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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.'

Lütke and his wife Fiona McKean established the Thistledown Foundation in 2019 with a $150 million endowment to fund 'novel approaches to decarbonization.' In April 2020, the foundation pivoted to COVID-19 response, donating $5 million to Fast Grants for coronavirus research and $1 million to Conquer COVID-19 for PPE sourcing, plus funding N95 decontamination and 3D-printed face shield projects at Ottawa hospitals. In November 2021, the foundation granted a further $26 million ($2 million each) to all 13 of Canada's acute-care children's hospitals, timed to coincide with National Child Day and cited as a response to pandemic strain on child healthcare. The couple stated they initially preferred anonymous giving but became public donors to enable faster, high-impact action during the pandemic.

On May 30, 2019, Steve Huffman joined a Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society panel, 'What the Loss of Net Neutrality Means for Democracy and Innovation,' alongside FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and Rep. Anna Eshoo. Huffman called net neutrality 'foundational to the internet and part of the reason for Reddit's success,' and warned that its repeal would make market entry harder for smaller competitors, citing the hypothetical that Comcast might not have let YouTube survive if it had known what YouTube would become.

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.

First Look Media, the journalism venture Omidyar personally funded (pledging $250M, of which ~$90M was disbursed by 2017) and over which he maintained hands-on control (reportedly requiring personal approval of even trivial expenses), cut 4% of staff in March 2019, eliminating its research team. Around the same time, The Intercept announced it would no longer manage its archive of Edward Snowden's NSA documents, a core part of its founding mission. Co-founder Laura Poitras called the research team 'the beating heart of the newsroom' and said she was 'sickened' by the cuts; she was barred from a meeting about the archive decision and was let go in further layoffs about a year later. Despite soliciting reader donations for 'independent journalism,' the outlet remained almost entirely dependent on Omidyar's personal funding throughout.

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.