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In 2019, amid widespread criticism of Palantir's ICE contracts following family separations, Alex Karp publicly defended the work, saying that while separations are 'a really tough, complex, jarring moral issue,' he favors 'a fair but rigorous immigration policy.' He stated the ICE relationship 'is here to stay' and seemed sympathetic to Trump's border stance.

On July 24, 2019, the FTC imposed a $5 billion penalty on Facebook — the largest privacy fine ever imposed worldwide — for violating a 2012 FTC consent decree. Facebook had deceived users about their ability to control privacy settings, misused phone numbers obtained for security to target ads, and enabled third-party apps to harvest friends' data. The settlement also required creation of an independent privacy committee on Facebook's board and quarterly compliance certifications by Zuckerberg.

In July 2019, the FTC imposed a record $5 billion fine on Facebook for privacy violations stemming from the Cambridge Analytica scandal and broader data practices. The settlement included unprecedented personal accountability measures for Zuckerberg, who was required to certify Facebook's privacy compliance. Meta shareholders subsequently sued Zuckerberg and other directors seeking to hold them personally liable for the fines, which settled for $190 million in November 2025. The fine reflected the FTC's finding that Facebook repeatedly violated its 2012 consent order regarding user data practices.

In June 2019, Wojcicki defended YouTube's decision not to remove Steven Crowder's videos containing homophobic harassment and racist slurs against journalist Carlos Maza. She apologized to the LGBTQ community but said the company needed to be 'consistent' with its policies. Channel was later demonetized but not removed.

Mozilla has maintained Firefox as the only major non-Chromium browser engine (Gecko), providing a critical alternative to Google's browser dominance. Firefox includes Enhanced Tracking Protection by default, blocks third-party cookies, and has consistently advocated for web standards over proprietary implementations. Mozilla also supports the development of web standards through the W3C.

Hoan Ton-That personally pitched US Border Patrol on using Clearview AI to screen arriving migrants for 'sentiment about the USA,' proposing to scan social media for posts saying 'I hate Trump' or 'Trump is a puta' and targeting anyone with an 'affinity for far-left groups.' The proposal conflated support for Trump with American identity and would have used facial recognition to profile migrants based on political views.

In 2019, the Linux Foundation, Open Invention Network (OIN), and Microsoft created the Open Source Zone with Unified Patents to challenge patents owned by Patent Assertion Entities (patent trolls) that targeted open source projects. Over five years, the initiative achieved a success rate of invalidating more than 54 PAE patents. The collaboration deepened in 2024 with additional companies contributing. This proactive defense protects open source projects from costly litigation that could undermine open source development.

Sam Altman held a personal investment in Rain AI, an AI chip startup, while OpenAI in 2019 signed a non-binding letter of intent to spend $51 million on Rain's chips. This represented a potential conflict of interest where Altman would personally benefit from a deal made by the company he led. The conflict was among the governance concerns raised during the November 2023 board crisis.

Rebellion Defense was founded in 2019 by Chris Lynch, Nicole Camarillo, and Oliver Lewis. Co-founder Nicole Camarillo co-founded Rebellion while still working at the Pentagon, with a pitch deck touting her 'present leadership role in U.S. Army Cyber Command.' Board member Eric Schmidt chaired the National Security Commission on AI (2016-2021) while personally investing over $2 billion in AI startups. Two Rebellion officials served on Biden's transition team, and the company hired White House tech director David Recordon as CTO. Ethics fellow Walter Shaub called Schmidt's dual role 'absolutely a conflict of interest.'

In May 2019, Canva suffered a major data breach affecting approximately 139 million users worldwide. Unauthorized access exposed usernames, email addresses, and bcrypt-hashed passwords. Cybersecurity experts criticized the company for burying the breach notification beneath marketing announcements about recent acquisitions.

In 2019, Citron Research alleged massive discrepancies between Jumia's confidential investor presentation (stating 41% of orders were returned, not delivered, or cancelled) and what the company reported to the SEC. Citron stated: 'In 18 years of publishing, Citron has never seen such an obvious fraud as Jumia.' The allegations raised questions about the company's reported metrics and business fundamentals.

In May 2019, DoorDash suffered a data breach via a third-party service provider that exposed personal information of approximately 4.9 million consumers, Dashers, and merchants who joined the platform before April 5, 2018. Exposed data included names, email addresses, delivery addresses, order history, phone numbers, hashed passwords, and the last four digits of payment cards. Driver's license numbers of approximately 100,000 Dashers were also compromised. DoorDash did not discover or disclose the breach until September 2019, more than four months after it occurred.

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.'

Multiple academic studies concluded that Airbnb systematically accelerates gentrification and displacement by raising potential rental income without redevelopment, concentrating in tourist-appealing neighborhoods. In New York, 72% of neighborhoods at highest risk of Airbnb-induced gentrification are non-white, making it 'an extractive, unequitable racial gentrification tool.' Critics across dozens of global cities allege Airbnb 'hyper-accelerates affordable housing crises.' In June 2025, Chesky defended against Barcelona criticism, saying 'housing prices rose 60% but Airbnb listings decreased' and 'Airbnb has become a convenient scapegoat.' Company launched $100M affordable housing fund and $200K to housing reform groups, though critics argue this is insufficient given platform's documented displacement impact.

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.