Activity

Immediately after the June 24, 2022 Dobbs ruling, Facebook and Instagram began mass-deleting posts that provided information about accessing abortion pills. Facebook removed posts by individuals offering to mail abortion pills and posts merely noting pills can be mailed. Instagram withheld search results for 'abortion pills' and 'mifepristone' with messages that posts may violate community guidelines. Meta also secretly designated Jane's Revenge, an abortion rights group, as a 'terrorist organization' with Tier 1 speech restrictions.

Following the June 24, 2022 Supreme Court Dobbs v. Jackson decision overturning Roe v. Wade, Match Group and its founder Sam Yagan announced employee travel reimbursement for abortion access in states where the procedure had become restricted, and Yagan publicly pledged personal matching for employee donations to reproductive-rights legal funds. Match Group was among the early-day Dobbs-response tech employers; CEO Bernard Kim subsequently maintained the policy through 2024-25 political pressure.

Leaked audio from 80+ internal TikTok meetings published by BuzzFeed in June 2022 revealed China-based ByteDance employees repeatedly accessed nonpublic data about US TikTok users. The recordings contained 14 statements from nine employees indicating engineers in China had access to US data between September 2021 and January 2022. One employee stated 'Everything is seen in China.' A 2024 DOJ filing confirmed TikTok employees used Lark to send sensitive US user data that wound up stored on Chinese servers.

In June 2022, SpaceX fired at least 8 employees who organized an open letter signed by over 400 staff criticizing CEO Elon Musk's public behavior as a 'distraction and embarrassment' and calling out a culture of 'sexism, harassment and discrimination.' In January 2024, the NLRB formally charged SpaceX with illegal retaliation, alleging the company also interrogated dozens of employees, created an impression of surveillance, and entered into unlawful severance agreements. SpaceX challenged the constitutionality of the NLRB itself in response.

In June 2022, eight SpaceX employees were fired after distributing an open letter to executives criticizing Elon Musk's behavior and workplace culture. Complaint alleges Musk personally ordered the terminations. In January 2024, the NLRB filed a complaint alleging illegal firings. In June 2024, the eight former employees filed a lawsuit alleging harassment, retaliation, gender discrimination, whistleblower retaliation, and wrongful termination.

In June 2022, SpaceX fired employees who circulated an internal open letter calling Musk's online behavior 'a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment.' The NLRB filed a complaint in January 2024 alleging 37 labor law violations including intimidation, interrogation, surveillance of employees, and retaliation. SpaceX sued the NLRB claiming its structure was unconstitutional; the case was withdrawn in December 2024.

Through Grok Ventures, acquired 11.3% stake in Australia's largest polluter AGL Energy. Successfully blocked planned demerger that would have separated fossil fuel assets, forced early closure dates for two remaining coal plants by 2035, and prompted resignation of chair and CEO.

In June 2022, Microsoft entered a labor neutrality agreement with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), committing not to oppose unionization efforts at Activision Blizzard. This led to CWA successfully organizing workers at Raven Software, Blizzard Albany, and other studios. Microsoft became the first major US tech company to voluntarily recognize a union at a gaming subsidiary, in contrast to industry norms of opposing unionization.

Google settled class action lawsuit representing over 15,500 female employees who alleged gender-based pay discrimination. Settlement included changes to compensation practices.

On June 2, 2022 Axon CEO Rick Smith publicly proposed equipping police drones with Tasers as a non-lethal active-shooter response, citing the Uvalde school shooting. The proposal prompted nine of the twelve members of Axon's own AI Ethics Board to publicly resign on June 6, 2022, including Stanford internet scholar Barry Friedman and the ACLU's Jay Stanley. Axon paused the program within days but the episode highlighted gaps between corporate governance and product-development speed at law-enforcement-tech companies.

Tan donated $100,000 to support the successful recall of progressive San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin. The recall passed in June 2022.

Palo Alto Networks was awarded DOD Enterprise Software Initiative (ESI) contracts in June 2022, making it easier for the Department of Defense and U.S. Intelligence Community to purchase its cybersecurity solutions. In December 2025, GSA announced a OneGov agreement for AI Security, Cloud Security, and Zero Trust solutions for federal agencies. CEO Arora stated this is about 'equipping federal agencies with the security platforms needed to fortify our digital borders.'

Since at least 2022, the UK Home Office has employed Anduril's Maritime Sentry Towers to detect and help intercept refugees crossing the English Channel in small boats. The towers scan for vessels at a range of over 20km from shore. Privacy International highlighted this as a case of dual-use military surveillance technology being applied to immigration enforcement, raising concerns about the use of military-grade AI surveillance against vulnerable populations seeking asylum.

Announced departure from Meta COO role in mid-2022, following multiple controversies that dogged the company including the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Myanmar ethnic cleansing, and pandemic misinformation. Fully left Meta employment in September 2022, though remained on board until May 2024.

Ng incorporated ethics and responsible AI content into his Machine Learning curriculum on Coursera and DeepLearning.AI, covering fairness, transparency, bias, and societal impact. By embedding these topics into courses taken by millions, he helped establish responsible AI practices as a standard part of technical AI education rather than an afterthought.

At a 2022 conference, Khan stated that if agencies 'think that current law might make it difficult to reach, there's a huge benefit to still trying,' adding that courtroom losses would signal to Congress that lawmakers need to update antitrust law. Internal emails showed career FTC staff concern that 'Chair Khan did not want the FTC to be successful and purposefully put staff in a position to complete poor work product.' One manager wrote that Khan wants to appear 'aggressive' but is acting 'with little regard for the consequences of losing in a way that negatively affects the enforcement agenda.'

