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Between January and November 2010, 18 Foxconn workers attempted suicide at the company's Shenzhen factory complex, with 14 deaths. Workers cited extreme work pressure, mandatory overtime, verbal abuse by supervisors, and social isolation in cramped dormitories. Foxconn's response included installing physical nets to catch jumpers and requiring workers to sign 'no suicide' pledges. The crisis drew international attention to electronics supply chain labor conditions.

Baidu routinely censors politically sensitive search results including content about Tiananmen Square, Tibet independence, Falun Gong, and other topics deemed sensitive by Chinese authorities.

Naval Ravikant co-founded AngelList in 2010 to connect startups with angel investors, addressing barriers that limited early-stage fundraising to Silicon Valley elites. The platform introduced syndicates (2013) and rolling funds (2020), enabling broader participation in venture investing. Over $3.5 billion has been invested via AngelList into 7,000+ startups, with 200+ reaching unicorn status. AngelList also spun off Republic in 2016 to enable non-accredited investor participation in startup equity crowdfunding.

After purchasing an 89-acre beachfront property in Half Moon Bay for $32.5 million in 2008, Khosla locked gates and hired security to block public access to Martins Beach, which had been open to the public for over 100 years. He fought the Surfrider Foundation through California courts and petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court twice (2018, 2023), losing both times. He reportedly preferred spending $10 million on litigation rather than $200 on a coastal development permit. Mississippi described his stance as prioritizing property rights over established public access.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) named Vinod Khosla a Champion of the Earth in 2010 for his vision and investment in clean energy technologies. The award recognized his approach of investing in high-risk 'black swan' technologies that could transform the energy sector, and his 'Chindia price' concept — the idea that clean energy solutions must be economically competitive without subsidies to achieve global adoption in China, India, and developing nations.

In 2010, Holz co-founded Leap Motion with Michael Buckwald, developing computer vision-based gesture recognition for human-computer interaction. Leap Motion Controller used infrared cameras to capture 3D hand movements, enabling precise contactless control without physical touch. Technology 'eliminates the need for fine motor control,' making it 'a great option for users with mobility impairments or other disabilities.' Created 'new levels of accessibility for students with special needs.' Supported projects like Diplopia (lazy eye treatment using VR), MotionSavvy (American Sign Language interpretation tablet), and Arabic Sign Language recognition achieving 89-96% accuracy. Controller shipped July 2013; company raised $45M from Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund. Sold to Ultrahaptics 2019 for $30M.

In November 2009, YouTube introduced automatic captions using speech recognition technology, initially for English-language content. The feature was led by Ken Harrenstien, a deaf Google engineer. While auto-captions had significant accuracy limitations (60-70% accuracy initially, improving over time), the feature represented a major step toward making the platform's massive video library accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing users. YouTube subsequently expanded auto-captions to dozens of languages.

From 2009 to 2024, the World Wide Web Foundation advocated for treating internet access as a basic right and public good. During its operation, global internet connectivity increased from approximately 20% to over 70% of the world's population. The foundation launched the #ForTheWeb campaign (2018) and supported policies for affordable access, particularly in developing countries.

In September 2009, Khosla Ventures announced it had raised $1.1 billion in a 'green fund' for renewable energy and clean technology development. The fund was the largest clean technology fund launched since 2007 and one of the largest ever. $800 million was allocated for established technologies and $275 million for early-stage companies. By 2013, Khosla Ventures had invested in more than 70 cleantech companies.

In 2010, former housekeeper Nicky Diaz Santillan alleged Whitman knowingly employed her as an undocumented worker for 9 years, failed to pay full wages, denied maternity leave, and fired her in 2009 when she requested help obtaining citizenship. Santillan alleges Whitman said 'You don't know me, and I don't know you.' Evidence included a 2003 Social Security letter with note in husband's handwriting. Whitman settled wage claims for $5,500 without admitting wrongdoing.

Starting in 2007, Fei-Fei Li led the creation of ImageNet, a visual database of over 14 million labeled images that catalyzed the deep learning revolution. The ImageNet Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge (ILSVRC) spurred breakthroughs including AlexNet in 2012. ImageNet became foundational to modern AI. However, the dataset later faced criticism for biased and offensive labels in person categories and privacy violations from using photos without consent. Li's team responded by removing 1,593 offensive person categories (54% of person categories) from the dataset.

Dahl created Node.js in 2009, revolutionizing server-side JavaScript. In 2018, he created Deno as a successor addressing Node's security shortcomings, featuring a secure-by-default permissions model where scripts cannot access files, network, or environment without explicit permission. Both projects are open source under MIT license.

The European Commission originally fined Intel EUR 1.06 billion in 2009 for abusing its dominant position in the x86 CPU market. Intel used hidden rebates and paid manufacturers (HP, Acer, Lenovo) to delay or stop production of AMD-powered products between 2002-2006. After lengthy legal challenges, the EU General Court upheld the ruling in December 2025 with a reduced fine of EUR 376 million (approximately $278M). The case remains one of the largest antitrust actions in the semiconductor industry.

In his April 2009 Cato Unbound essay "The Education of a Libertarian," Peter Thiel wrote that he "no longer believed that freedom and democracy are compatible." He also stated that the extension of voting rights to women made capitalist democracy an "oxymoron," arguing that welfare beneficiaries and women generally favor redistributive policies. The essay advocated for escape from politics through cyberspace, outer space, and seasteading.

