Meta Platforms shareholders are pressing for changes that address allegations of harm caused by its social platforms, which include Facebook and Instagram, as well as overall governance reforms. An investor group that includes the New York State Common Retirement Fund and Illinois State Treasurer filed eight resolutions to be considered at the company’s annual shareholder meeting, which is expected to be held in May. The proposals include board oversight in reducing harmful content, analysis of the company’s metaverse investment and a review of audit and risk committee, according to public reports.

Last year, the Investor Alliance for Human Rights, created by faith-based investor group Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, proposed six resolutions that were defeated, including the call for an independent chairman of the board.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is CEO and chairman of Meta, which utilizes super-voting shares as part of its dual-class structure. According to SEC filings, Zuckerberg’s shares allow him to control  about 58 percent of the vote, due to his super-voting stock.

Generally speaking, super-voting shares usually have a multiple of about 10 votes per share, “although some companies may choose to make them much higher,” says Investopedia, which says they “give key company insiders greater control over the company’s voting rights, its board, and corporate actions.”

Resolutions voted on at the company’s May 2021 annual shareholder’s meeting included one to eliminate super-voting shares, which failed. “Facebook is willing to allow a certain level of hate speech, political misinformation, and divisive rhetoric so it can make more money. That is exactly why the board’s governance structure must change,” Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs said in The Wall Street Journal.

“In the winter, companies often meet privately with larger shareholders who make their case for changes. Some shareholders file proposals without talking to the company beforehand,” WSJ writes, noting that the deadline was December 10 for shareholder proposals for the 2022 meeting.

After WSJ began publishing “The Facebook Files” series, more than 50 members of the Investor Alliance for Human Rights — which says it represents more than $6 trillion in assets from 18 countries — talked about “what they should do to address the findings that Facebook’s platforms cause harm,” WSJ writes, noting “at least half a dozen investors in the group reached out to Facebook to express concerns and ask for more information.”

Meta spokesman Ryan Moore said in a statement quoted by WSJ that “the company has spent more than $5 billion in 2021 on safety and security and has 40,000 people working on those issues. He added that Meta has invested in new ways to find and remove hate speech, cutting the amount of hate speech people see on Facebook by more than half in the last year.”