meta shareholders will vote on a resolution asking Meta to assess its child safety impacts and whether harm to children on its platform has been reduced. The vote follows reports that the company's Instagram Teens feature "fails spectacularly on some key dimensions", including promoting sexual, racist, drug and alcohol-related content. The resolution - filed by Proxy Impact on behalf of Dr. Lisette Cooper and co-filed by 18 institutional investors from North America and Europe - will be presented by child safety advocate Sarah Gardner, CEO of the Heat Initiative. "Two weeks ago, I stood outside of Meta's office in NYC with bereaved parents whose children died as a result of sextortion, cyberbullying, and drug purchases on Meta's platforms and demanded stronger protections for kids," said Sarah Gardner, CEO of the Heat Initiative, "Meta's most recent 'solution' is a bandaid. They promised parents that Instagram Teens would protect their kids from harm. In reality, it still recommends sexual, racist, and violent content on their feeds. We are asking shareholders to hold Mark Zuckerberg and Meta accountable and demand greater transparency about why child safety is still lagging." "Meta algorithms designed to maximize user engagement have helped build online abuser networks, normalize cyberbullying, enable the exponential growth of child sexual abuse materials, and flood young users with addictive content that damages their mental health," said Michael Passoff, CEO of Proxy Impact, "And now, a major child safety concern is Meta's doubling down on AI despite the unique threats it poses to young users. Just this year, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children saw 67,000 reports of suspected child sexual exploitation involving Generative AI, a 1,325% increase from 2023. Meta's continued failure to address these issues poses significant regulatory, legal, and reputational risk in addition to innumerable young lives." The resolution asks the Meta Board of Directors to publish "a report that includes targets and quantitative metrics appropriate to assessing whether and how Meta has improved its performance globally regarding child safety impacts and actual harm reduction to children on its platforms." Additional information for shareholders has been filed with the SEC. Meta has been under pressure for years linked to online child safety risks, including: 41 States and the District of Columbia Attorney's General filing lawsuits alleging that Meta Platforms has intentionally built programs with addictive features that harm young users. 1 out of 8 eight kids under 16 reported experiencing unwanted sexual advances on Instagram in the last 7 days according to Meta's internal research. A leading psychologist resigned from her position on Meta's SSI expert panel on suicide prevention and self harm, alleging Meta is willfully neglecting harmful content, disregarding expert recommendations, and prioritizing financial gain. As many as 100,000 children were sexually harassed daily on Meta platforms in 2021. Meta took no action until they were called for Senate testimony 3 years later. Internal research leaked by Meta whistleblower Frances Haugen showed that the company is aware of many harms including Instagram's toxic risks to teenage girls mental health including thoughts of suicide and eating disorders. Since 2019, Proxy Impact and Dr. Cooper have worked with members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, pension funds, foundations, and asset managers to empower investors to utilize their leverage to encourage Meta and other tech companies to strengthen child safety measures on social media. Proxy Impact provides shareholder engagement and proxy voting services that promote sustainable and responsible business practices. For more information, visit Heat Initiative works to hold the world's most valuable and powerful tech companies accountable for failing to protect kids from online child sexual exploitation. Heat Initiative sees a future where children's safety is at the forefront of any existing and future technological developments. Contact: Sloane Perry, sloane@ View original content: SOURCE Heat Initiative
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How Trump's war on climate and equity is impacting ‘woke investing'
Environmental-, social-, and governance-related shareholder proposals are down 34 percent this year as the Trump administration galvanizes the movement against 'woke investing,' according to an annual report by the shareholder advocacy groups As You Sow and Proxy Impact. The report counted 355 such proposals as of February 21, compared to 536 proposals filed by the same time last year. Wariness over anticipated changes at the Securities and Exchange Commission contributed to the decline, the authors said, as many investors opted to postpone resolutions until it became clear whether they would be blocked by new SEC leadership. 'We're a little bit in a pause mode,' said Andy Behar, As You Sow's CEO. He said a 'right-wing crusade' against socially responsible investing has left shareholders in limbo as they figure out how to navigate the shifting political climate. The term ESG — shorthand for an investment approach that prioritizes environmental, social, and governance issues — dates to 2004 and doesn't have a fixed definition. Generally, it represents the idea that investors should buy shares in companies that factor social and environmental issues into their decision-making on the theory that such companies are more likely to prosper in the long run. Investors promote ESG principles via shareholder resolutions, brief proposals that are put up for a vote by everyone who owns stock in a company during their annual meeting. These resolutions typically ask a company to issue a report about how some aspect of its operations, like its greenhouse gas emissions, may affect the company's future profitability. All of the shareholder proposals submitted to a company during a given year are compiled onto a 'proxy statement,' and the time of year when voting occurs — usually around May — is called proxy season. Progressive critics of ESG have argued that the concept is so vague as to be meaningless, and that exaggerated claims of corporate responsibility are a distraction from the systemic reforms needed to address