Activity

In September 2021, it was revealed that Proton Mail had complied with a Swiss legal order to log the IP address of a French climate activist associated with Youth for Climate. The Swiss authorities acted on a request from French police via Europol. This contradicted Proton's marketing which previously stated 'we do not log your IP address.' Proton updated their privacy policy afterward.

Melanie Perkins and husband Cliff Obrecht joined Warren Buffett's Giving Pledge in 2021, committing 80% of their 30% Canva stake to the Canva Foundation. They described themselves as 'custodians' of wealth meant to 'do the most good.' Named Australia's second most generous philanthropists.

In September 2021, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced to 160,000 employees that the company's health insurance would cover travel costs for out-of-state medical care including abortion, in response to Texas's restrictive abortion law SB-8. Apple stated: 'We support our employees' rights to make their own decisions regarding their reproductive health.'

On September 1, 2021 thousands of streamers participated in '#ADayOffTwitch' boycotting the platform for 24 hours to protest Twitch's slow response to coordinated 'hate raids' - mass automated harassment campaigns using bot accounts to spam racist, homophobic and misogynist messages in marginalized creators' chats. Twitch had taken limited action despite months of documented complaints. In response Twitch sued two prolific hate-raid operators in September 2021 and introduced channel-level controls, but creators continued to document insufficient platform-level prevention through 2022-2023.

A female staffer posted an 11-page account alleging her supervisor and a client sexually assaulted her on a business trip, with managers failing to act. Alibaba fired manager Wang Chengwen and accepted resignations from unit president and HR head. Critics noted Alibaba only acted after allegations went public on the company intranet. In December 2021, Alibaba fired the woman who made the allegations for 'spreading false information' and dismissed 10 staffers for sharing screenshots publicly.

Between 2015 and 2021, Frances Haugen made over 40 donations to Democratic candidates and organizations including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, her 'Courage to Change' PAC, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the progressive group 'It Starts Today'. Her most recent donation was in August 2021, shortly before her whistleblowing became public. This raised questions about potential political bias in her testimony before Congress on tech regulation.

Comcast's Internet Essentials program, launched in 2011 as an FCC merger condition for the NBCUniversal acquisition, reported in 2021 it had connected 10 million low-income Americans to broadband at $9.95/month. In 2022 Comcast expanded eligibility to all customers receiving any federal assistance program. While critics note the program is required by FCC conditions and Comcast benefits from associated tax structures, it remains one of the largest US low-income broadband programs.

During the 2021 California gubernatorial recall election, Mayer donated $200,000 to oppose the effort to recall Governor Gavin Newsom. Politico described this as 'deepening the governor's substantial Silicon Valley support.'

T-Mobile has experienced repeated data breaches (2009, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024). The 2021 breach exposed 40+ million customers' SSNs, leading to a $350M settlement. In 2024, the FCC imposed a $31.5M fine. In November 2024, T-Mobile was targeted by Chinese hacker group 'Salt Typhoon' infiltrating US telecom networks.

In August 2021, Alex Karp personally donated $180,000 to David Lidstone, an 81-year-old New Hampshire hermit known as 'River Dave,' whose cabin burned down while he was in jail for squatting. This was described as Karp keeping 'philanthropy low-key' and represented an unusual personal charitable action.

Gamers Nexus testing revealed that Gigabyte's GP-P850GM and GP-P750GM power supplies had a dangerous failure mode where overvoltage protection did not function properly, causing units to fail catastrophically and posing fire risks. Newegg initially bundled the faulty PSUs with popular GPUs during the shortage. Gigabyte eventually issued a recall/replacement program.

In 2021, DoorDash deliberately blocked the third-party app Para, which provided Dashers with tip information before accepting deliveries. DoorDash had intentionally designed its app to hide tip information from workers, and when Para attempted to provide this transparency, DoorDash cut off its access. The Electronic Frontier Foundation highlighted this as a worker rights issue, noting that the suppression of tip information left workers unable to make informed decisions about which deliveries to accept, contributing to wage uncertainty.

Multiple class action lawsuits were filed against Stripe alleging its JavaScript library (Stripe.js) collects user data beyond fraud prevention, including browsing behavior across websites. A 2021 California federal court ruled privacy claims could proceed, finding plaintiffs had not consented to data dissemination to third parties. A 2024 lawsuit against Crumbl Cookies alleged Stripe's tracking codes persist on browsers after purchases, enabling cross-device identification. Stripe maintains data collection is for fraud prevention.

Slack pledged 1% of company equity, time, and product to community benefit. When Salesforce completed its $27.7B acquisition in 2021, Slack donated $54 million — the balance of the value of its Pledge 1% share reserve — to the Salesforce Foundation. Slack also gave employees seven days of paid volunteer time off and provided free or discounted software to nonprofits.

On July 20, 2021, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit alleging that Activision Blizzard fostered a 'frat boy' culture in which female employees endured regular sexual harassment, discrimination, and retaliation. The lawsuit documented 700 reported incidents of misconduct during CEO Bobby Kotick's tenure. Women were universally paid less, offered less stock and incentive pay, denied promotions due to fears they might become pregnant, reprimanded for childcare needs, and kicked out of lactation rooms by male colleagues. The lawsuit resulted in three major settlements: $18M EEOC settlement (March 2022), $35M SEC settlement for lack of workplace controls (February 2023), and $54M California settlement (December 2023), totaling $107M in penalties.

