SEC: Meta Shareholders Can Vote on Independent Review of Metaverse

Arjuna Capital said it had secured support from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to put Meta Platforms Inc.’s proposed metaverse through a third-party evaluation of its potential psychological, civil and human rights harms, according to a Thursday (April 7) press release.

Meta’s shareholders will now have to vote on the proposed independent review at the company’s annual general meeting. Arjuna, which proposed the vote, seeks to learn if any harms related to the metaverse can be mitigated or avoided.

Meta knows the creation of virtual worlds carries risks, but the company argued that the plan shouldn’t get a shareholder voice because it’s part of the company’s “ordinary business operations,” which are excluded from shareholder votes. The SEC disagreed and said the proposal “transcends ordinary business matters.”

CEO Mark Zuckerberg controls Meta’s voting shares, meaning any effort to quash the proposal is unlikely to pass when shareholders vote on it later this May.

“Yes, Zuckerberg is emperor at Facebook, but they are facing a lot of headwinds, so it’s not written in stone that Meta will continue in this form forever,” said Natasha Lamb, a managing partner at Arjuna Capital, in an interview with Bloomberg. “They are pumping $10 billion a year into a new project when it’s quite obvious they can’t handle their current platform.”

Meta declined comment to Bloomberg on the SEC ruling.

Related: Non-crypto ‘Zuck Buck’ May Mark Shift in Meta’s Payments Strategy

Earlier this week, PYMNTS reported that Meta is looking at creating a metaverse token similar to its failed Facebook Credits virtual currency, which ran from 2001 to 2013. The social media giant is focusing its metaverse payments efforts on a centrally controlled “Zuck Buck,” similar to gaming platform/metaverse Roblox’s Robux, which is used by its 230 million players.

The company’s head of metaverse product, Vishal Shah, said in November that its “goal is to provide a way for as many players as possible to build a business in the metaverse.”