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Incidents and actions from tracked entities.

iFixit has been the leading corporate advocate for right-to-repair legislation in the United States, providing testimony, technical analysis, and public education. By 2023, right-to-repair bills had been introduced in all 50 states, with laws passed in California, Minnesota, New York, Colorado, and Oregon, largely due to iFixit's sustained advocacy efforts.

While serving as an OpenAI board member and claiming to have no financial interest in the company, Sam Altman was listed as the legal owner of the OpenAI Startup Fund. Former board member Helen Toner stated he 'constantly was claiming to be an independent board member with no financial interest in the company' while concealing this ownership. The arrangement was described by OpenAI as temporary, but Altman did not inform the board. This undisclosed conflict was among the factors that led to his firing in November 2023.

An October 2023 FAA report to Congress projected that without changes to Starlink satellite deorbit design, debris surviving reentry from the planned Starlink mega-constellation would cause approximately one human casualty every two years by 2035. SpaceX disputed the FAA's modelling methodology but the report renewed scrutiny over Starlink's orbital-environment footprint, after astronomers had already documented Starlink trails systematically degrading ground-based observation. SpaceX committed in 2024 to demisable-by-design improvements for newer satellite versions.

Mistral AI consistently released major models under the permissive Apache 2.0 license, including Mistral 7B (September 2023), the entire Mistral 3 family (December 2025), Magistral Small reasoning model (June 2025), and Devstral Small 2 (December 2025). The company stated this approach is 'about empowering the developer community and putting AI in people's hands,' promoting transparency and allowing users to examine algorithms to ensure ethical practices and minimize bias.

Cohere was among the first AI companies to sign Canada's Voluntary Code of Conduct on Responsible Development and Management of Advanced Generative AI Systems in September 2023, publicly endorsed the proposed Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA) legislation and engaged constructively with regulators on national-AI-strategy planning. The stance contrasted with US AI companies' lobbying against state-level AI regulation in California and elsewhere.

Amazon

In September 2023, the FTC under Khan filed a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against Amazon, alleging the company illegally maintained monopoly power by punishing sellers who offered lower prices elsewhere, degrading search results to favor its own products, and forcing sellers to use its fulfillment and advertising services. The case, joined by 17 state attorneys general, was the most significant federal antitrust challenge to Amazon.

On September 26, 2023 Notion Labs blocked all access from mainland China IP addresses, citing inability to comply with China's Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) requirements around data localization without compromising the service's core architecture. The decision affected an estimated millions of Chinese users including students, knowledge workers and independent creators who had used Notion under sustained workarounds. Notion did not provide a transition path, data export reminders or grace period before the cutoff.

YouTube demonetized Russell Brand's channel in 2023 following sexual assault allegations. Neal Mohan justified the decision to protect YouTube's ecosystem. However, critics viewed it as a harsh measure since no criminal charges were filed, raising concerns about censorship and fairness in applying platform policies without due process.

In a widely-circulated September 2023 All-In Summit presentation titled '2,851 Miles,' Benchmark general partner Bill Gurley laid out a case that the 2009 HITECH Act - a $38 billion federal program paying doctors up to $44,000 plus a further $17,000 'meaningful use' bonus to adopt electronic health record (EHR) software - was structured to disproportionately benefit Epic Systems. He noted Epic CEO Judith Faulkner was the sole corporate representative on Obama's Health IT Policy Committee and a major Obama donor, and alleged that federal compliance thresholds were set to match Epic's existing feature set while the Department of Justice levied large fines ($155M, $57M, and $145M) against Epic's smaller competitors. Gurley presented this as a case study in how incumbents can capture health-tech regulation to entrench market position.

Lyft launched Women+ Connect in September 2023, offering women and nonbinary drivers option to prioritize matches with nearby women and nonbinary riders. Feature tested in 50+ markets before nationwide rollout in March 2024. By March 2024, powered more than 10 million rides. Over 7 million eligible riders turned on feature. Over half of eligible women and nonbinary drivers opted in. As of July 2024, signed-up drivers matched with women and nonbinary riders about 66% of time, up from around 50% at launch. Designed in partnership with It's On Us sexual assault prevention campaign, National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives, and National Sheriff's Association Traffic Safety Committee. Industry-leading safety feature addressing real safety concerns for women and nonbinary community members.

