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Beyond Meat's core business model centers on producing plant-based meat alternatives that require dramatically less natural resources than conventional beef. University of Michigan research found a Beyond Burger uses 99% less water, 93% less land, and generates 90% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than a beef patty. The company has published life-cycle assessments and ESG reports to document these environmental benefits.

Beyond Meat, founded by Ethan Brown in 2009, produces plant-based alternatives to beef, pork, and poultry products. The company went public in 2019 and its products are sold in major retailers and fast food chains globally. Brown was named UNEP Champion of the Earth in 2018 for 'work towards reducing our dependence on animal-based foods.'

In May 2019, Taavet Hinrikus publicly criticized the Estonian government for including the far-right EKRE party, whose 'racist, xenophobic and homophobic rhetoric' was making it difficult for tech companies to recruit foreign workers. He said the damage was 'terrible' and 'catastrophic', citing a Guardian article calling Estonia's progress a 'U-turn'. He stated: 'If there are no people in Estonia, we do not hire them in Estonia. The countries that are more tolerant and attract talent, will win.'

In April 2019, Jack Ma stated 'I personally think that being able to work 996 is a huge blessing' in remarks posted on Alibaba's WeChat. The 996 culture (9am-9pm, six days a week) is illegal under Chinese labor law limiting work to 40 hours weekly. Ma's comments came after People's Daily argued 996 violates labor law. The Supreme People's Court deemed 996 illegal on August 27, 2021. Ma later tempered comments, saying companies forcing such practices are 'foolish.'

In March 2019, Google launched an external Advanced Technology External Advisory Council (ATEAC) to guide responsible AI development, partly fulfilling promises made when acquiring DeepMind. The board was dissolved within one week after employee backlash over the inclusion of Heritage Foundation president Kay Cole James, who had a record of opposing LGBTQ+ rights, and drone company executive Dyan Gibbens. The original DeepMind acquisition ethics board's membership was never publicly disclosed.

In April 2019, Persson tweeted 'Q is legit. Don't trust the media' promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory. He also responded to a meme saying 'trans women are women' with 'No, they feel like they are' and added 'you are absolutely evil if you want to encourage delusion.' After backlash, he partially walked back the trans comments but not the QAnon promotion.

Qihoo 360 CEO Zhou Hongyi dismissed the anti-996 protest and the idea of true work-life balance as 'pie in the sky.' He suggested the solution to complaints about long hours is simply to make employees shareholders: 'Make them feel like they are working for themselves. Then they won't mind the 996 schedule.' This framed exploitation as acceptable if workers had equity.

In April 2019, Richard Liu came out in favor of 996 culture after GitHub protests attracted mainstream attention. He condemned the anti-996 movement, calling participants 'slackers' and saying those unwilling to voluntarily work overtime were not his 'brothers.' This positioned him as one of the most vocal defenders of exploitative work practices among Chinese tech CEOs.

During April-May 2019 anti-996 protests, Li Guoqing was one of the few prominent Chinese tech CEOs who publicly criticized 996 work culture. He positioned himself in stark contrast to peers at Alibaba (Jack Ma), JD.com (Richard Liu), and Sogou who defended the practice. Li argued 996 negatively affects work-life balance without enhancing effectiveness.

In April 2019, NSO Group froze its deals with Saudi Arabia over allegations that NSO software played a role in tracking murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the months before his death. This represented a rare instance of NSO taking action against a client government for potential misuse of its spyware technology. However, reports suggest the suspension was temporary and that Saudi Arabia remained a client.

In March 2019, Fei-Fei Li co-founded Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) with philosopher John Etchemendy. HAI focuses on advancing AI research, education, policy and practice to improve the human condition. The institute has trained 80+ congressional staffers through bipartisan boot camps, 8,000+ government employees through educational programs, informed the EU AI Act, published the influential annual AI Index Report, and advocated for the National AI Research Resource (NAIRR). Li served on the White House NAIRR Task Force and has provided U.S. Senate and Congressional testimonies on AI governance.

From 2017-2025, Meta/Facebook's advertising algorithms discriminated against older workers and women in job ad delivery. ProPublica/NYT 2017 investigation found dozens of employers ran recruitment ads limited to specific age groups. EEOC ruled in September 2019 that four companies violated federal law by excluding women and older workers from job ads. Meta settled in March 2019 for $5 million with ACLU/CWA, agreeing to eliminate age/gender targeting in employment ads. However, December 2022 EEOC charge by Real Women in Trucking (joined by AARP Foundation in 2023) alleged Meta's ad-delivery algorithm continued discriminating, with ads delivered to 99% male or 99% under-55 audiences despite advertisers targeting all ages/genders. Case remains pending with EEOC as of 2025.

Investigation revealed emergency workers were summoned to Amazon warehouses at least 189 times between 2013-2018 for suicide attempts, suicidal thoughts, and mental health episodes. Reports came from 46 warehouses in 17 states. Workers cited pressure cooker environment.

ProPublica reported in 2019 that Cloudflare's abuse reporting system forwarded the names and email addresses of people who complained about hate site content directly to the hate sites in question. This enabled campaigns of harassment against those filing complaints. After ProPublica's investigation, Cloudflare said it would change its abuse reporting system to allow safer complaint submission.

