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Mitchell Baker's total compensation as Mozilla CEO grew from approximately $2.5M in 2018 to $6.9M in 2022, while Firefox's market share declined from ~32% to under 3% and Mozilla laid off over 380 employees across multiple rounds (2020: 250, 2024: 60+). The disparity between executive pay and organizational performance drew significant criticism.

In December 2022, ByteDance confirmed employees used TikTok to track the location of journalists reporting critically on the company through their IP addresses. ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo said the misconduct 'significantly undermined' public trust. The company fired four employees including chief internal auditor Chris Lepitak, while executive Song Ye resigned. The DOJ opened a criminal investigation led by the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

At TSMC's annual technology symposium in December 2022, C.C. Wei warned that export controls 'destroy productivity and efficiency gained under globalization' and stated 'the scariest thing is that mutual trust and cooperation among countries is beginning to weaken.' He declared 'Globalization is almost dead.'

Corsair publishes annual conflict minerals due diligence reports to the SEC covering Tantalum, Tin, Tungsten, and Gold sourcing. The company conducts periodic audits of direct suppliers using the CMRT framework. As of December 2022, 86.15% of suppliers responded to human trafficking and slavery reporting requests. Corsair published a comprehensive Code of Conduct and Ethics and maintains public supply chain disclosure documentation.

In December 2022, Musk dissolved Twitter's Trust and Safety Council, the advisory body responsible for policies on hate speech, child exploitation, and self-harm. This came amid a documented surge in hate speech following Musk's acquisition: the N-word saw a nearly 500% increase in usage in the 12 hours after the ownership transfer, antisemitic tweets mentioning 'Jew' rose fivefold, and anti-Black slurs appeared at nearly 3x the pre-acquisition rate. Homophobic and transphobic slurs rose 52% and 62% respectively, per CCDH research.

After announcing plans to scan iCloud photos for child sexual abuse material, Apple reversed course following criticism from privacy advocates and security experts who warned the system could be abused by governments. Child safety groups accused Apple of prioritizing privacy over child protection.

In December 2022, Apple launched Advanced Data Protection for iCloud in the US, expanding end-to-end encryption from 14 to 23 data categories including iCloud Backup, Photos, Notes, Drive, and Messages Backups. The feature rolled out globally in January 2023. This encryption prevents Apple from accessing most iCloud data even in response to law enforcement requests or in the event of a hack, representing a significant expansion of user privacy protections beyond the default iCloud encryption that allowed Apple to hold decryption keys.

Starting December 2, 2022, X under Musk released a series of internal documents known as the 'Twitter Files' through selected journalists. The releases detailed how Twitter had received and sometimes complied with content moderation requests from U.S. government agencies. While Musk framed these as exposing government censorship, Twitter's own attorneys stated in a June 2023 court filing that the files did not show government coercion, and media analysts noted the documents largely showed typical content moderation challenges. Former employees noted Republican officials also made frequent takedown requests.

Intel Capital pledged in 2015 to invest $125 million over 5 years in startups led by underrepresented minorities, including women, Black, Latino, U.S. military veterans, LGBTQ+, and permanently physically disabled founders. By December 2022, Intel Capital had invested over $830 million in companies with diverse leadership teams, far exceeding the original pledge. Intel also achieved $1 billion in annual spending with diverse suppliers and reached 5 million women through technology empowerment programs.

Netflix achieved carbon neutrality across its operations in late 2022 through direct emissions reduction, renewable energy procurement, and high-integrity carbon credits. The company set targets to reduce emissions by roughly 50% by 2030 and match remaining emissions from 2022 onwards. By 2024, Netflix reported reducing Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 46% compared to its 2019 baseline. Netflix is a founding signatory of the Entertainment and Environment Leadership Alliance (EELA, 2023), a member of RE100 committing to 100% renewable electricity, and a participant in the UNFCCC Race to Zero campaign. The company also installed geothermal heating, on-site solar, and EV charging at its Albuquerque studio campus.

