Norway's wealth fund backs content controversy motion at Alphabet

OSLO (Reuters) - Norway's $1 trillion wealth fund backed activist shareholders' attempt to force Google parent Alphabet Inc to report openly on global content controversies, voting records showed on Thursday.

The vote at the annual meeting of Alphabet shareholders on Wednesday was the fund's latest push for transparency among Silicon Valley giants.

The motion, which ultimately failed, could have forced the company to detail the risks it faces from controversies ranging from fake news to election interference.

Norges Bank Investment Management, operator of the world's largest sovereign fund, last week backed a similar proposal at Facebook to report on "fake news", and on Tuesday sought to wrest the role of Tesla chairman away from Elon Musk, the carmaker's CEO.

At Alphabet, the fund also supported a motion that would have forced the company to report on gender pay gaps, but stopped short of backing proposals on board diversity and linking sustainability to senior executives' pay.

The Norwegian fund, which owns 1.4 percent of all globally listed shares, held a 0.8 percent stake in Alphabet at the end of 2017, worth $5.86 billion, according to the fund's own data.

(Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Gwladys Fouche)