Activity

A spokesperson at Hewlett Packard Enterprise confirmed to The Register that it is not dismantling its DEI team, stating: 'We know that differences of experiences, perspectives, opinions, and ways of thinking lead to better debate, better innovation, and better decision making.' CEO Antonio Neri has championed DEI, and HPE was named 'America's Most Just Company' for 2024 by JUST Capital.

An 18-month investigation by The Markup, The Guardian, and The 19th revealed Match Group's internal 'Sentinel' database tracked hundreds of assault reports weekly since 2019, yet banned users could rejoin without changing their name, birthday, or photos. A promised 2020 transparency report was never released, and Congressional requests from 11 members were ignored since 2020. The company dismantled its central Trust & Safety team in 2024, outsourcing to overseas contractors.

On February 13, 2025 a coalition of major US news publishers including Condé Nast, The Atlantic, Forbes, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, McClatchy, Politico, The Republican Company, Toronto Star and Vox Media filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Cohere in the Southern District of New York. The complaint alleged Cohere ingested and reproduced full articles from at least 4,000 publications and that the company's hallucinations falsely attributed fabricated content to named publishers. The suit was among the largest publisher-led actions against an enterprise AI company.

Starting February 13, 2025, multiple class-action lawsuits were filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Rakuten USA Inc. and Ebates Performance Marketing Inc. (d/b/a Rakuten Rewards), alleging that Rakuten's shopping browser extension overwrote influencers' and content creators' affiliate tracking cookies with its own, diverting commissions that should have gone to the creators who drove the sale. Plaintiffs allege the practice violates California's Unfair Competition Law and Computer Data Access and Fraud Act, and Arizona's Consumer Fraud Act; one attorney estimated damages in the tens of millions of dollars. Rakuten funds part of its consumer cashback rewards program (which it says has paid out over $4.6 billion to date) from these diverted commissions without disclosing the money's origin to consumers. Rakuten is one of several companies (alongside PayPal's Honey, Microsoft, Capital One, and Klarna) targeted in a wider wave of similar litigation following a December 2024 exposé of the practice. The allegations are contested and unresolved in litigation.

In February 2025, Microsoft contributed $100,000 to oppose Proposition 1A, a ballot measure to fund Seattle's social housing authority through a 5% payroll tax on companies for salaries over $1 million. Microsoft joined Amazon and other corporate donors in spending $780,000 total against the measure. Despite the corporate opposition, the measure passed with 63% voter support.

In February 2025, Amazon contributed $100,000 to oppose Proposition 1A, a ballot measure to fund Seattle's social housing authority through a 5% payroll tax on companies for salaries over $1 million. Amazon joined Microsoft and other corporate donors in spending $780,000 total against the measure. Despite the corporate opposition, the measure passed with 63% voter support.

On February 7, 2025, Infosys terminated hundreds of freshers at its Mysuru campus. NITES (IT union) alleged freshers were confined in rooms with security, forced to sign 'mutual separation' letters under duress, and evicted from campus the same day. These recruits had waited 2+ years after receiving offer letters. India's Ministry of Labour directed Karnataka to investigate. A second round terminated 240 more trainees in April 2025.

In 2025, Google systematically retreated from its diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments. In February, the company announced it would end diversity-based hiring goals, review its DEI initiatives, and removed DEI commitments from its annual report, citing compliance with federal policies. By August, Google had purged more than 50 DEI-related organizations from its funding list, including the African American Community Service Agency, Latino Leadership Alliance, and similar groups. The rollback followed the Trump administration's executive orders against DEI programs.

PayPal has largely removed language on diversity from the human capital section of its annual report to investors. Bloomberg Law reported on February 5, 2025, that PayPal cut diversity language in its new report to shareholders.

In February 2025 WhatsApp and forensic researchers at Citizen Lab disclosed that Paragon Solutions' Graphite spyware had been deployed against approximately 90 WhatsApp users worldwide, with confirmed Italian targets including investigative journalist Francesco Cancellato, head of the migrant-rescue NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans Luca Casarini, and activists working with refugees crossing the Mediterranean. Paragon, which had marketed Graphite as a 'responsible' alternative to NSO's Pegasus and was acquired by US PE firm AE Industrial Partners in 2024, publicly stated it had terminated its contract with Italy after the Italian government refused an audit. Italy denied authorizing targeting of journalists.

Demis Hassabis co-authored the February 2025 blog post justifying removal of Google's 2018 pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance. The post framed military AI as necessary for 'democracies to lead' in AI development. This contradicted DeepMind's founding promise that its technology would never be used for military purposes.

Google removed its commitment to abstain from using AI for weapons and surveillance from its updated AI Principles. The prior version stated the company would not pursue 'weapons or other technologies whose principal purpose or implementation is to cause or directly facilitate injury to people' and 'technologies that gather or use information for surveillance violating internationally accepted norms.' Amnesty International called it 'a shame that Google has chosen to set this dangerous precedent.'

In early February 2025, after Trump imposed 25% tariffs on Canadian goods, Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke posted publicly that 'Trump believes that Canada has not held its side of the bargain, and he set terms to prove that we still work together: get the borders under control and crack down on fentanyl dens,' framing Trump's demands as reasonable. He criticized Canada's retaliatory tariffs, saying 'hitting back will not lead to anything good... Canada will decline' and 'starting a trade and tariff war... just doesn't make any sense for anyone.' The comments drew significant attention as a prominent Canadian CEO siding with the US administration's position against his own government.

