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Mark Zuckerberg is expected to retire for a new Facebook CEO, said Alex Stamos, the company's former safety officer, on Tuesday.
This decision would limit Zuckerberg's power and allow him to focus on what he prefers – the development of the company's products, Stamos said at the Collision conference in Toronto. It would also be a sign that he is serious about changing Facebook's culture, he said.
"There is a legitimate argument that he has too much power," said Stamos. "He must give up some of that power, and if I were him, I would hire a new CEO for the company."
CNBC had previously reported Stamos' comments.
Stamos has one candidate in mind for which Zuckerberg should choose to replace him: Microsoft President Brad Smith. Smith helped the software giant make peace with government regulators while he was subjected to the same scrutiny in the early 2000s about his business practices, like Facebook.
"My recommendation would be Brad Smith from Microsoft," he said. "But an adult who has already experienced this in another company."
Facebook representatives did not immediately respond to an email requesting comments on Stamos' remarks.
Break Facebook will not solve its problems, said Stamos
Facebook and Zuckerberg have been under surveillance for a good part of the last three years, starting with the role of the social networking company in spreading Russian misinformation and propaganda during the 2016 US presidential election. The company was then mingled with a series of privacy and security related incidents last year, including the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
In recent months, more and more people have called for regulations that would reduce the power of society and its functioning, in addition to demands for antitrust measures that would dissolve them.
Read it: The $ 5 billion fine that Facebook expects to pay to the FTC is a joke – which concerns us all
There are legitimate legal arguments to split the company – and to split YouTube and Google, Stamos said. These arguments are based on the impact of the power of Facebook and Google on competition in their respective markets.
But breaking businesses would not solve the fundamental problems and threats they pose to their users and society, such as their effects on user privacy and the spread of misinformation, he said.
"You can not solve climate change by separating ExxonMobil and making 10 ExxonMobils, is not it?" he said. "You have to solve the underlying problems."
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