Incidents and actions from tracked entities.
In May 2013, Founders Fund (Thiel's VC firm) led a $2 million funding round in BitPay, one of the earliest Bitcoin payment processing companies. This was an early institutional bet on cryptocurrency infrastructure when Bitcoin traded around $100. Thiel's libertarian philosophy aligned with Bitcoin's vision of currency free from government control - he had previously stated PayPal's original goal was to 'free currency from government intervention.'
In 2013, Marissa Mayer announced Yahoo would offer 16 weeks of paid maternity leave (up from 8 weeks) and added 8 weeks of paid paternity leave. The policy was seen as progressive for the time and aimed to compete for talent with other tech companies.
In April 2013, Yahoo improved its parental leave policy, extending maternity leave to 16 weeks for biological mothers, 8 weeks for fathers and adoptive/foster parents, with cash bonuses for new parents. This brought Yahoo in line with other Silicon Valley companies like Facebook and Google.
Paul Graham became a major contributor to FWD.us, a tech-funded immigration reform advocacy group founded in 2013. He published the essay 'Let the Other 95% of Great Programmers In' arguing that the US should allow more foreign programmers to immigrate, stating that '95% of great programmers are born outside the US' and advocating for expanded H1B visa access.
Hykes created Docker in 2013, which popularized containerization and fundamentally changed how software is built and deployed. Docker was released as open source and became one of the most influential developer tools of the decade, enabling modern microservices architecture and cloud-native development.
In 2013, Sheryl Sandberg published 'Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead' and launched the Lean In Foundation (LeanIn.Org) to support women in the workplace through community building, education, and peer support circles. The foundation has grown to include over 2 million members and 43,000 Lean In Circles in 172 countries, partnered with Girl Scouts on the 'Ban Bossy' campaign, and launched Equal Pay Day initiatives. In 2023, Sandberg expanded the foundation's work by launching a girls' leadership program for ages 11-15.
On March 1, 2013, TCS paid $29.75 million settlement after lawsuit filed in 2006 by employees Gopi Vedachalam and Kangana Beri alleged TCS 'unjustly enriched itself by requiring all non-US-citizen employees to endorse and sign over their federal and state tax refund checks to the company and by taking unauthorised deductions from employee's paychecks.' The class action represented 12,000 H-1B visa workers. TCS forced workers to sign over tax refunds they were legally entitled to, and took illegal paycheck deductions. This systematic wage theft targeted vulnerable visa workers who feared retaliation and deportation if they resisted. Settlement represented compensation for thousands of workers systematically exploited through their visa status vulnerability.
In February 2013, Yahoo leaked an internal memo from Mayer banning remote work, stating 'some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions.' The policy required around 200 remote workers to relocate to offices or leave. The move was criticized as regressive and sparked debate about workplace flexibility.
Livingston founded the Female Founders Conference in 2013, an annual event designed to support and encourage women entrepreneurs in the startup ecosystem. The conference has continued as an annual event.
In February 2013, Yahoo issued an internal memo requiring all remote-working employees (roughly 200 of 12,000) to convert to in-office roles, stating 'Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home.' The policy was widely criticized as a step backward for workplace flexibility.
After Aaron Swartz's death in January 2013, Kahle organized a memorial at Internet Archive headquarters and delivered a tribute speech defending Swartz's vision of open access. He characterized the federal prosecution as persecution for 'reading too quickly in a library.'
In January 2013, Keith Rabois resigned as COO of Square (now Block) after a male employee accused him of sexual harassment. Square stated that Rabois had 'exercised poor judgment.' Rabois denied the allegations but resigned, calling it a 'false accusation' while acknowledging a prior relationship with the employee.
Through his investment firm Cascade Investment, Bill Gates accumulated approximately 275,000 acres of farmland across 17 states since 2013, becoming the nation's largest private farmland owner. Major acquisitions include assets from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (2017) and 100 Circles acreage in Washington state (2018), totaling over $690 million in those two deals alone. Gates said the investments aim to make farms more productive, but the scale of holdings has drawn criticism about wealth concentration in agricultural land.
In 2012, at age 19, Palmer Luckey designed the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset and launched a Kickstarter campaign that raised $2.4 million, or 974% of its original target. The Oculus Rift is widely credited with reviving the virtual reality industry after decades of dormancy. Mark Zuckerberg called it 'one of the coolest things I've ever seen' and Facebook acquired the company for $2 billion in 2014. Luckey's innovation democratized VR technology and made it accessible to consumers.
From 2011-2018, Whitman oversaw approximately 85,000 layoffs at HP/HPE, roughly 8% of the workforce. Initial announcement in 2012 included 27,000 job cuts. Despite massive layoffs, HP stock underperformed market by 30.7 percentage points during her tenure, earning her 'Most Underachieving CEO' designation.
