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Under Wojcicki's leadership, YouTube failed to detect over 1,100 videos posted by Russian trolls during the 2016 election cycle, almost all targeting African-Americans. This was acknowledged as a significant content moderation failure.

In late 2016, hackers accessed Uber systems using stolen GitHub credentials and stole personal data of 57 million riders and drivers worldwide, including names, email addresses, phone numbers, and 600,000 US driver license numbers. Rather than disclosing the breach to the FTC (which was already investigating Uber for a 2014 breach), CSO Joe Sullivan paid the hackers $100,000 in bitcoin disguised as a bug bounty and required them to sign NDAs. The breach was concealed for over a year and only disclosed in November 2017 under new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Uber paid $148 million to settle with all 50 US states in September 2018.

Signal Foundation created the Signal Protocol (formerly TextSecure Protocol), which became the gold standard for encrypted messaging. The protocol was adopted by WhatsApp (2B+ users), Facebook Messenger, Skype, and Google Messages. Signal open-sourced the protocol and its client applications.

In October 2016, Sam Altman published a blog post warning that Trump represented 'an unprecedented threat to America' and compared his tactics to Hitler in 1930s Germany, writing 'To anyone familiar with the history of Germany in the 1930s, it's chilling to watch Trump in action... Hitler taught us about the Big Lie.' He urged readers to vote for Hillary Clinton.

Thiel donated $1.25 million to support Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, including contributions to the Make America Number 1 Super PAC. This made him one of the largest tech donors to Trump's first presidential bid.

Jimmy Wales joined eleven other business leaders in signing an open letter to American voters urging them not to vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

Wojcicki was among 40 business executives who publicly endorsed Hillary Clinton for president in September 2016. She contributed $81,265 in political donations during the 2016 election cycle.

Yahoo disclosed two massive data breaches (2013 and 2014) affecting all 3 billion user accounts. Yahoo's board found that the 2014 breach 'was not properly investigated' and cited 'failures in communication, management, inquiry and internal reporting.' The breaches significantly reduced Yahoo's acquisition price by Verizon.

In September 2016, The Daily Beast reported that Palmer Luckey had secretly funded Nimble America, a pro-Trump political group that created and spread memes and shitposts supporting Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. The revelation caused significant backlash in the VR community, with some developers refusing to support Oculus. Luckey initially denied involvement, then acknowledged funding the group. He left Meta/Facebook in March 2017.

In July 2016, Brian Chesky acknowledged that Airbnb was 'late to this issue' of racial discrimination on the platform, stating 'we took our eye off the ball.' In September 2016, he formally apologized ('I am sorry. I take responsibility for any pain or frustration this has caused') and announced a comprehensive anti-discrimination policy including photo reduction, instant book expansion, and community commitment.

Reliance Jio launched in September 2016 with free voice and data services that destroyed competitor margins, accelerating the consolidation of India's telecom market from a dozen operators to a duopoly of Jio plus Bharti Airtel. Critics including academic and industry analysts have argued the regulatory environment - including TRAI's interconnection rulings, spectrum policy, and the rejection of competitor predatory-pricing complaints against Jio - reflected the close documented ties between Mukesh Ambani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Reliance Group has been the BJP's largest corporate donor through electoral bonds. Vodafone Idea entered NCLT-adjacent distress under the resulting price pressure.

Reliance Jio's 2016 launch with free voice and data services collapsed Indian mobile data prices from among the world's most expensive to among the world's cheapest (sub-$2/GB sustained), accelerating mass adoption of mobile internet in rural India. By 2024 Jio served approximately 450 million subscribers, the largest single-operator subscriber base in any democracy, with much of the growth in lower-income rural districts. Independent academic analysis (e.g., the National Council of Applied Economic Research) credited Jio's pricing with major increases in digital literacy and informal-economy mobile commerce, while flagging the concomitant market consolidation harms.

In August 2016, Republican Whitman endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, calling Trump an 'astonishing display of political opportunism' and comparing him to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. She called on Republicans to 'put country first before party' and stated voting for Trump 'out of party loyalty alone would be to endorse a candidacy that I believe has exploited anger, grievance, xenophobia and racial division.' She also supported the campaign financially.

Thiel became the first openly gay speaker to address the Republican National Convention, delivering a prime-time endorsement of Donald Trump. He declared 'I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all I am proud to be an American.' The speech marked a high-profile tech industry endorsement of Trump.

Impossible Foods, founded by Stanford biochemistry professor Pat Brown in 2011, develops plant-based meat using heme protein technology to replicate the taste and texture of animal meat. The Impossible Burger and other products aim to eliminate the need for animal agriculture. The company's mission is explicitly to reduce animal suffering and environmental impact of meat production.

