Former Facebook security chief says it’s time for Mark Zuckerberg to step down as CEO

Facebook is facing criticism from yet another one of its former executives. As detailed by CNBC, former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos questioned the amount of power Mark Zuckerberg has accumulated while speaking at the Collision Conference in Toronto.

Stamos said that there’s a “legitimate argument” that Zuckerberg has developed too much power as the CEO of Facebook. Stamos went on to say that if he were in Zuckerberg’s position, he would hire a new CEO for Facebook.

Zuckerberg is also currently serving as Facebook’s interim Chief Product Officer, following the departure of Chris Cox earlier this year. Stamos believes product is where Zuckerberg’s passion is, suggesting that he focus on that and hand over the CEO reigns to someone new.  Stamos suggested that Microsoft President Brad Smith would make a good Facebook CEO.

“There’s a legit argument that he has too much power,” said Stamos, who left the company in 2018, at the Collision Conference in Toronto. “He needs to give up some of that power. If I was him, I would go hire a new CEO for the company.”

Product is “where his passion is,” Stamos said. “He should hire a CEO that can help signal both internally and externally that the culture has to change.”

As for the calls to break up large tech and social network companies like Facebook, Stamos said that while there’s a “lot of excitement for antitrust,” having three companies with the same problems wouldn’t help:

“There’s a lot of excitement for antitrust because it feels good to be like ‘I hate this company, so let’s break it up,’” Stamos said. “Having three companies that have the same fundamental problems doesn’t make anything better.”

This isn’t the first time Facebook and Zuckerberg have faced backlash from former employees. Earlier this month, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes called for the break up of Facebook and the establishment of strong government oversight. Zuckerberg responded to Hughes by saying breaking up Facebook wouldn’t help anything.

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