In March 2019, Microsoft removed all 'Made by Notch' and 'The Work of Notch' splash screen references from Minecraft, retaining only an end credits mention. In April 2019, Persson was excluded from Minecraft's 10th anniversary celebration. A Microsoft spokesperson stated his 'comments and opinions do not reflect those of Microsoft or Mojang and are not representative of Minecraft.'

Between founding and 2026, 28,400 employees left Revolut - more than double current workforce of 12,900. 50% of hires leave or are fired within 6 months, with average tenure around 6 months. CEO Nik Storonsky promotes 'evaluate people accurately, not kindly' philosophy. Office featured 'Get Sh*t Done' sign. 2019 Wired exposé found evidence of unpaid work, high staff turnover, employees working weekends to meet performance indicators. Employee reviews describe 'toxic culture,' unrealistic KPIs set by untrained managers, constant fear of not meeting targets.

Musical.ly (TikTok's predecessor) settled FTC allegations of illegally collecting personal information from children under 13 without parental consent. At the time, it was the largest civil penalty ever obtained in a children's privacy case.

In February 2019, Coinbase acquired Neutrino for $13.5 million, a blockchain intelligence startup. Neutrino's CEO Giancarlo Russo, CTO Alberto Ornaghi, and CRO Marco Valleri were previously executives at Hacking Team, an Italian company that sold surveillance spyware to authoritarian regimes including Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Ethiopia. After significant user backlash including a #DeleteCoinbase campaign, CEO Brian Armstrong expressed regret and the controversial Hacking Team-linked employees were removed from their roles.

For fiscal year 2018, Amazon reported $11.2 billion in US pre-tax income but paid an effective federal income tax rate of -1%, receiving a $129 million federal tax refund. The previous year (2017), Amazon paid $0 on $5.6 billion profit. The company's tax strategies included use of R&D tax credits, stock-based compensation deductions, and other provisions. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reported that Amazon had paid an effective federal tax rate of just 3.4% over the prior decade on cumulative profits of $26.5 billion.

Google donated $3.1 million to the Wikimedia Foundation as part of a partnership to increase knowledge equity online. This was part of Google's larger cumulative donations exceeding $7.5 million to Wikimedia over the years.

In 2019, Sandberg donated $1.3 million to Planned Parenthood to support its healthcare clinics across the country, demonstrating long-standing commitment to reproductive healthcare access.

In January 2019, IBM released the 'Diversity in Faces' dataset containing approximately 1 million images scraped from Flickr without the knowledge or consent of the photographers or their subjects. While intended to address racial bias in facial recognition by creating more diverse training data, the dataset was built without any notification to the people whose faces were included. NBC News revealed the lack of consent in March 2019.

Sun Fang runs a strict 'no overtime' policy at XMind software company. He publicly stated: 'If what you need from staff is creativity, not brute force, you need to let your staff go home, watch a movie, go on dates, browse a book store, travel, rest, raise kids.' This directly contradicted industry norms during 996 culture prevalence.

In 2019, activist investor Elliott Management built a 3% stake in SoftBank and demanded governance reforms, citing that the company was trading 50% below fair value due to poor governance - a tame board, overcomplicated corporate structure, and lack of transparency. Masayoshi Son rejected the reforms and compared himself to historical conquerors: 'Napoleon or Genghis Khan or Emperor Qin [builder of the Great Wall of China]. I am not a CEO.' This response highlighted Son's autocratic leadership style and resistance to corporate accountability.

In January 2019, Netflix removed an episode of 'Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj' in Saudi Arabia after the Saudi government stated the episode violated its cybercrime laws. The episode criticized Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and questioned US ties with Saudi Arabia following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Netflix stated it complied because it was legally required to do so under Saudi law, but was widely criticized for yielding to censorship from a government with severe human rights violations.

Tech Transparency Project investigation in October 2021 found Instagram's recommendation algorithm pushed pro-anorexia and bulimia content to users interested in weight loss, recommending accounts with goal weights as low as 77 pounds. Fair Play for Kids reported one-third of Instagram's pro-eating disorder audience is underage (as young as 9-10 years old) with over 500,000 followers. Meta's 2023-2024 internal research confirmed teens who felt bad about their bodies saw significantly more eating disorder content. Company aware since 2019 internal presentation.

EFF has faced recurring criticism from journalists and activists for accepting substantial donations from major tech companies including Google, Facebook, and others, raising questions about potential conflicts of interest when EFF advocates on issues affecting those donors. Critics noted EFF sometimes took positions aligned with Big Tech interests on issues like FOSTA-SESTA.

Fairphone implemented a living wage bonus program at its assembly partner's factory in China, paying a supplement directly to workers to bridge the gap between local minimum wages and a calculated living wage. This made Fairphone one of the first electronics companies to actively address the living wage gap in its supply chain.

In December 2018, YouTuber Tom Scott publicly revealed that Brave's Rewards system allowed users to tip BAT tokens to his channel despite him never signing up for or consenting to the program. Brave had not paid him the tipped money and did not clearly indicate to users that creators were not enrolled, raising concerns about misleading users and unauthorized use of creators' identities for fundraising.

In December 2018, Jack Dorsey posted tweets encouraging followers to visit Myanmar after a birthday meditation retreat, praising the country's people and food. This occurred while the UN had accused Myanmar's military of pursuing genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority. The posts sparked widespread backlash under the hashtag #JackIgnoresGenocide. Dorsey did not publicly address the controversy.