In July 2021, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard following a two-year investigation. The complaint alleged CEO Bobby Kotick oversaw a company that fostered a sexist frat boy culture where women were subjected to groping, unwanted advances, unequal pay, and retaliation for complaints. Women were reportedly paid less, given fewer stock options, and passed over for promotions.

In July 2021, a consortium of 17 media organizations led by Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International published the Pegasus Project, revealing a leaked list of 50,000+ phone numbers believed to have been identified as persons of interest by NSO Group clients since 2016. Targets included at least 189 journalists, 85 human rights activists, 65 business executives, and 600+ politicians and government officials across more than 50 countries. NSO clients were identified in 11 countries including Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Togo, and the UAE.

In 2021, Framework Computer launched the Framework Laptop, a fully modular and repairable laptop that earned a perfect 10/10 repairability score from iFixit. The laptop features user-replaceable components including ports, keyboard, battery, display, and mainboard, challenging the industry trend toward non-repairable devices.

Holz founded Midjourney in 2021 as independent research lab with mission to 'expand the imaginative powers of the human species.' Built one of the most successful AI companies while rejecting venture capital—VCs 'practically begging' for investment but Holz refused. Achieved profitability within one year. Revenue reached $500M in 2025 (up from $300M in 2024). Midjourney Discord server grew to 19.94 million users, becoming largest server on entire platform. Democratized AI art generation, making it accessible to millions of creators. Holz's philosophy: 'The goal is to make humans more imaginative, not make imaginative machines.'

In June 2021, PayPal announced a more than $100 million commitment to advance financial inclusion and economic empowerment for women and girls globally. This included depositing $100 million of corporate capital into investment funds and depository institutions led by women or focused on serving women, plus $7 million in partnerships to increase access to microloans for women entrepreneurs.

A 2021 study by Fight for the Future and GreatFire found Saudi Arabia has the most LGBTQ+-related applications unavailable in Apple's App Store globally, with 28 apps missing. The study documented 1,377 cases of LGBTQ+ app access restrictions across 152 App Stores worldwide. Apple complies with local content laws despite stated commitments to an 'open society.'

As FTC Chair (2021-2025), Lina Khan pursued landmark antitrust cases against Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft. She filed a monopoly lawsuit against Amazon alleging anticompetitive practices harming sellers and consumers, sued to block Microsoft's $69B Activision acquisition (ultimately lost), and pursued Meta's acquisition of Within (VR fitness). She also enacted a ban on noncompete clauses and strengthened merger guidelines.

ProPublica's 2021 'Secret IRS Files' investigation revealed that Jeff Bezos paid zero in federal income taxes in 2007 and 2011 despite his fortune growing by billions. In 2011, with wealth of $18 billion, Bezos reported a net loss and claimed a $4,000 child tax credit. His long-term strategy of taking minimal salary ($80,000/year) while borrowing against stock avoided income tax on appreciation. In 2024, when he sold $13.6 billion in Amazon stock, his effective annual tax rate was approximately 2.5%. Between 2006 and 2018, Bezos paid $1.4 billion in federal taxes while his wealth increased by $127 billion.

Since 2021, Adobe and the Adobe Foundation launched the Equity and Advancement Initiative (EAI) to address educational inequities and promote diversity in tech and creative industries. The Foundation partnered with 11 nonprofit organizations addressing social and racial justice issues, donating $30 million plus Adobe product donations. In 2024, the Foundation announced an additional $5 million in continued fourth-year funding. Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen joined CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion, and the company became a founding member of Parity.org.

In 2021, QuaDream began working with Saudi Arabia following the killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Riyadh reportedly lost its NSO Pegasus license after it was allegedly used in the lead-up to Khashoggi's 2018 murder. QuaDream filled the gap with its REIGN spyware capable of zero-click iPhone exploits.

The Linux Foundation established multiple diversity and inclusion initiatives including the Software Developer Diversity and Inclusion (SDDI) project to research and promote best practices for increasing diversity in software engineering, the LiFT Scholarship Program providing free training and certification to underrepresented individuals, and the Inclusive Naming Initiative launched at KubeCon to standardize inclusive language across the industry. Over 100,000 women took LF's free MOOCs. In March 2024, OpenSSF and LF Training announced scholarships for 250 women in Jordan for cybersecurity training in collaboration with the US White House.

Multiple former employees including hardware developer Jeri Ellsworth revealed a hidden management layer behind Valve's publicly touted flat hierarchy. Stack ranking peer reviews reinforce biases and discourage risk-taking. Employees compared the workplace to 'Lord of the Flies' in a People Make Games investigation. Firings are peer-driven with no formal process or transparency.

In 2021, Tim Cook joined Dan Reynolds and Ryan Smith in donating $4 million to build eight new Encircle homes across the United States, each serving approximately 10,000 LGBTQ+ youth annually. Encircle provides therapy, community support, and safe spaces for LGBTQ+ young people and their families.

In May 2021 a 40-year-old Naver developer died by suicide, leaving notes alleging severe and sustained workplace bullying by his manager. Subsequent Ministry of Employment and Labor inspection found Naver had violated labor law by failing to take action on harassment complaints filed for months prior. CEO Han Seong-sook stepped down in March 2022 in connection with the incident. Naver later instituted independent anti-harassment reporting channels and an external ethics board.

Spotify has made ongoing accessibility investments including auto-generated podcast transcripts (launched 2021, expanded since), improved screen reader and VoiceOver support, text resizing options, and enhanced button readability on mobile. The company maintains an internal Accessibility Guild with the mission to create inclusive experiences for all users, and published a public Accessibility Center.