DuckDuckGo has donated over $3.65 million to organizations focused on privacy and digital rights including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Freedom of the Press Foundation, Tor Project, and others. The company has been making annual donations since 2011 as part of its commitment to the privacy ecosystem.

The Wikimedia Foundation faced years of criticism from its own editor community over misleading fundraising banners that implied Wikipedia's existence was under financial threat. In 2022, editors held a formal poll rejecting proposed banner language, with community standards adopted stating banners must not imply Wikipedia's survival depends on donations. Despite amassing over $400 million in cash reserves by 2022 and annual revenue exceeding $200 million, the Foundation continued using emotionally charged donation appeals. Critics described banners as 'very misleading' and accused the Foundation of preying on donors' goodwill. By 2025, community members still complained about 'overly large banners that disrupt the reader experience.'

Approximately 1,500 animals—including over 280 sheep, pigs and monkeys—died as a result of Neuralink tests since 2018. At UC Davis, 15 of 23 monkeys with brain implants were euthanized. Animals suffered brain hemorrhages, paralysis, bloody infections, and self-mutilation. Over 20 employees alleged tests were rushed due to Musk's pressure to accelerate development, causing botched experiments. Musk told staff to imagine 'a bomb strapped to their heads' to work faster.

X expanded Community Notes (formerly Birdwatch) to all users globally in late 2022, allowing contributors to add context to potentially misleading posts. The system uses an open-source algorithm to surface notes that earn consensus across users with different viewpoints. By November 2023, the program had approximately 133,000 contributors and notes received tens of millions of views daily. A May 2024 study found COVID-19 vaccine notes were accurate 97% of the time.

Between 2018 and 2022, approximately 1,500 animals including monkeys, pigs, and sheep died during Neuralink's brain implant research. Internal staff reported Elon Musk pressured teams to accelerate timelines, leading to botched surgeries - 25 pigs died from wrong-size implants. Monkeys suffered chronic infections, paralysis, and brain swelling. The USDA opened a probe in December 2022, and the DOT investigated improper handling of hazardous pathogens. The internal animal care committee was chaired by a Neuralink executive with financial stake in the company.

Following Musk's acquisition, X reinstated numerous accounts that had been banned for violating platform rules. Donald Trump's account was reinstated November 19, 2022 via a Twitter poll. On November 24, 2022, Musk announced a 'general amnesty' for suspended accounts based on a poll where 72% voted in favor. Alex Jones, banned in 2018 for abusive behavior related to Sandy Hook conspiracy theories, was reinstated December 10, 2023. Andrew Tate, banned for misogynistic content, was also reinstated. A BBC study found that a third of 1,100 reinstated accounts appeared to have violated Twitter guidelines.

In November 2022, Google agreed to pay $391.5 million to settle with 40 US state attorneys general over allegations that the company tracked users' locations even after they believed they had turned off location tracking. The investigation found Google used dark patterns and confusing account settings to continue collecting location data. This was the largest multi-state attorney general privacy settlement in US history at the time.

Sequoia Capital invested over $213 million in FTX entities. The firm publicly promoted FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried, publishing a glowing profile and having partners vouch for the exchange's safety. When FTX collapsed in November 2022, approximately $8 billion in customer funds were missing and Bankman-Fried was later convicted of seven criminal fraud counts. A class action lawsuit (Rabbitte v. Sequoia Capital Operations LLC) alleged the firm lent an 'air of legitimacy' to FTX and would have discovered the fraud had it conducted genuine due diligence. Two partners involved in the FTX investment later departed the firm.

In November 2022, the French data protection authority CNIL fined Discord Inc. 800,000 euros for multiple GDPR violations. An investigation found over 2.4 million French accounts inactive for at least three years and 58,000 inactive for over five years, with no written data retention policy. Discord also accepted weak six-character passwords, failed to conduct a data protection impact assessment despite processing data of minors, and did not adequately inform users about data retention periods. Discord subsequently implemented remedial measures including a two-year retention policy and stronger password requirements.