In September 2023, Elon Musk publicly claimed 'No monkey has died as a result of a Neuralink implant' and that the company only used 'terminal monkeys close to death already.' However, records obtained by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and WIRED revealed 12 previously healthy Rhesus macaques were euthanized due to implant complications. Health records showed no evidence the monkeys were terminally ill. The PCRM filed an SEC complaint over these materially misleading statements.

The EEOC charged that since 2015, Black employees at Tesla's Fremont factory endured racial abuse, including N-word variations, 'monkey,' and 'boy.' Employees encountered swastikas, threats, and nooses on desks, bathroom stalls, elevators, and even new vehicles on the production line. Case heading to mediation in early 2026.

Anthropic published the first Responsible Scaling Policy (RSP) in September 2023, creating the first AI Safety Levels (ASL) framework modeled on biosafety standards. As CEO, Amodei personally spent 10-20% of his time for 3 months writing multiple drafts from scratch. The policy is overseen by Anthropic's Long Term Benefit Trust with no financial stake.

$18.0M

After seven years of litigation, HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise settled age discrimination class action for $18 million in September 2023. Lawsuit alleged CEO Meg Whitman directed company-wide policy starting around 2012 to transform workforce by pushing out older employees and aggressively hiring younger ones. In August 2013, HP's HR department issued guidelines requiring 75% of new hires be 'graduate' or 'early career' employees. Internal documents maligned older employees as 'traditionalist' and 'rule breakers.' Whitman expressed desire to change age makeup from a 'diamond' to 'quite flat diamond' with 'lots of young people coming in right out of college.' Between July 2012 and February 2017, there were 29 age discrimination complaints against HP in California alone. Court granted collective action status in April 2021.

In September 2023, Snap introduced new safety features for 13-17 year olds including stronger friending protections requiring mutual connections, in-app warnings when teens receive messages from blocked/reported users or users from unexpected regions, location-sharing reminders, and expanded parental controls via Family Center. Snap also launched Safety Snapshot episodes on sextortion and grooming reviewed by NCMEC, and reported that Trust and Safety teams had more than doubled since 2020.

$57.0M

In September 2023 the California Public Utilities Commission and the FCC reached separate settlements with Comcast totaling more than $57 million over allegations Comcast violated California consumer-protection rules around mandatory refunds, billing accuracy and disclosure of fees during 2017-2021. The settlements followed a years-long pattern of state attorneys general filing similar enforcement actions against the cable provider.

On 31 August 2023, UK's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) issued a disclosure against Wise Payments Limited for breaching Russia sanctions regulations. On 30 June 2022, the day after a person was added to the UK Sanctions List, a company employee made a £250 cash withdrawal from a Wise business account using a company debit card in the Designated Person's name. This was the first instance of OFSI using its disclosure powers. Wise self-reported the breach on 20 July 2022 but no fine was imposed due to the moderate severity.

The Fairphone 5, launched in 2023, earned a perfect 10/10 repairability score from iFixit. The device features a fully modular design with user-replaceable battery, screen, camera, speaker, and USB-C port. Fairphone committed to 8 years of software updates and 10 years of spare parts availability, the longest support commitment in the smartphone industry.

Patrick Collison was the first investor in California Forever/Flannery Associates, which secretly acquired 50,000+ acres in Solano County for ~$900 million to build a new city. The project drew controversy for its 'five-year stealth campaign,' aggressive tactics including a $510 million lawsuit against local landowners in 2023 for alleged price-fixing, and proximity to Travis Air Force Base which prompted FBI and Air Force investigations. Local mayor said the project 'devastated our area' and 'broken up ranching families who've worked the earth for five generations.'

Between 2018 and 2023, California Forever's subsidiary Flannery Associates secretly purchased over 50,000 acres of farmland in Solano County for approximately $900 million, becoming the county's largest private landowner. From 2019 to 2023, the company told county officials it only intended to use the land for agricultural purposes including olive farming and long-term farmer leases. The true plan - building a new city of up to 400,000 people - was only revealed when the New York Times exposed the scheme in August 2023. The land's proximity to Travis Air Force Base triggered an Air Force Foreign Investment Risk Review investigation and FBI/CFIUS referrals from Congress.

