Pressure on Zuckerberg increases over lobbying row

FACEBOOK investors have called on Mark Zuckerberg to step down as chairman after reports that the company hired a public relations firm to smear its rivals and link its critics to George Soros.

The criticism of the company’s chief executive is likely to complicate the daunting challenge facing Sir Nick Clegg, Facebook’s new global head of policy and communications, whose new task to conduct a review of Facebook’s use of lobbying firms was dismissed by one investor as “crazy”.

Jonas Kron, a senior vice-president at Trillium Asset Management, a US investor that owns an £8.5million stake in Facebook, last night called on Zuckerberg to step down as board chairman in the wake of the report.

“Facebook is behaving like it’s a special snowflake,” he said. “It’s not. It is a company and companies need to have a separation of chair and CEO.”

Both Zuckerberg and Sir Nick have been under pressure after reports that Facebook hired Definers, a Republican public relations firm, to help repair its battered reputation following intense criticism of the social media platform’s handling of Russian interference in the 2016 US elections and the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Definers allegedly encouraged the depiction of Facebook’s critics as anti- Semites and had published news articles criticising Facebook’s competitors. The business has also been accused of attempting to encourage journalists to report that anti-facebook groups were linked to Mr Soros.

Zuckerberg denied knowing that his business had hired the firm. “As soon as I learned about this, I talked to our team and we are no longer working with this firm,” he said. He has also asked Sir Nick to launch a review of Facebook’s use of political lobbying firms.

Nevertheless, Mr Kron said the new disclosures about Facebook’s use of Definers offered fresh reasons for Zuckerberg to relinquish his dual role as chairman and chief executive.

“The latest report should remove any lingering doubts that some may have had,” he said.

Zuckerberg has retained a high level of control over the social networking business, which he founded in 2004, due to his combined role and his ownership of a stake representing 60 per cent of the company’s voting shares.

Julie Goodridge, chief executive of the Facebook investor Northstar Asset Management, called the appointment of Mr Clegg to investigate Facebook’s lobbying “crazy.”

“I don’t think you can appoint someone who is essentially still subservient to the board and subservient to top level management,” she said.