In 2008, Brendan Eich donated $1,000 to support California Proposition 8, which sought to ban same-sex marriage. He also donated $2,100 to Prop 8 supporter Tom McClintock between 2008-2010. The donation became public in 2012 when it was uncovered in public donor records.

In 2008, Sacks founded Yammer, one of the first SaaS startups to apply consumer growth tactics to enterprise software. Yammer's viral approach made it one of the fastest-growing SaaS startups in history, reaching 8 million enterprise users in just four years. As Founder/CEO, Sacks grew the company to $60 million in revenue and 500 employees. Microsoft acquired Yammer in July 2012 for $1.2 billion as a core part of its cloud and social strategy, recognizing the platform's transformation of enterprise collaboration.

Peter Thiel provided approximately $1.7 million in funding to the Seasteading Institute between 2008-2011, including an initial $500K pledge in April 2008. The institute's mission was to 'establish permanent, autonomous ocean communities to enable experimentation with diverse social, political, and legal systems' - essentially creating societies outside the reach of democratic governments. Thiel served on the board until 2011. He later expressed skepticism about the engineering feasibility in 2017.

In June 2007, Whitman allegedly shoved subordinate Young Mi Kim, an eBay communications employee, while preparing for a Reuters interview. Whitman said 'In any high-pressure working environment, tensions can surface.' Matter was resolved with $200,000 settlement.

The Internet Archive operates Open Library, a wiki-editable library catalog aiming to have 'a web page for every book ever published.' The platform has over 20 million book records and lends approximately 70,000 books per day to users worldwide. The Archive has digitized over 2 million books and scans 4,300 books daily across 18 locations.

In 2007, when the FBI issued a National Security Letter demanding personal information about an Internet Archive user, Kahle refused to comply silently. He worked with the ACLU and EFF to challenge the NSL as unconstitutional, helping establish legal precedent for challenging these secretive government demands for user data.

Resig created jQuery in 2006, which became the most widely-used JavaScript library and fundamentally simplified cross-browser web development. Released under the MIT license and later stewarded by the jQuery Foundation (now OpenJS Foundation), it demonstrated the power of community-driven open source development.

Greylock Partners led a $25 million financing round for Facebook in April 2006, investing $12.7 million when the platform was still in its early stages. Partner David Sze joined Facebook's board. Facebook/Meta later faced extensive documented harms including data privacy violations (Cambridge Analytica), mental health impacts on teens, misinformation amplification, and content moderation failures. Greylock has not publicly criticized Meta's documented harms despite being a major early investor.

In 2006, Bobby Kotick allegedly left a voicemail on his assistant's phone threatening to 'have her killed.' Kotick apologized, and the dispute was settled out of court. This incident was reported in the November 2021 Wall Street Journal investigation into Kotick's knowledge of workplace misconduct at Activision Blizzard.

Since its founding in 2005, Automattic has operated as a fully distributed company with no central office, employing workers across 90+ countries. The company has been widely cited as a model for remote work, offering stipends for home office setups, co-working spaces, and annual meetups. CEO Matt Mullenweg has been a vocal advocate for distributed work as an equity practice.

Automattic has been the primary corporate contributor to WordPress, the open-source CMS that powers over 40% of all websites. The company employs numerous WordPress core contributors and sponsors WordCamp events globally. Automattic's commercial products (WordPress.com, Jetpack, WooCommerce) are built on top of the open-source project, and the company has historically championed GPL licensing.

Development of Git began on April 3, 2005 after BitKeeper revoked free access. Torvalds built Git in roughly 5 days and released it in April 2005 under GPL-2.0. By 2022, nearly 95% of developers used Git as their primary version control system. Git became self-hosting on April 7, and managed kernel 2.6.12 release by June 16.

From 1998-2002, Whitman participated in 'spinning' - receiving privileged access to over 100 hot IPOs from Goldman Sachs in exchange for eBay bond business. Practice was banned in 2003 as corrupt. Congressional investigation in 2002 called transactions 'rigged and corrupt.' Whitman settled in 2005, disgorging $1.78M profit without admitting wrongdoing. Goldman also put her on its board in 2001, paying $475K for one year before she left during probe.

Cisco sold networking equipment used in China's Golden Shield Project (Great Firewall) beginning in the early 2000s. Plaintiffs allege Cisco custom-built surveillance tools that enabled Chinese security services to identify, track, and persecute Falun Gong practitioners. A 2006 Congressional hearing examined Cisco's role alongside Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. Cisco maintained it sold standard networking equipment and did not customize products to facilitate censorship or repression.

David Heinemeier Hansson created Ruby on Rails in 2004 and released it as open source software. Rails became one of the most influential web frameworks, popularizing conventions like MVC architecture and 'convention over configuration.' It spawned an enormous open source ecosystem and was used to build early versions of Twitter, GitHub, Shopify, and Airbnb.

Matt Mullenweg co-created WordPress in 2003 as open source software under the GPL license. WordPress grew to power over 40% of all websites globally. Mullenweg founded the WordPress Foundation and Automattic contributed thousands of hours weekly to the open source project (prior to the 2025 reduction to 45 hours/week).