From 2017 to 2023, Sramek led California Forever's strategy to secretly acquire over 50,000 acres of Solano County farmland through subsidiary Flannery Associates. He personally assured county officials the land would be used for agricultural purposes including olive farming and long-term farmer leases, while planning to build a new city of up to 400,000 people. The deception was only revealed when the New York Times exposed the scheme in August 2023. U.S. Representative John Garamendi described the community as 'very angry - by the secrecy, by the duplicity, by the attack on family farmers.'

In August 2023, the DOJ sued SpaceX for violating the Immigration and Nationality Act by routinely discouraging and refusing to hire asylees and refugees from September 2018 through May 2022. SpaceX falsely claimed export control laws barred hiring non-citizens and green card holders, screening applicants by citizenship status. Out of nearly 10,000 hires, only one asylee was hired - four months after the DOJ investigation began. The case was dismissed in February 2025 after the Trump administration took office, with Musk calling it 'lawfare.'

In August 2023 Naver released HyperClova X, a Korean-first foundation model trained on a corpus that was 97% Korean and 3% English, representing one of the few production-scale LLMs prioritising a non-English language. The release was significant for Korean-language AI sovereignty and reduced dependence on US-trained models for Korean-language applications. Naver also released smaller HCX-Mini variants for on-device and edge deployment in 2024.

In August 2023, Checkout.com terminated its relationship with Binance, once its largest customer handling $2 billion in monthly transactions in 2021. CEO Guillaume Pousaz sent letters on August 9 and 11 citing concerns over 'regulators actions and orders in relevant jurisdictions' and AML, sanctions, and compliance controls. The decision came months after the SEC filed 13 charges against Binance. Binance threatened legal action but did not pursue it.

In August 2023, major record labels including Sony and Universal Music Group sued over the Great 78 Project, which digitized and distributed out-of-print 78rpm records. The lawsuit, seeking up to $400 million in damages, named Brewster Kahle personally and his personal Kahle/Austin Foundation as defendants alongside the Internet Archive and audio engineer George Blood, distinguishing Kahle's personal financial and legal exposure from the organization's. Labels alleged the project exceeded fair-use/preservation purposes and functioned commercially to drive donor traffic; Kahle publicly defended the project as legitimate library preservation work.

In August 2023, HashiCorp relicensed Terraform, Vault, Consul, and other products from the Mozilla Public License (open source) to the Business Source License (not open source). The move prompted the creation of OpenTofu, a community fork. Mitchell Hashimoto was an individual contributor at the time, not in a leadership role making this decision.

On August 10, 2023, HashiCorp changed the license for Terraform, Vault, and 6 other projects from Mozilla Public License (open source) to Business Source License (BSL), which restricts commercial use for 4 years. The change sparked immediate backlash: 33,000+ developers starred an Open Terraform Manifesto, 140+ companies pledged support for a fork, and on September 20, 2023, the Linux Foundation accepted OpenTofu as an official project. In April 2024, HashiCorp sent OpenTofu a cease-and-desist letter claiming code misuse.

On August 10, 2023 HashiCorp announced it was relicensing all of its primary products including Terraform, Vault, Consul, Boundary, Nomad and Vagrant from the Mozilla Public License 2.0 (MPL 2.0) to the Business Source License (BSL) v1.1, which restricts commercial competitive use. The move was widely criticised as a bait-and-switch after 11 years of building community on open-source licenses, and prompted the OpenTofu fork of Terraform by the Linux Foundation and dozens of vendors. The episode mirrored similar relicensings by MongoDB, Redis, Elastic and CockroachDB.

Coinbase launched the Base mainnet on August 9, 2023, an Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain built on the open-source OP Stack in collaboration with Optimism. In October 2023, Base open-sourced its code repositories, smart contracts, and web properties (base.org, docs.base.org, bridge.base.org) to increase transparency and allow public contributions. Base grew to become the largest Layer 2 network by total value locked. Coinbase also offered up to $1M in bug bounties through HackerOne and outlined a decentralization roadmap including fault proofs and diverse client software for censorship resistance.