The mire in which social media platform Facebook finds itself over the protection of user data deepened this week as it emerged that some ethical funds have dropped the company’s shares.
Bloomberg reports that some funds now consider the stock so “toxic” that they have included it among big polluters or “ethically challenged” companies.
Reports say BetaShares Global Sustainability Leaders ETF and Nordea Bank have both turned on Facebook shares.
The news follows revelations that the user data of up to 50 million individuals was harvested from Facebook and then passed to Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm, for use as part of Donald Trump’s election campaign.
Bloomberg quoted one manager in charge of responsible of investment as saying that data security and privacy were “significant” ESG risks.
The controversy surrounding Facebook has wiped around $90bn from its market value.
A consumer campaign on Twitter saw calls for users to stop using Facebook with the hashtag #DeleteFacebook.
Related Posts
-
March 21, 2022
Study finds investors shy away from direct talk of ethics, but some are assessing company culture as an indicator of ESG performance.
-
January 26, 2022
For a second year running technology is the sector that garnered the most news stories about ethical lapses—with data privacy a key concern.
-
October 13, 2021
EQ poll reveals 18% of all UK/US retail shareholders are Generation Z—and 80% of them factor ESG issues into their financial decision-making.
-
July 25, 2022
We must not let ESG become a scapegoat for the systemic failure of our society to address global warming and climate change.
