Infrastructure Accountability

During a December 20, 2025 power outage in San Francisco, Waymo robotaxis stalled across the city, blocking intersections and emergency vehicles. Mayor Daniel Lurie texted Waymo's CEO reporting a car blocking a fire truck from reaching an active fire. In subsequent regulatory proceedings, a judge scolded Waymo after the company refused to disclose how many robotaxis had stalled, claiming the information was a trade secret.

In June 2025, Waymo suspended service in parts of San Francisco and Los Angeles after multiple robotaxis were vandalized during protests against ICE activities and the Trump administration. The vehicles had become symbolic targets of resistance to the tech industry's perceived close ties to the Trump administration. Earlier in February 2024, a Waymo was set on fire in SF's Chinatown during Lunar New Year celebrations. The incidents reflect growing community tension over the presence of autonomous vehicles in urban neighborhoods.

In September 2024, Mullenweg publicly attacked WP Engine as a 'cancer to WordPress' and demanded 8% of revenue ($32M) as trademark licensing. When WP Engine declined, he blocked their access to WordPress.org, disrupting over a million websites. He then seized WP Engine's ACF plugin without review. WP Engine sued for extortion, unfair competition, and defamation. A court granted a preliminary injunction restoring WP Engine's access. 159 Automattic employees (8.4%) took buyout packages to leave.

In September 2024, Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg escalated a trademark dispute with WP Engine by publicly calling them a 'cancer to WordPress,' blocking WP Engine's access to WordPress.org resources, and demanding they pay trademark licensing fees. WP Engine sued Automattic. The dispute disrupted the WordPress ecosystem and drew widespread criticism for using control of WordPress.org infrastructure as leverage in a commercial dispute.

In late 2022, Musk secretly ordered engineers not to enable Starlink satellite connectivity near the Crimean coast, disrupting a Ukrainian submarine drone attack on the Russian naval fleet. The drones lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly. Musk said he feared Russia would respond with nuclear weapons. Ukrainian officials begged him to restore service. Musk claimed Starlink was never active over Crimea and that Ukraine made an 'emergency request' to activate it to Sevastopol. The incident highlighted the risks of one individual controlling critical military communications infrastructure.

In September 2022, Elon Musk refused a Ukrainian government request to activate Starlink coverage to Sevastopol, Crimea, which would have enabled a drone submarine attack on the Russian naval fleet. Musk stated enabling it would make SpaceX 'explicitly complicit in a major act of war.' This decision by a private company effectively determined the outcome of a military operation, raising concerns about unprecedented private control over critical wartime infrastructure. The incident was revealed in Walter Isaacson's 2023 biography.

In September 2022, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk unilaterally refused to enable Starlink connectivity near Crimea during a planned Ukrainian drone attack on Russian naval forces, fearing escalation into a 'major act of war.' This decision, made by a private citizen controlling critical military communications infrastructure, raised serious concerns about private power over geopolitical affairs. The Pentagon subsequently questioned whether future military contracts need explicit terms preventing service denial. Reports also emerged of Russian forces illegally acquiring and using Starlink terminals, which SpaceX was aware of but allegedly failed to prevent.

On February 26, 2022, two days after Russia's invasion, Ukrainian minister Mykhailo Fedorov requested Starlink assistance on Twitter. SpaceX activated country-wide service and delivered the first shipment of terminals by February 28. By May 2022, over 150,000 Ukrainians used Starlink daily. Terminals supported hospitals (600 received in one month), schools, railways, government communications, and President Zelenskyy's broadcasts. SpaceX donated 3,667 terminals and initially waived subscription fees. Ukrainian officials called Musk 'one of the biggest private donors' of Ukraine's future victory.

On December 7, 2021, a major AWS outage in the US-EAST-1 region caused widespread disruptions lasting approximately 5 hours. Affected services included Amazon's own Ring doorbells, Alexa voice assistant, and third-party services like Disney+, Robinhood, and McDonald's mobile ordering. The outage highlighted systemic risks of cloud infrastructure concentration, as thousands of businesses depend on a single AWS region.

On October 4, 2021, all Meta services including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger went offline for approximately 6 hours due to a faulty BGP configuration change during routine maintenance. The outage affected an estimated 3.5 billion users worldwide, disrupted businesses dependent on the platforms, and caused an estimated $100 million in lost advertising revenue. WhatsApp's outage was particularly impactful in developing countries where it serves as critical communication infrastructure.

In August 2019, Cloudflare dropped 8chan (later rebranded 8kun) as a customer after the El Paso Walmart shooting, where the gunman posted a white supremacist manifesto on the site. CEO Matthew Prince cited 8chan's repeated role as a platform for mass shooting manifestos. This was only the second time Cloudflare had terminated a customer for content.

Between 2015 and 2018, investigations found Cloudflare provided cybersecurity services to websites affiliated with designated terrorist organizations. In 2015, Congressional testimony revealed two of the top three ISIS chat forums used Cloudflare. In 2018, HuffPost documented Cloudflare servicing at least 7 US-designated terrorist groups including Al-Shabaab, Taliban, Hamas, and PKK. Cloudflare stated its position was based on legal obligations rather than moral judgment.

In August 2017, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince personally decided to terminate services for neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer following the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally. Prince acknowledged the decision was arbitrary, writing internally 'I woke up this morning in a bad mood and decided to kick them off the internet.' This was the first time Cloudflare had ever terminated a customer for content.