Social Capital Hedosophia-backed SPACs (Virgin Galactic, Clover Health, Opendoor, SoFi) experienced severe stock declines: Virgin Galactic fell from $46 to $5, Clover Health from $28 to $4, Opendoor from $30 to $5, and SoFi from $25 to $3. The average return for Palihapitiya-led SPACs was -26.24%. Despite these losses for retail investors, Palihapitiya personally profited approximately $750 million through founders shares and stock sales, including an alleged $315M from Virgin Galactic stock sales. This led to investor lawsuits and congressional scrutiny over SPAC sponsor misaligned incentives.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp was the first CEO of a major Western tech company to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in June 2022 after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Palantir provided its software platforms to assist Ukraine's military defense operations, including battlefield intelligence and targeting capabilities. The company positioned itself as a key Western technology partner in supporting Ukraine's sovereignty.

In May 2022, security researcher Zach Edwards discovered that DuckDuckGo's mobile browser was allowing Microsoft tracking scripts on third-party sites due to a search syndication agreement. CEO Gabriel Weinberg confirmed this was contractual. After significant public backlash, DuckDuckGo announced in August 2022 that it would block Microsoft trackers as well, expanding its tracker blocking to cover all companies.

In 2022, TIME magazine recognized Timnit Gebru as one of the 100 most influential people in the world for her work exposing racial discrimination and environmental harm in large-scale AI systems and her advocacy for ethical AI practices. She was also named one of Fortune's 50 Greatest Leaders in 2021 and one of Nature's ten people who shaped science in 2021.

In May 2022, Netflix eliminated 150 positions following its first subscriber loss in a decade, including cutting several animated projects such as 'Antiracist Baby' and 'Wings of Fire.' In June 2022, a second round cut approximately 300 more positions, with 216 in the US and 84 internationally. The layoffs cost $70 million in severance. Co-chiefs Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos acknowledged they regretted not seeing slowing revenue growth earlier. The cuts disproportionately affected the animation division and creative roles.

In 2022, the Linux Foundation convened Open Source Software Security Summit II with industry and government leaders, outlining approximately $150M in funding over two years to address critical open source security challenges. The OpenSSF Alpha-Omega project received initial $5M from Microsoft and Google, and by 2024 had issued nearly $6M in grants to improve security in key open source projects including Python, Node.js, and Ruby ecosystems. The initiative represents a major coordinated effort to address systemic security vulnerabilities in open source infrastructure.

In May 2022, Clearview AI under Ton-That's leadership settled the ACLU's lawsuit filed under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The settlement permanently banned Clearview from making its faceprint database available to most businesses and private entities nationwide, and barred sales to any Illinois entity including police for five years. A subsequent March 2025 class-action settlement granted class members a 23% equity stake in Clearview AI, valued at roughly $51.75 million, representing one of the largest biometric privacy settlements in history.

In May 2022, the ACLU won a landmark settlement under Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) that permanently banned Clearview AI from making its facial database available to most businesses and private entities nationwide. Clearview was also barred from selling to any Illinois entity, including police, for five years. The suit was the first to focus on harm to survivors of domestic violence, undocumented immigrants, and communities of color. A separate 2025 class-action settlement granted class members a 23% equity stake in Clearview AI, valued at ~$52 million.

Throughout 2020-2024 multiple US jurisdictions including San Francisco, Boston, Portland (OR), Minneapolis, the entire states of Vermont and Maine, and several New York counties enacted municipal bans on police agency use of facial-recognition systems including Clearview AI, citing documented racial-bias disparities and the absence of constitutional due-process safeguards in algorithmic identification. The ACLU's class-action settlement with Clearview in May 2022 also prohibited the company from selling its database to most private entities in the US.

Intuit agreed to pay $141 million to settle claims that it had misleadingly promised free tax-prep services to over 4 million Americans. The FTC subsequently ordered TurboTax to cease marketing their offering as 'free' unless everyone could use them at no charge. Intuit is appealing that decision.

Adani Green Energy committed $70 billion over a decade to build 45 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030, including the world's largest single-location renewable energy park at Khavda, Gujarat (planned 30 GW). The buildout was on schedule as of 2024 with approximately 11 GW operational, contributing materially to India's national renewable targets. The buildout's positive climate impact is undisputed but is shadowed by the DOJ bribery indictment alleging the underlying contracts were obtained corruptly.

On May 4, 2022, John Doerr and his wife Ann Doerr donated $1.1 billion to Stanford University to establish the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, the university's first new school in 70 years. It is the largest gift in Stanford's history and one of the largest single gifts ever made to a U.S. university. The school combines existing environment and energy institutes with new faculty and a 'Sustainability Accelerator' aimed at climate, energy, and natural-resource solutions. Doerr has invested in zero-emissions technology since 2006 and authored a book on climate action.

Block CEO Jack Dorsey co-authored a letter sent to the US Environmental Protection Agency defending Bitcoin mining and disputing claims about its environmental impact. This followed a 2021 Square/Ark Invest white paper titled 'Bitcoin Is Key to an Abundant, Clean Energy Future.' The letter responded to concerns raised by 23 members of Congress about Bitcoin mining polluting communities and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. Environmental critics argued the claims were misleading, noting Bitcoin mining continues to rely heavily on fossil fuels.

AT&T led industry trade group challenges to California's SB-822 net-neutrality law throughout 2018-2022, arguing federal preemption after the FCC's 2017 Title II repeal. The Ninth Circuit upheld the California law in January 2022; AT&T's industry coalition petition for Supreme Court review was denied in May 2022. AT&T's parallel federal lobbying spend exceeded $10M annually during this period opposing restoration of net-neutrality rules.