On June 11, 2016, Brian Chesky became one of the youngest signatories of The Giving Pledge, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates' initiative where billionaires commit to giving away at least half their wealth. At 34 years old, Chesky stated he wanted the pledge to be more than 'a bunch of old people.'

In 2016, multiple people publicly accused Tor developer Jacob Appelbaum of sexual harassment and assault. The Tor Project conducted an investigation, terminated Appelbaum, and subsequently replaced its entire board of directors. The organization implemented new governance structures and a code of conduct to prevent similar issues.

In 2016, Kahle founded the Decentralized Web Summit movement, bringing together technologists to build alternatives to corporate-controlled platforms. He has consistently advocated for baking values like privacy and freedom of expression into the code itself.

Peter Thiel secretly funded Hulk Hogan's invasion of privacy lawsuit against Gawker Media, which resulted in a $140 million verdict and Gawker's bankruptcy in 2016. Thiel funded the case in retaliation for Gawker's 2007 article outing him as gay. He spent approximately $10 million funding various lawsuits against Gawker before the Hogan verdict.

Wei Zexi, a 21-year-old college student, died after receiving unproven cancer treatment found through Baidu's promoted search results. Investigation revealed Baidu accepted payments from unlicensed medical providers for top search placement.

In April 2016, PayPal CEO Dan Schulman announced the company was canceling its planned expansion in Charlotte, North Carolina, which would have created 400 jobs. The decision was made in protest of HB2, the 'bathroom bill' requiring people to use public facilities matching their birth gender. Schulman said the law 'perpetuates discrimination and violates the values and principles at the core of PayPal's mission.'

On March 23, 2016, Microsoft launched Tay, a Twitter chatbot designed to engage with users and learn from conversational interactions. Within 16 hours, Tay began posting racist, misogynistic, and inflammatory content including Holocaust denial, racist slurs, and misogynistic statements after being exposed to coordinated trolling and toxic inputs. Microsoft shut down Tay within 24 hours and issued an apology. The incident became a landmark case study in AI safety, adversarial manipulation, and the importance of robust content filters for public-facing AI systems.

In 2016, the EFF filed an amicus brief supporting Apple in its legal battle with the FBI over the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone. The FBI sought a court order to compel Apple to create a tool to bypass iPhone encryption. EFF argued this would set a dangerous precedent for government-mandated backdoors in consumer technology.

In 2016, Chuck Robbins personally donated $8,100 to Democratic candidates, including California Attorney General Kamala Harris and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. He described himself as a 'centrist Republican' but said Hillary Clinton was a 'great candidate' and declined to support Trump.

Pierre Omidyar donated $100,000 to NeverTrump PAC in March 2016, stating on Twitter: 'I think Trumpism is dangerous. So I'm personally supporting @NeverTrumpPAC, a rare political contribution during extreme times.' He also signed an open letter from tech entrepreneurs accusing Trump of campaigning 'on anger, bigotry, fear of new ideas and new people.'

Launched in 2016, Stripe Atlas allows entrepreneurs worldwide to incorporate a U.S. business entity with a bank account and payment processing. By 2021, Atlas had helped launch over 20,000 businesses across 162 countries, generating $3 billion in revenue and projected to create 219,000 jobs. The program specifically targets founders in markets without strong banking infrastructure, reducing incorporation from months to days at a fraction of previous costs.

The FTC charged ASUS with failing to secure its routers, leaving hundreds of thousands of consumers' home networks vulnerable. ASUS routers had critical security flaws including default login credentials and a cloud service (AiCloud) that stored login credentials in plain text. ASUS agreed to a 20-year consent decree requiring independent security audits.

In February 2016, Tim Cook publicly refused a court order to help the FBI unlock the iPhone of the San Bernardino shooter, publishing an open letter arguing that creating a backdoor would set a dangerous precedent and undermine security for all iPhone users. Cook framed encryption as essential to civil liberties. The FBI ultimately unlocked the phone with a third party's help and withdrew the case.

In February 2016, Apple CEO Tim Cook publicly refused an FBI court order to create software that would bypass iPhone encryption security to unlock a device recovered from the San Bernardino shooting. Cook argued that 'building a backdoor to the iPhone' would be 'too dangerous to create' and warned there was 'no way to guarantee' limited use. Apple filed a motion to vacate the court order, arguing it was unconstitutional. The case became moot when the FBI obtained a $1+ million tool from Israeli company Azimuth Security to crack the iPhone independently. Cook's public stance established Apple as a defender of encryption rights.

Theranos devices produced unreliable results for patients at Walgreens locations, including false positives and negatives for serious conditions. The company voided or corrected tens of thousands of test results in 2014-2015. CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) found the company's lab practices posed 'immediate jeopardy to patient health and safety' and banned Holmes from operating a lab for two years.