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In 2018, Pony Ma was appointed Vice President of the China Federation of Internet Societies, a government-directed organization under the Cyberspace Administration of China. The organization is committed to 'implement the spirit of Xi Jinping's Strategic Thought on Building a Cyber Superpower,' further integrating Tencent's leadership with CCP digital governance objectives.

In 2018, Huawei signed agreement with Xinjiang Public Security Bureau for creation of 'intelligent security industry' hub. The company partnered on a 'joint innovation lab' focused on policing technologies. Internal documents reveal Huawei tested facial recognition systems capable of flagging Uyghurs in crowds for the bureau responsible for mass surveillance in the region.

In 2018, Stripe donated $1 million to California YIMBY, a pro-housing development lobbying organization. CEO Patrick Collison said the donation was made 'because we think broad policy change will make the most meaningful, widespread and long-term difference in the state's housing crisis, by allowing developers to build more housing – specifically lower-cost, higher-density housing.'

Fairphone established partnerships with e-waste recycling organizations in Ghana and other African countries to collect and properly recycle electronic waste. For every Fairphone sold, the company ensures that an equivalent amount of e-waste is responsibly recycled, addressing the environmental justice issue of electronic waste dumping in developing countries.

Despite widespread use and privacy advocates calling E2E encryption essential, Slack has never offered end-to-end encryption. In 2018, Slack's CISO stated paying customers were more interested in enterprise key management than E2E encryption. Slack encrypts data in transit and at rest but data remains accessible to Slack's systems and personnel, with workspace owners able to monitor all chats including private ones.

Noctua offers industry-leading product longevity: all fans rated at 150,000+ hours MTTF (approximately 17 years continuous operation) with 6-year manufacturer warranty requiring no product registration. The company provides free mounting upgrade kits enabling coolers to work across multiple CPU platform generations, directly combating planned obsolescence. Uses proprietary Sterrox liquid crystal polymer for durability.

Between 2015 and 2018, investigations found Cloudflare provided cybersecurity services to websites affiliated with designated terrorist organizations. In 2015, Congressional testimony revealed two of the top three ISIS chat forums used Cloudflare. In 2018, HuffPost documented Cloudflare servicing at least 7 US-designated terrorist groups including Al-Shabaab, Taliban, Hamas, and PKK. Cloudflare stated its position was based on legal obligations rather than moral judgment.

In 2018, Naval Ravikant co-founded Spearhead with Jeff Fagnan, an angel investment program that provides successful startup founders with $2M funds to invest as angel investors. The program removes the wealth barrier to angel investing, enabling founders with domain expertise but limited personal liquidity to participate. Across five cohorts, 81 Spearhead leads have invested $112 million into 794 startups, generating $4 billion in follow-on funding. Non-accredited investors can participate.

Palantir provided predictive policing software to the Los Angeles Police Department that designated 'chronic offenders' and generated bulletins for targeted enforcement. Analysis showed the system disproportionately targeted minority neighborhoods, with those flagged being 53% Latino and 31% Black. Criminologists found the system amplified existing racial biases in policing data, essentially automating historical injustices rather than providing neutral analysis.

Reid Hoffman admitted to funding 'Project Birmingham,' a technology firm that created fake social media personas to convince conservatives to sit out the 2017 Alabama Senate special election against Roy Moore. The initiative created fake Facebook pages designed to discourage Republican voters. Hoffman later apologized, claiming ignorance of the tactics used.

In 2017, Cloudflare launched the Athenian Project, providing free enterprise-level security services to state and local government election websites. The project protects voter registration, polling place information, and election results websites from cyberattacks. By 2024, the project covered 359 election entities across 31 US states, and expanded internationally to protect election infrastructure worldwide.

After observing only six Black attendees among an estimated 8,500 people at the 2016 NeurIPS conference, Gebru co-founded Black in AI with Rediet Abebe in 2017. The organization advocates for increased Black representation in AI research and development, hosting workshops at major AI conferences and building community among underrepresented researchers.

In a November 2017 talk at Stanford and subsequent media appearances, former Facebook VP of user growth Chamath Palihapitiya warned that social media is 'eroding the core foundations of how people behave' and expressed 'tremendous guilt' about the tools he helped build. He stated that 'short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we've created are destroying how society works' and that Facebook 'optimized for short-term profitability at the sake of our democracy.' He also revealed he keeps his own children away from social media with 'no screen time whatsoever.' Facebook disputed the comments, noting he hadn't worked there in six years.

In 2017, YouTube faced a major scandal known as 'Elsagate' where disturbing content disguised as children's videos—featuring violent, sexual, and abusive themes with popular children's characters—accumulated tens of millions of views. YouTube's content moderation systems failed to detect these videos, which were tagged to circumvent safety algorithms. YouTube Kids was also affected, with the platform later admitting its electronic moderation system was defunct. YouTube eventually removed over 150,000 videos, terminated 50+ channels, and disabled 625,000+ comment sections.

At a White House Oval Office ceremony, CEO Hock Tan and President Trump jointly announced that Broadcom would move its headquarters from Singapore to the United States. Trump lauded Broadcom as 'one of the really great, great companies.' Tan said 'America is once again the best place to lead a business with a global footprint.'

In October 2017, following Hurricane Maria's devastation of Puerto Rico's power grid, Tesla donated and installed 700 solar panels and Powerpack battery systems at Hospital del Niño, a children's hospital in San Juan. The system generates 200 kWh and stores 600 kWh, enabling the hospital to operate day and night without diesel generators. Elon Musk personally donated $250,000 to relief efforts. This was the first of Tesla's post-hurricane solar+storage projects on the island.

