Meta (formerly Facebook) has been crowned as the worst company of 2021, according to a survey conducted by Yahoo Finance.?
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The survey that was conducted from December 4 to 5 received responses from 1,541 respondents. Out of which over 50 percent votes for the year for the worst company went to the social media giant, with runner up Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.?
Meta was categorised as the worst company of the year based on perceptions of censorship -- specifically the right and conservative voices -- which the individuals termed as ¡®free speech police¡¯ and claiming that they should have been allowed to share and communicate whatever they believed in on the social media platforms.??
Another respondent highlighted the effects of its platforms on the mental health of adults and teenagers as well as concerns surrounding the company targeting children for its products. One respondent blamed the company for the rise of right extremist views.?
One of the respondents also went ahead to say that Meta could do some damage control by acknowledging and apologizing for all the wrong it has done, and donating a chunk of its profits to an initiative. But this thought was shared only by three out of ten respondents.?
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Oddly, while some respondents thought Facebook¡¯s Meta rebranding to be a way to take attention away from the social media platform¡¯s ill practices, others were excited for the new avenues the company is foraying into.?
Microsoft, on the other hand, was crowned as the best company of the year by the respondents. The company got this title for reaching a market capitalisation milestone of $2 trillion, along with a 53% year-to-date surge in its stock price.
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