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In September 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs filed a lawsuit alleging Palantir discriminated against Asian job applicants. The lawsuit found the company 'routinely eliminated' Asian applicants during the hiring process even when they were as qualified as white applicants. Palantir settled in April 2017 for $1.7 million without admitting wrongdoing.

Palmer Luckey was terminated from Facebook/Meta in March 2017 with no official explanation. Internal emails obtained by WSJ showed executives including Zuckerberg pressured Luckey to publicly claim he supported Gary Johnson rather than Trump. Luckey hired an employment lawyer and negotiated a $100M+ payout citing California employment law violations. In 2024, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth publicly apologized for his ousting.

In March 2017, LGBTQ+ creators discovered YouTube's Restricted Mode was systematically hiding their content—including wedding videos, coming-out stories, and queer-themed pop culture commentary—while allowing Mortal Kombat fatality compilations and marijuana growing tutorials. YouTube acknowledged the system 'sometimes make[s] mistakes' and claimed to fix it in April 2017 by unfiltering 12 million videos, but creators reported the problems persisted. By 2019, LGBTQ+ creators filed a class-action lawsuit alleging discriminatory censorship, with plaintiffs reporting 75% revenue drops.

In March 2017, the Times of London revealed that ads from major brands and the UK government were running alongside extremist and terrorist content on YouTube. Over 250 brands including AT&T, Walmart, PepsiCo, and Starbucks pulled their ads. YouTube's response—implementing broad demonetization categories and raising monetization thresholds—disproportionately harmed legitimate creators covering sensitive topics including news, women's issues, and LGBTQ+ content, while the underlying brand safety problem persisted. Creators reported 30-85% revenue drops.

Uber developed and deployed software tool 'Greyball' from 2014-2017 to identify and deceive law enforcement officers attempting to enforce laws against the service. The tool displayed fake cars that would never arrive when police tried to hail rides. Used in Portland, Las Vegas, Boston, and internationally in China, South Korea, France, Italy, Australia, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, and Denmark with knowledge of senior management including CEO Travis Kalanick and Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty. US Department of Justice launched criminal investigation in May 2017.

Under Kalanick's leadership, Uber developed and deployed 'Greyball,' a secret software tool that identified and evaded government regulators and law enforcement officials attempting to enforce transportation laws. The tool was used from at least 2014 to 2017 across multiple cities and countries. The DOJ investigated the program.

The Pegasus Project investigation revealed that at least 25 Mexican journalists were selected for targeting with Pegasus spyware over a two-year period. Among them was journalist Cecilio Pineda, whose phone was selected for targeting just weeks before he was killed in March 2017. Mexico was one of the earliest and most prolific users of Pegasus, with documented targeting of journalists, activists, and political opponents by Mexican authorities.

Since 2016, IBM has provided free public access to quantum computers via the cloud through IBM Quantum Experience, and developed Qiskit, an open-source Python framework for quantum computing that became the world's most widely used quantum software stack. IBM open-sourced Qiskit on GitHub, enabling researchers, students, and developers globally to experiment with quantum computing without financial barriers.

On February 19, 2017, former Uber engineer Susan Fowler published a blog post detailing systemic sexual harassment and HR failures at Uber. She described how her manager propositioned her on her first day and HR dismissed complaints. The revelations triggered an internal investigation by former AG Eric Holder, led to CEO Travis Kalanick's resignation in June 2017, and prompted Microsoft, Google, and Facebook to end forced arbitration for sexual harassment claims.

After former engineer Susan Fowler published blog post on February 19, 2017 detailing year of sexual harassment and retaliation (November 2015 - December 2016), external investigation led by former Attorney General Eric Holder uncovered systemic sexual harassment and discrimination. Investigation found 215 allegations of misconduct; 20+ employees fired including senior executives, 31 sent to training/counseling. HR had protected 'high performer' who propositioned Fowler despite multiple previous complaints. CEO Travis Kalanick forced to resign June 21, 2017 under pressure from major investors (Benchmark, First Round Capital, Lowercase Capital, Menlo Ventures, Fidelity controlling 40% voting power). Asia-Pacific President Eric Alexander fired for obtaining rape victim's medical records and showing to executives. Uber paid $7 million to 480 employees (August 2018) and $4.4 million EEOC settlement (December 2019) with 3 years outside monitoring.

Former Uber engineer Susan Fowler published a blog post in February 2017 detailing pervasive sexual harassment and HR failures at Uber under Kalanick's leadership. The subsequent Eric Holder investigation interviewed 200+ employees, resulting in 20+ firings. The investigation found systemic issues with HR, management, and company culture.

Kalanick joined President Trump's business advisory council in December 2016, then resigned in February 2017 following a #DeleteUber campaign and employee backlash related to Trump's immigration ban. Over 200,000 users reportedly deleted their Uber accounts.

In February 2017, a jury found Palmer Luckey personally liable for $50 million in damages in ZeniMax Media's lawsuit against Oculus VR. The total verdict was $500 million against Oculus, Facebook, Luckey, and others. While the jury cleared Luckey of trade secret misappropriation and theft, they found him liable for copyright infringement related to the marketing of the Oculus Rift, specifically for violating an NDA he had signed with ZeniMax subsidiary id Software.

In January 2017, Stewart Butterfield pledged $1 million to the ACLU in response to Trump's immigration executive order. He also offered to match additional donations to ACLU, SPLC, MALDEF, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and other civil liberties organizations.