In 2017, Facebook's React JavaScript library used a BSD+Patents license that included a patent retaliation clause, meaning users who sued Facebook for any patent infringement would lose their license to use React. The Apache Software Foundation banned the license, calling it incompatible with Apache projects. After widespread community backlash and organizations threatening to migrate away, Facebook relicensed React, Jest, Flow, and Immutable.js to the standard MIT license in September 2017.

In September 2017, Li was included in email chains discussing Google's Pentagon Project Maven contract for AI-enabled drone surveillance. Internal emails show Li praised the contract but wrote 'This is red meat to the media to find all ways to damage Google' and 'I don't know what would happen if the media starts picking up a theme that Google is secretly building AI weapons.' Critics noted these communications 'struck some as being at odds with Li's public image of being an advocate for the ethical use of AI.' Li defended herself saying 'It is deeply against my principles to work on any project that I think is to weaponize AI,' but the emails reveal prioritization of Google's image over ethical concerns. Li left Google in June 2018 after Maven controversy, returning to Stanford.

WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton departed Facebook in September 2017, forfeiting $850 million in unvested stock by leaving before his four-year vesting period. Disagreed with Mark Zuckerberg over monetization plans including ads and data sharing. Later revealed he was 'coached' to mislead EU regulators about data merging capabilities during acquisition approval. Stated 'I sold my users' privacy to a larger benefit. I live with that every day.' Tweeted #deletefacebook during Cambridge Analytica scandal in March 2018. Invested $50M in privacy-focused Signal app.

Lee Jae-yong was convicted of bribing associates of President Park Geun-hye approximately $38 million (43.3 billion won) to secure government support for a 2015 merger that consolidated his control of Samsung. Bribes included funding for equestrian training and horses worth $3.2 million. He served 18 months in prison before being released on parole.

Between 2012-2018, Facebook's recommendation algorithms systematically amplified hate speech and disinformation against Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority. UN investigators concluded this played a 'determining role' in inciting genocide. The Myanmar military used Facebook as a tool for ethnic cleansing propaganda over multiple years. Over 10,000 Rohingya were killed in 2017 and more than 740,000 forced to flee. Facebook knew its algorithms amplified harmful content from internal studies dating to 2012, but failed to adequately invest in content moderation. Zuckerberg was presented with options to remove algorithmic amplification in April 2020 but chose not to. Facebook apologized in April 2018 but civil rights groups dismissed it as 'grossly insufficient.' Rohingya refugees filed a $150 billion lawsuit in 2021; a survivor filed SEC whistleblower complaint in January 2025.

In August 2017, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince personally decided to terminate services for neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer following the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally. Prince acknowledged the decision was arbitrary, writing internally 'I woke up this morning in a bad mood and decided to kick them off the internet.' This was the first time Cloudflare had ever terminated a customer for content.

In August 2017, after the deadly Charlottesville violence, Twilio updated its terms of service to explicitly prohibit use of its products for hate speech or in any way that 'degrades, intimidates, incites violence against, or encourages prejudicial action against anyone based on protected categories.' CEO Jeff Lawson called it an 'easy decision.'

Cloudflare has been a consistent advocate for net neutrality. Co-founder Michelle Zatlyn served on the FCC's Open Internet Advisory Committee, contributing to the 2015 net neutrality vote. In 2017, Cloudflare partnered with Fight for the Future for Net Neutrality Day, reaching 178 million page views urging users to contact Congress. Cloudflare filed FCC comments in 2024 supporting net neutrality principles.

On July 7, 2017, as W3C Director, Berners-Lee approved the Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) standard enabling DRM in web browsers despite unprecedented opposition from the EFF, Free Software Foundation, security researchers, and a UN official. Netflix, Google, Microsoft, Apple, and the MPAA supported the standard. The EFF resigned from W3C in September 2017 - the first member resignation in protest - calling it a betrayal of open web principles that creates 'legally unauditable attack-surface' in browsers.

In 2015, DeepMind signed a deal with the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust gaining access to identifiable medical records of 1.6 million patients — including HIV status, drug overdoses, and abortions — without patient consent. The data was used to develop Streams, a kidney disease detection app. In 2017, the UK Information Commissioner's Office ruled the data-sharing agreement failed to comply with data protection law. New Scientist revealed the full scope of identifiable data accessed. A class-action lawsuit on behalf of 1.6 million affected patients was filed in 2021 but dismissed in 2023 on procedural grounds.

In 2017, users discovered NZXT's CAM monitoring software was consuming massive bandwidth (9-22 GB per month, with constant 0.1-0.5 Mbps usage). CAM collects hardware configuration, IP addresses, computer names, fan speeds, temperatures, installed games/applications, and game performance data. The software requires mandatory online account login to control NZXT hardware. NZXT founder Johnny Hou acknowledged the concerns on Reddit.

In June 2017, five major Uber investors demanded Kalanick's resignation following cascading scandals: the Susan Fowler harassment revelations, the Greyball regulatory evasion tool, the Waymo trade secret theft lawsuit, a leaked video of Kalanick arguing with an Uber driver, and the Eric Holder investigation findings. Kalanick resigned as CEO on June 20, 2017.

The Intercept shared unredacted NSA documents with the government for verification, inadvertently revealing machine-readable printer codes and metadata that led to Reality Winner's arrest on June 3, 2017. Winner received the longest prison sentence ever (63 months) for an unauthorized release to media. First Look Media pledged legal support but Winner alleges they stopped payments after her August 2018 sentencing, leaving '30% of agreed cost' unpaid, with lawyers continuing pro bono after First Look 'fell behind.'

Palantir's software was used by ICE to identify and arrest 443 relatives of unaccompanied migrant children who had come forward as potential sponsors. The software enabled family targeting that critics called a betrayal of families who trusted the government's sponsor program.