HP Inc announced it would lay off up to 2,000 more employees as part of a continuing cost-cutting plan, bringing the total number of job cuts under the restructuring to as many as 9,000. The company said it would save an additional $300 million by the end of its fiscal 2025. CEO Enrique Lores said the layoffs will hit 'all over the company,' including factory workers, consumer support reps, HR administration, and legacy tech engineers.

NY Attorney General Letitia James announced a $16.75 million settlement with DoorDash for misleading consumers and delivery workers by using tips intended for Dashers to subsidize their guaranteed pay. Between May 2017 and September 2019, DoorDash used customer tips to offset the base pay it had already guaranteed to workers. Approximately 63,000 New York delivery workers benefited from this settlement.

In February 2025, Google eliminated its 2018 pledge not to develop AI for harmful purposes including weaponry and surveillance. The original pledge came after employee protests over Project Maven, a US Defense Department initiative using AI to analyze drone footage. The company now pursues military contracts including a $200M DoD CDAO contract.

In February 2025, Beyond Meat laid off 64 employees (9% of global workforce) and halted all operations in China. In August 2025, the company cut an additional 44 employees (6% of global workforce) in North America. These layoffs came amid continued declining revenues, with Q2 2025 US retail revenues falling 27% and total sales dropping 19.6% year-over-year. CEO Ethan Brown acknowledged it was 'not the moment for plant-based meat right now.'

Workday announced it would cut 8.5% of its workforce in favor of investing in artificial intelligence to counter a 'softer macroeconomic environment.'

Booking Holdings announced layoffs of 'more than 200 and fewer than 1,000' employees at Booking.com, primarily affecting its Amsterdam workforce of 7,000. This came despite reporting a 37% increase in net profit to $5.9 billion in 2024. The company claimed layoffs were 'not a cost-cutting measure' but 'an effort to operate more efficiently.' Previous layoffs: 2,700 in 2022, 4,000 in 2020.

At a book talk at Colonial Theater in February 2025, Bill Gates stated 'I will say that some of these diversity things probably have gone too far, too far.' He added that he would try to 'help the reinvention' of DEI but felt issues of poverty had been overlooked.

At Paris AI Summit, Amodei stated governments need to enforce transparency of safety plans and facilitate measurement of cyber attacks, CBRN, autonomy, and other global security risks by third-party evaluators. Warned of AI systems becoming 'country of geniuses in a datacenter' by 2026-2027.

Shopify dismantled its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in early 2025, following a broader trend among tech companies retreating from DEI commitments.

Reddit filed a lawsuit in California state court against Anthropic, alleging the AI company made over 100,000 unauthorized requests to Reddit's servers to collect user posts and comments without permission. The suit alleged Anthropic circumvented Reddit's robots.txt file and refused to engage in licensing negotiations, unlike Google and OpenAI which entered formal licensing agreements. The case raised questions about intellectual property rights and data protection for user-generated content.

In February 2025, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a $16.75 million settlement with DoorDash for misleading consumers and delivery workers. Between May 2017 and September 2019, DoorDash used customer tips to offset base pay it had already guaranteed workers, rather than paying tips on top. If a customer tipped $6 on a $10 guaranteed order, DoorDash would only pay $4 base - the worker still got $10 total. DoorDash told customers 'Dashers will always receive 100% of the tip' while using tips to reduce its own costs. About 63,000 New York delivery workers were affected.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Wise to pay approximately $2.5 million for alleged illegal remittance practices, including advertising inaccurate fees and failing to properly disclose exchange rates. The consent order requires approximately $450,000 for consumer redress and a $44,955 civil penalty.

On January 29, 2025, Mark Zuckerberg agreed to pay $25 million to settle Donald Trump's lawsuit over his 2021 Facebook/Instagram suspension. $22 million was directed to a nonprofit that will become Trump's presidential library. Negotiations began after Zuckerberg's November 2024 dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, where Trump raised the litigation. Trump later claimed Meta's policy changes were 'probably' due to threats he made against Zuckerberg.

NVIDIA's due diligence in fiscal years 2024 and 2025 revealed supplier non-compliance including hiring fees charged to workers, document and passport retention, excessive working hours, and penalties for leaving employers early. An independent human rights assessment found forced labor and child labor to be salient risks in NVIDIA's supply chain, though not in direct operations.

Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, who still sits on the company's board, joined Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Gebbia revealed he voted for Trump and attended RFK Jr's confirmation hearing. Airbnb distanced itself from Gebbia's views, stating he joined 'in his personal capacity.' The move caused internal concern at Airbnb and led to host backlash, with many threatening to leave the platform.

At Davos in January 2025, CEO Chuck Robbins said Cisco wouldn't be getting rid of its DEI policies because there's 'too much business value.' Despite shareholder challenges from conservative groups demanding ROI analysis, Cisco maintained its commitment to diversity and inclusion. The company has a 78% Workplace Pride rating and was ranked #1 on PEOPLE's 2024 'Companies That Care' list.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 22, 2025 - just two days after Trump's inauguration and executive orders against DEI - Chuck Robbins publicly defended Cisco's DEI programs, stating 'You cannot argue with the fact that a diverse workforce is better. There's too much business value.' He acknowledged some programs 'got a little out of hand' but defended the core principles.