Lyft pledged to donate $1 million to the ACLU over four years in response to President Trump's immigration ban in January 2017. This positioned Lyft as a more progressive alternative to Uber during the #DeleteUber movement.

In January 2017, Patrick Collison pledged $50,000 to the American Civil Liberties Union to fight Trump's travel ban on people from seven Muslim-majority countries. He and his brother John helped raise over $220,000 total. A Stripe spokesperson called the policies 'morally wrong' and 'economically damaging.'

A day after Trump issued executive order banning refugees and nationals from Muslim-majority countries in January 2017, Chesky announced Airbnb would provide no-cost housing to refugees and those not allowed into the US. The company's Super Bowl ad that year emphasized message of belonging.

On January 28, 2017, Sergey Brin joined protesters at San Francisco International Airport opposing President Trump's Executive Order 13769 banning travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries. When asked why he was there, Brin said 'I'm here because I'm a refugee' - his family emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1979 to escape Jewish persecution. Two days later, he spoke at a Google employee rally of 2,000+ workers, saying: 'I came here to the US at age six with my family from the Soviet Union... this country was brave and welcoming.'

In December 2016, companies controlled by Mark Zuckerberg filed eight 'quiet title' lawsuits targeting hundreds of Native Hawaiians who held small parcels of ancestral kuleana land within his 700-acre Kauai estate purchased for $100 million. The lawsuits sought forced public auctions of these parcels, some dating to the 1850s. A Change.org petition opposing the suits gathered over 378,000 signatures. Critics called it 'neocolonialism.' Zuckerberg withdrew the lawsuits on January 27, 2017, apologizing and stating 'it's clear we made a mistake.' He subsequently donated millions to local organizations and continued acquiring additional land, expanding his holdings to roughly 1,500 acres.

Reid Hoffman personally committed $10 million to a $27 million fund created with the Knight Foundation and Omidyar Network to apply humanities and social sciences to AI development. The Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Initiative supported research at MIT Media Lab and Harvard Berkman Klein Center focused on ensuring AI serves the public interest.

Greylock partner Reid Hoffman, along with eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, established a $27 million Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fund as a joint venture between the MIT Media Lab and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Hoffman also joined the board of Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI) and launched the Hoffman-Yee Research Grants for interdisciplinary AI research. While attributed to Hoffman personally, his role as a Greylock partner connects the firm to AI ethics investment.

Palmer Luckey donated $100,000 to Donald Trump's 2017 Presidential Inaugural Committee through a shell company called Wings of Time LLC, while still employed at Facebook. The donation was received on January 4, 2017, and was reported by Mother Jones. Luckey used the shell company rather than donating in his own name.

DJI developed and deployed FlightHub geofencing technology that automatically restricts drone operations near airports, government buildings, and other sensitive areas, setting an industry standard for drone safety.

After Treyarch co-head Dan Bunting was accused of sexual harassment in 2017, the matter was investigated by Activision's HR department and it was recommended that he be fired. However, CEO Bobby Kotick reportedly blocked the move, allowing Bunting to remain in his leadership position despite the HR investigation's findings and termination recommendation. This incident was revealed in the November 2021 Wall Street Journal investigation.

In 2015, Fei-Fei Li co-founded SAILORS (Stanford AI Lab OutReach Summer program) at Stanford to familiarize high school girls with AI. In 2017, the program expanded into AI4ALL, a national nonprofit co-founded with Olga Russakovsky and Rick Sommer, with funding from Melinda French Gates/Pivotal Ventures and Jensen Huang. AI4ALL promotes education, mentorship, and support for underrepresented communities in AI, including women, people of color, and low-income individuals. By 2022, AI4ALL had reached over 10,000 people across all 50 US states, growing from 1 to 16 university partnerships.

Mullvad VPN has maintained fully open-source client applications for all platforms (Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS) and regularly commissions independent security audits, publishing the results publicly. The company was also an early adopter and contributor to the WireGuard VPN protocol.

Theranos under Holmes aggressively pursued whistleblowers who raised concerns. Erika Cheung and Tyler Shultz (grandson of board member George Shultz) faced legal threats, surveillance, and intimidation after reporting concerns to regulators. The company hired private investigators to follow Shultz and pressured his grandfather to intervene. Lab director Ian Gibbons died by suicide in 2013 amid the pressure.

Noctua has remained independently owned by its parent company Rascom since its founding in 2005, growing from 10 to over 80 employees without external investment or acquisition. This independence has enabled a focus on long-term product quality over quarterly growth metrics. Independent testing by outlets including Gamers Nexus has consistently verified Noctua's thermal performance claims and manufacturing quality, with the company maintaining one of the lowest defect rates in the PC cooling industry.

Oracle CEO Safra Catz joined Trump's presidential transition team in December 2016, stating 'we are with him and are here to help in any way we can.' She was considered for cabinet positions including Director of National Intelligence. A senior Oracle employee resigned in protest.

McKinsey prepared a December 2016 report measuring public response to Saudi government policy, identifying three Twitter users as key online influencers including Omar Abdulaziz, a close associate of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Following the report, Saudi authorities imprisoned and tortured Abdulaziz's family and associates. Another identified writer was imprisoned, and a third anonymous user disappeared from the internet. Abdulaziz filed a lawsuit alleging McKinsey outed him to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.