In 2011-2012, Naval Ravikant spent six months lobbying Congress in support of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, which eased securities regulations to make it easier for startups to raise capital. He organized a viral petition signed by 5,000 investors and entrepreneurs, hired lobbyists on contingency fees, and met with Senate and Congressional staffers. The JOBS Act was signed into law by President Obama in April 2012, with Title II lifting the ban on general solicitation for accredited investors.
In 2012, Andrew Ng co-founded Coursera with Daphne Koller, creating the world's largest MOOC platform. His Machine Learning course has reached over 4.8 million learners alone, and the platform now serves over 100 million learners globally, removing geographic and economic barriers to higher education.
Gordon and Betty Moore signed the Giving Pledge in 2012, committing to give away at least half their wealth. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has donated more than $5.1 billion to charitable causes since its founding in 2000. In their pledge letter, they noted: 'In 2001 we devoted half of our wealth to create a foundation that would take risks in order to innovate and achieve meaningful results.'
The Open Data Institute has championed open government data since 2012, helping create data.gov.uk and similar initiatives worldwide. In October 2024, ODI took stewardship of the Solid Project from Berners-Lee to continue work on decentralized data architectures that give individuals control over their information.
Hashimoto co-founded HashiCorp in 2012 and created widely-used infrastructure tools including Terraform, Vagrant, Vault, Consul, and Nomad, all initially released as open source under the Mozilla Public License. These tools became foundational to modern DevOps and cloud infrastructure.
In 2011, Resig left a career in for-profit tech to join Khan Academy as Chief Software Architect, dedicating his technical skills to building free educational tools. Khan Academy provides free education to millions worldwide, and Resig has remained there for over a decade.
In 2011, Peter Thiel was granted New Zealand citizenship despite spending only 12 days in the country over the prior five years, far short of the required 1,350 days. Internal Affairs approved his application under a 'public interest' provision citing his investments and a $1M earthquake donation. Thiel stated he would continue residing in the US. The controversy, revealed publicly in 2017, raised questions about preferential treatment for billionaires. Former Minister Peter Dunne said there were 'no reasonable grounds' for granting the citizenship.
EFF created two widely-used privacy tools: HTTPS Everywhere (with the Tor Project), which automatically upgrades web connections to HTTPS, and Privacy Badger, which blocks invisible trackers. HTTPS Everywhere was installed by millions and helped push the web toward universal encryption. In 2022, EFF retired HTTPS Everywhere as major browsers had adopted HTTPS-by-default.
In 2011, Vinod and Neeru Khosla signed the Giving Pledge, committing to donate more than half their wealth to charity. Through their Amar Foundation (founded 1987), they have funded CK-12 Foundation (co-founded by Neeru in 2006), which provides free open-source textbooks and educational resources. By 2020, CK-12 had over 130 million students and teachers using its resources. The Amar Foundation donated at least $9 million to CK-12 in 2015, plus $2.7 million to IIT Delhi scholarships and $500,000 to Wikimedia Foundation.
In December 2010, PayPal permanently suspended WikiLeaks' donation account, citing violations of its acceptable use policy. PayPal VP Osama Bedier acknowledged a US State Department letter influenced the decision. The financial blockade by PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, and others destroyed 95% of WikiLeaks' revenue. Critics called it 'digital McCarthyism' and extrajudicial financial censorship.
On October 18, 2010, Gordon Moore donated $1 million to the 'No on Prop 23' campaign. Proposition 23 would have suspended California's Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32) until unemployment dropped to 5.5% or below. The measure was defeated by 23%, protecting the state's greenhouse gas emission controls. This demonstrated Moore's strong support for climate legislation despite opposition from oil companies.
Dell and Michael Dell paid $100 million in 2010 to settle SEC charges that the company manipulated its accounting to meet Wall Street targets, including undisclosed payments from Intel totaling $4.3 billion over several years.
In 2010, Peter Thiel established the Thiel Fellowship through the Thiel Foundation, offering $100,000 over two years (later raised to $200,000) to 20 people under age 23 to leave college and pursue entrepreneurial ventures. The program has produced notable alumni including Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum), Dylan Field (Figma), and Lucy Guo (Scale AI), generating over $750 billion in value. While praised for supporting unconventional talent, it was also criticized by some educators.
In 2010, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett launched the Giving Pledge, a campaign encouraging the world's wealthiest individuals to commit more than half their wealth to philanthropic causes. As of 2025, over 250 signatories from 30 countries have joined. However, critics note the pledge is non-binding, and an IPS report found that few of the original 2010 pledgers have actually given away half their wealth, with Gates' own net worth more than doubling from $53B to over $115B since signing.
In 2010, fourteen workers at Foxconn factories in Shenzhen, China — Apple's primary manufacturing partner — died by suicide, with others making attempts. Investigations revealed harsh working conditions including excessive overtime, military-style management, cramped dormitories, and low pay. The crisis drew global attention to labor conditions in Apple's supply chain. Apple ordered an investigation and joined the Fair Labor Association, while Foxconn installed suicide prevention nets and raised wages. The incident became emblematic of the human cost of consumer electronics manufacturing.