A survey by Yahoo Finance has designated Facebook/Meta as the worst company of 2021. Facebook has had a terrible year by any yardstick, thanks in no small part to the whistleblower revelations by Frances Haugen, a data scientist who served as a product manager at the company. Since Haugen's revelations, there has been a torrent of negative news about the company, including how Facebook showed violent and explicit content to non-tech savvy users and lied about targeting teens with ads.
To escape media scrutiny and change the public narrative, the company changed its name from Facebook to Meta, although that doesn't seem to have helped it clean up its image. The company is also facing antitrust battles at home and abroad, with the FTC earlier this year filing a lawsuit seeking to break up the social media giant for allegedly abusing its monopoly over personal social networking services in the U.S. Meta was also recently sued by the Russian government for not removing content that Moscow deems illegal.
Every year Yahoo anoints a 'Company of the Year,' based on market performance and achievements that year. Microsoft won that distinction this year, mainly on the back of its stellar stock performance that saw the company's market cap hit the two-trillion mark back in June. Yahoo Finance also chooses a 'Worst Company of the Year' through an online poll. This year, the respondents to the survey picked Meta (formerly Facebook) as the company that they universally disliked ahead of the stock-trading app Robinhood and electric truck startup Nicola.
Alibaba Was Voted Second Worst
According to Yahoo, the survey was posted on Yahoo Finance on Dec. 4 and Dec. 5, with hundreds of people writing in their choices for the worst company this year. Facebook reportedly received eight percent of the write-in vote, helping it secure its position at the top of the 'worst companies' list for 2021. While eight percent doesn't sound too bad, it was still 50-percent more votes than the next name on the list, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.
Interestingly, Facebook received hate from both sides of the political spectrum in the Yahoo Finance poll. While people on the right felt that the site was censoring their voice, those on the left believed that the platform was contributing to the prevailing misinformation and hatred in society. Apart from that, many were also upset about how the company was ignoring the mental health issues of children and young people, especially regarding the body image issues of young girls on Instagram.
Source: Yahoo Finance