At least 10 shareholders responsible for over US$2.4 trillion in assets, including Boston Common Asset Management and Aviva Investors, have filed a resolution calling on the Google parent company to form an independent committee to monitor the human rights risks linked to its business operations and products. The resolution will be put to a vote at Alphabet’s annual meeting in June. (Financial Times)

Talking point: The resolution follows criticism from human rights advocates outside and inside the company over its plans to build a censored search engine in China (which have since been scrapped) and its data-collection and -use practices, among other privacy concerns. In late 2019, 83 investors sent a letter to Alphabet asking it to do more to monitor and address human rights issues; the company rejected their request for a meeting. A vote in favour of the resolution would be non-binding, but presenting it at the annual meeting is a public pressure tactic that will be harder for Alphabet to ignore.