In November 2022, Apple restricted its AirDrop feature in China to limit file sharing to contacts-only by default, a change that coincided with widespread protests against China's zero-COVID policies. Protesters had been using AirDrop to share protest materials with strangers. The timing led to criticism that Apple was helping the Chinese government suppress dissent, though Apple later rolled the change out globally.

Following Elon Musk's October 2022 acquisition, X Corp (formerly Twitter) cut 80% of safety engineers (from 279 to 55), eliminated the entire 150-person curation team, and dissolved the Trust and Safety Council of 100 civil rights organizations. The head of Trust & Safety Yoel Roth resigned after two weeks under Musk; his successor Ella Irwin lasted 7 months. Multiple Trust & Safety heads have since departed citing conflicts with Musk's decisions.

CEO Patrick Collison announced layoffs affecting approximately 1,120 employees, stating 'We were much too optimistic about the internet economy's near-term growth in 2022 and 2023.' Offered 14 weeks severance minimum, with more for longer tenure.

In November 2022, developers filed a class-action lawsuit against GitHub, Microsoft, and OpenAI alleging that GitHub Copilot was trained on billions of lines of publicly available code from GitHub repositories without complying with open-source license terms (GPL, MIT, etc.) requiring attribution and copyright notices. The suit sought over $9 billion in statutory damages. By May 2023, a judge dismissed 20 of 22 claims but allowed breach of contract and DMCA claims to proceed. GitHub's FAQ acknowledged that about 1% of suggestions may match training data.

During the November 2022 layoff of 14% of its workforce (approximately 1,120 employees), Stripe provided a comprehensive severance package that was widely praised as a model for responsible layoffs. The package included 14 weeks minimum severance (more for longer tenure), 2022 annual bonuses, payment for unused PTO, six months of healthcare premiums, accelerated RSU vesting, career support to connect departing employees with other companies, and immigration support for visa holders.

GoTo laid off 1,300 employees (12% of workforce) in November 2022 and 600 more in March 2023. CEO Andre Soelistyo apologized for not providing advance notice. Research by Sedane Labour Resource Centre found Gojek uses 'community' frameworks to surveil gig workers and identify protesters, reducing likelihood of workers joining unions. Indonesian labor law does not allow gig workers to unionize.

After January 6, 2021, Oracle's PAC pledged to no longer back politicians who objected to the Electoral College certification of Biden's victory. However, during the 2022 midterms, the PAC donated $55,000 to election deniers including Reps. Steve Scalise, Jim Banks, Jim Jordan, Ralph Norman, and Darrell Issa.

In December 2018, Tumblr (under Verizon/Oath ownership, before Automattic's 2019 acquisition) banned all adult content, which disproportionately impacted LGBTQ+ users and sex workers who relied on the platform. Automattic acquired Tumblr in 2019 and in November 2022 partially reversed the ban, allowing some nudity. However, the moderation filters continued to flag LGBTQ+ content at higher rates than heterosexual content.

In November 2022, Sustainalytics downgraded Tencent to 'non-compliant' with the UN Global Compact principles, citing human rights concerns related to censorship and surveillance practices on WeChat and other platforms. The rating affects ESG investors and signals significant concerns about Tencent's impact on freedom of expression and privacy.

Since Musk's takeover, X removed policies on crisis misinformation, COVID-19 misleading information, election outcome misinformation, and transgender protections (misgendering/deadnaming). The platform reinstated previously banned accounts including Trump's (suspended after Jan 6). Gizmodo reported the transgender protection policy became 'effectively dead' after Musk relaxed hate speech policies in November 2022.

In November 2022, it was revealed that Masayoshi Son personally owed SoftBank Group Corp $4.7 billion (later rising to $5.1 billion by February 2023) on side deals he had set up to increase his personal compensation while the Vision Fund posted record losses. Son held more than 30% stake in SoftBank and structured these arrangements as 'remuneration for investment expertise' in lieu of investment fees. Governance experts and activist investor Elliott Management criticized this as a clear conflict of interest, but Son denied wrongdoing.