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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.

On November 3, 2022 developer-attorney Matthew Butterick filed a proposed class action against GitHub, Microsoft and OpenAI alleging that GitHub Copilot reproduces verbatim or near-verbatim snippets of open-source code without preserving the original license, author attribution, or copyright notices required by permissive licenses such as MIT, Apache and GPL. The Northern District of California allowed two contract-related claims to proceed in 2024 while dismissing some DMCA claims. The case remains a flagship test of fair-use limits in code-trained generative AI.

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.

Within weeks of acquiring Twitter in October 2022, Elon Musk dramatically restructured the company. He fired approximately 3,750 employees (50% of workforce) within days, triggering a WARN Act lawsuit. He gutted content moderation by firing 80% of moderation staff and reinstating banned accounts including white nationalists and conspiracy theorists. On December 15, he suspended accounts of journalists from CNN, NYT, Washington Post, and others who had reported critically on him. The mass layoffs affected around 1,000 employees in California and 418 in New York, with employees given no advance notice.

Revolut CEO Nik Storonsky renounced his Russian citizenship in October 2022, becoming the fourth billionaire to do so over Ukraine. In March 2022 he condemned the invasion as 'wrong and totally abhorrent.' Revolut matched donations to Red Cross Ukraine up to £1.5M, waived transfer fees to Ukraine, and suspended operations in Russia and Belarus.

Multiple studies documented sustained increases in hate speech following Musk's takeover. Anti-Black slurs tripled from 1,282 to 3,876/day, antisemitic posts rose 61% in two weeks, and anti-LGBTQ 'grooming' content increased 119%. A UC Berkeley study published in PLOS One confirmed the 50% hate speech increase persisted through at least May 2023, contradicting X's claims that hate speech decreased.

Cisco Networking Academy, launched in 1997, has provided free IT and cybersecurity training to over 20 million learners across 190 countries. In October 2022, Cisco announced a goal to train 25 million additional people in digital and cybersecurity skills over 10 years. The program offers courses in networking, cybersecurity, and programming at no cost to eligible educational organizations, available in up to 18 languages. 95% of students taking certification-aligned courses report obtaining a job or education opportunity through the program.

At a 2022 Senate hearing, Evan Spiegel apologized to parents for exposing minors to harmful content on Snapchat. Senators demanded accountability and compensation for child safety failures. In 2023, Spiegel was subpoenaed to testify again in a January 2024 Senate Judiciary hearing to explain Snapchat's 'failure to protect kids.'

In October 2022, Beyond Meat cut 200 jobs, representing 19% of its global workforce, as part of cost-reduction measures. The layoffs coincided with the departure of COO Doug Ramsey, CFO Philip Hardin, and chief growth officer Deanna Jurgens. The company cited the need to reduce operating expenses and target cash flow positive operations.

In October 2022, PayPal updated its acceptable use policy to include a $2,500 fine for users who spread 'misinformation' as determined at PayPal's sole discretion. The policy caused immediate backlash from users and former PayPal president David Marcus, who called it antithetical to his beliefs. PayPal's stock dropped over 5%. The company retracted the policy within days, claiming the language was inserted 'in error'.

Joseph Sullivan, Uber's former Chief Security Officer, was criminally convicted on October 5, 2022 and sentenced May 4, 2023 to three years probation and 200 hours community service for obstructing FTC investigation and failing to report a felony. Sullivan concealed 2016 data breach affecting 57 million Uber users while company was under FTC investigation for 2014 breach. He arranged for Uber to pay hackers $100,000 in bitcoin in December 2016 to keep breach secret. In September 2018, Uber paid $148 million multistate settlement for covering up the 2016 breach. The 2016 breach exposed over 25 million names and email addresses, 22 million names and mobile phone numbers, and 600,000 names and driver's license numbers of U.S. users.

In October 2022, Sandberg donated $3 million to support ACLU's advocacy fighting abortion bans nationwide following the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. The donation supports work in courts, legislatures, and ballot measures over three years.

In late 2022, the FSF in conjunction with the Software Freedom Conservancy released an updated report on its Principles of Community-Oriented GPL Enforcement. The principles establish that the FSF's primary goal in GPL enforcement is to bring about compliance, with legal action as a last resort. Compliance actions are primarily education and assistance processes to aid those not following the license. The FSF also updated its bylaws to require 66% board approval for any new GPL versions, strengthening stewardship of the license that underpins the free software ecosystem.

Israeli assistive technology company OrCam Technologies laid off 62 employees, representing 16% of its workforce, as part of cost-cutting measures. First round of layoffs in what would become a series leading to company's near-collapse.

In October 2022, Waymo launched the Waymo Accessibility Network, a formal collaboration with 13 disability advocacy organizations including the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), National Federation of the Blind, United Spinal Association, and American Council of the Blind. The network conducts user research and product testing to develop accessibility features including Braille labels, screen reader support, audio cues for vehicle maneuvers, and wayfinding tools for vision-impaired riders.

On September 30, 2022, North London coroner Andrew Walker ruled that Molly Russell's death in November 2017 was 'an act of self-harm suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content.' This was the first ruling to formally attribute a child's death to social media content. The inquest found that of 16,300 posts Molly saved, shared or liked on Instagram in the six months before her death, 2,100 were related to depression, self-harm or suicide. The coroner found the platforms were 'not safe' and issued a prevention of future deaths report to Meta and Pinterest.

In the September 2022 inquest into Molly Russell's death, Pinterest was found alongside Instagram to have served harmful content to the 14-year-old. Molly had created a Pinterest board with 469 images related to self-harm and depression. Pinterest sent her emails including '10 depression pins you might like.' Senior Pinterest executive Judson Hoffman admitted the site was 'not safe' when Molly used it and said he 'deeply regrets' the posts she viewed, conceding it was material he would 'not show to my children.' The coroner issued a prevention of future deaths report to Pinterest.