Facebook spent $23 million for Mark Zuckerberg’s security

Facebook spent a whopping $23 million on the security of its chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg in its last fiscal year, an annual proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission has revealed.

The filing has revealed that the security costs comprised most of the $23 million that the Facebook founder received last year in the form of various compensations last year. The company spent around $13.4 million for the personal security of Zuckerberg at his residences and during personal travel compared to $10.4 in the previous financial year. Zuckerberg got an additional $10 million pre-tax allowance to cover additional security costs.

The company in its filing last year said that the Increased costs last year were mostly due to regular personal travel, costs relating to security protocols during the pandemic, increased security coverage during the 2020 US elections and other periods with increased security risk among others.

“We believe that Mr Zuckerberg's role puts him in a unique position: he is synonymous with Facebook and, as a result, negative sentiment regarding our company is directly associated with, and often transferred to, Mr Zuckerberg. Mr Zuckerberg is one of the most-recognized executives in the world, in large part as a result of the size of our user base and our continued exposure to global media, legislative, and regulatory attention,” the company said.

“The compensation, nominating & governance committee believes that these costs are appropriate and necessary in light of the threat landscape and the fact that Mr Zuckerberg has requested to receive only $1 in annual salary and does not receive any bonus payments, equity awards, or other incentive compensation,” the company added.