It’s time for new leadership at Facebook to ensure that the millions of people who want to use this service to stay connected with friends and family can do so with the knowledge that their personal information is not being shared and exploited to line Facebook’s pockets. 

Late last month, Facebook announced that it suspended the third party app called Strategic Communication Laboratories, and its political data analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica. Both ran data operations for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election campaign, and have been widely credited for helping Trump more effectively target voters on Facebook. Which is a pretty big deal since 45% of Facebook users in the U.S. consume news on the site.

This is not the first time Facebook has passed along user data to unsavory hands. Two years ago the company shut down Korryn Gaines’ live stream of her fatal police encounter at the request of Baltimore police. Over the past few years, Facebook has been in the spotlight for state-sponsored censorship, the proliferation of fake news, contradictory hate speech policies and unethical data collection practices.

There are no checks in place at Facebook to hold Zuckerberg accountable for putting users at risk. We have an opportunity to change that. In the past few weeks, Facebook has lost an estimate of almost $100 billion in market value. Zuckerberg is feeling the heat, finally issuing a public apology but refusing to testify for UK lawmakers. If the pressure continues, Facebook will be forced to hold him to account and change its governance structure.

Not only is Mark Zuckerberg the CEO of Facebook but he is also the chair of the board of directors, meaning that he is accountable to himself only. The governance structure of Facebook gives very little power to shareholders and concentrates the power in one place: Mark Zuckerberg himself. 

Last year, we filed a shareholder resolution to create a boss for Zuckerberg - an independent Chair of the Board of Directors.  Because we knew this lack of accountability was a recipe for disaster and more scandals to come. But Zuckerberg controls 60% of the shareholder voting power while owning only a minority of the shares. So even though our proposal earned the support of almost half of the shareholders not controlled by Zuckerberg, we knew it would be a tough fight.

SumOfUs isn’t afraid to take on Facebook. Last year, 140,000 caring members called out Facebook on its censorship practices after several reports surfaced of activists being silenced around the world. We know that when we work together, we have the power to change Facebook to make it a secure and better online space for all.