societal problems. But the more aggressive criticism has come from the political right, which sees corporate diversity and environmental policies as 'woke' interference with capitalism. These criticisms escalated during the Biden administration. In 2022, red-state regulators began naming and shaming financial institutions for an alleged 'boycott' of fossil fuels companies and investigating big banks for their ESG practices. Last year, 17 red states passed legislation restricting corporate decision-making based on ESG priorities, and institutional investors like BlackRock grew more tepid in their support for ESG proposals. President Donald Trump's broad attacks on climate policy and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives have further chilled ESG efforts, inspiring several major banks to withdraw from a climate initiative in the lead-up to Inauguration Day. Experts quoted in the As You Sow and Proxy Impact report said government attempts to limit ESG investing amount to an attack on shareholders' right to make policy recommendations through proxy voting, guaranteed under the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. 'An anti-shareholder movement — often mislabeled as 'anti-ESG' — is silencing the voice of everyday investors in the U.S.,' reads one statement from Rick Alexander, CEO of the nonprofit The Shareholder Commons. Behar said ESG opponents are unduly manipulating the market. 'They don't like capitalism, they don't like free markets, they don't like democracy,' he said. 'This is problematic for all the shareholders who are trying to keep our companies proceeding into the future.' Trump's reelection has also prompted changes at the SEC, the federal agency charged with protecting investors and enforcing laws against market manipulation. It normally has five commissioners, no more than three of whom may belong to the same political party, but two of its Democratic members voluntarily stepped down after Trump was elected, and their seats are currently vacant. Two of the three sitting commissioners — one Republican and one Democrat — were nominated by Trump. The third, a Republican, was nominated by former president Joe Biden. In February — after the majority of the ESG shareholder resolutions included in the report had been filed — the SEC announced two new policies that complicated these resolutions and could make it more difficult to file resolutions next year. First, the agency placed tighter deadlines and more onerous reporting requirements on large investors asking companies to, for example, disclose their climate risks or boost gender equality on their boards. Second, the SEC made it easier for companies to exclude shareholder proposals from their proxy statements if those proposals were deemed not 'significantly related' to their business. The SEC gave companies an extra opportunity to convince regulators to allow specific proposals to be excluded on the basis of this new policy, but it has not afforded investors a similar opportunity for additional explanation. 'It was clearly a biased decision stacked against shareholders,' said Michael Passoff, CEO of Proxy Impact and a co-author of the report. In light of the growing anti-ESG movement, Behar said some companies have grown more willing to engage in dialogue with investors, perhaps hoping to avoid the publicity generated by a proxy vote. This, he said, is how shareholder advocates prefer to make change — by persuading companies to take action voluntarily in exchange for the withdrawal of a proposal. According to the report, 22 percent of ESG-related shareholder proposals were withdrawn as of February 21, compared to 7.7 percent at a similar time in 2024, suggesting that companies were negotiating behind the scenes with investors. However, companies have also been emboldened to ignore shareholder proposals. One way to measure this is by looking at the number of 'no-action' requests prompted by shareholder resolutions. These are requests companies make to the SEC asking for confirmation that the agency will not take action against them if they omit a proposal from their proxy statements. Even with fewer proposals filed as of early March this year, 221 had prompted no-action requests, compared to just 94 around the same time last year. While the As You Sow and Proxy Impact report identified fewer climate- and environment-related shareholder proposals filed this season, the nature of those that were filed did not change much from previous years. The largest chunk ask companies for information about the decarbonization strategies or to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Some new ones ask financial institutions to set investment ratio targets for clean energy infrastructure compared to fossil fuels; for insurance companies to report and reduce the climate pollution associated with their underwriting; and for mining companies to disclose their policies for deep-sea mining, in the absence of international rules governing this activity. Frances Fairhead-Stanova, a shareholder advocate for the environmentally responsible mutual fund Green Century Capital Management, said the As You Sow and Proxy Impact report raises concerns that affect many shareholders. However, she reported that the presidential election results and anticipated changes at the SEC did not prompt her organization to file fewer resolutions. She noticed more no-action requests, but said it's unclear whether the SEC will grant a greater proportion of them compared to previous years. So far, Green Century has withdrawn 6 of the 27 climate- and environment-related resolutions it filed, in exchange for some sort of action or reporting. Starbucks, for example, agreed to share more information about its transition to reusable cups and to remove any recycling labels it deems misleading, following an internal assessment. TD Bank agreed to an audit of its board of governance policies with the aim of improving climate risk management. Five companies filed no-action requests, and the SEC has rejected two of these. The others are still pending. 'We're not panicked about any changes,' Fairhead-Stanova said. 'We are just continuing to do our work.' This story was originally published by Grist with the headline How Trump's war on climate and equity is impacting 'woke investing' on Apr 9, 2025.
