Most Evilest Tech Companies Ever
More than 800 million people are currently using Facebook. So it only makes sense that a business of this size would attract some detractors. Facebook, however, has the lowest American Customer Satisfaction Index score when compared to other widely used social media networks.
Why you might ask?
Facebook, on the other hand, needs no introduction when it comes to scandals. By disregarding user privacy, the website has frequently irritated consumers. The organization has a history of handling user data poorly.
There is a disastrous expansion into nations without any person who could speak the language. Not to mention the desire to avoid offending critics on the right. These are only a few examples of the harm it causes to people.
However, one of the most well-known news stories in recent years involved Facebook’s assistance of Cambridge Analytica in the spread of misleading information. It may have had a significant impact on the US presidential election, which had far-reaching effects internationally.
Facebook has been under heavy criticism since the controversy. It makes us ask if this company, which makes use of user data, is unethical or harmful to the Internet’s ecology as a whole.
Amazon
Nearly 27 years have passed since Amazon initially welcomed book lovers from all around the world to its online store. Little did the world understand at the time that they were making purchases at a store that will eventually sell souls.
That hasn’t actually happened yet, though. Amazon is on the right track, though, as seen by its quick growth and domination as well as its famed immoral business methods.
The worst possible working conditions, harassment instances, and other issues may all be found at Amazon. People are given peanuts in exchange for donating their lives to the business.
If you can’t keep up with that statistic, they don’t care. It was said that they had one employee for every million dollars in revenue. However, owner Jeff Bezos is pleased with the way he manages his business. He thinks the world is a “dog eat dog” place, and he has no qualms about mistreating his workers.
One of the most powerful entities on the Internet is Google. Google is what we use to research things. We download Chrome when we want a respectable browser. On our Android devices, we read list-based websites, check Gmail for emails, watch videos on YouTube, blog about ourselves, and read videos.
It is incredible how a business with the motto “Don’t be evil” has managed to gain such total, ruthless dominance. But it’s not just Google, regrettably. Any tech giant you can think of is nearly definitely engaged in activities that harm the globe and the rights we value, if not actively harmful.
Google not only watches every keystroke you make, but it also secretly distorts your worldview. Gizmodo reporter Kashmir Hill saw this tampering firsthand.
Google attempted to advertise its Plus social network in 2011 on websites like Forbes. Google personnel explained how skipping Plus’s “+1” button would result in Google penalizing Forbes in search rankings during a meeting Hill attended.
Google deliberately works to corrupt the public’s perception of the world. They also try to impose a style of thinking, which is more significant. Evil is the most appropriate adjective to use when describing that behavior.
Baidu
The Chinese multinational is the second-largest smart speaker vendor and provider of search engines globally. Two-thirds of China’s online search market leader Baidu is thought to have actively worked to stifle news of the 2019 pro-democracy protests.
One of the things we’ve learned about technology over the past two decades is that it is unquestionably not neutral: platforms and products have cultural norms and prejudices ingrained in them by the designers and decision-makers.
In order to filter and monitor its users, Baidu collaborates with the Chinese government. Unquestionably, Baidu will be one of the instruments China employs to maintain control over its own populace and enlarge its influence as we enter the next decade.
Verizon
Verizon is the biggest mobile provider in the US and also offers wired home phones, internet, and television service.
While also launching a number of harmful and opportunistic efforts against net neutrality, antitrust laws, and consumer protections, the same telecoms behemoth made the phrase “Can you hear me now?” into a cultural phenomenon.
The business did not, however, encounter substantial criticism until 2018.
Despite having an “unlimited” plan, a California fire chief said Verizon throttled his crew’s Internet connection to 1/200th of its previous plan during a wildfire crisis.
Verizon’s behavior, according to Santa Clara County Fire Chief Anthony Bowden, “severely interfered with the [fire crew’s] capacity to work properly” during the Mendocino Complex fire, a wildfire that is currently half the size of Rhode Island.
When Bowden’s department contacted Verizon to ask the business to cease limiting its data, the telecom behemoth asserted that it would only boost the fire department’s speed while moving to a new data plan that was twice as expensive.
Although this was undoubtedly wicked conduct, it may have been a daring plan to increase short-term profit.
Apple
Apple is one of the most powerful companies in the world, despite the fact that some people love it and others despise it. It wouldn’t have advanced this far if it didn’t have a basic understanding of managing a business.
Apple, however, also partakes in a few dubious commercial activities.
It’s hard to know where to begin when it comes to identifying Apple’s total lack of moral character. Apple has recently been charged with breaking health or environmental laws and abusing its monopoly to gain an advantage over competitors.
Of course, it also intentionally makes older iPhones run slower and overcharges for its goods. Apple has penalized 25 million euros for purposefully slowing down its iPhone models without informing customers.
And furthermore? Apple’s workers are similarly mistreated and paid insufficiently.
Workers in Chinese facilities who produced outsourced Apple products were reportedly imprisoned in appalling conditions in December 2014.
Workweeks of 60 hours were mandatory for employees. They occasionally went up to 18 days without a break. No of how worn out they were, nobody was allowed to refuse night shifts or take breaks while working. And what’s more, 12-year-olds have been found working in extremely hazardous circumstances. What else could possibly be evil if that?
Microsoft
The first thought that comes to mind when considering anything computing-related is Microsoft, the home of technical innovation. They still exist today and were among the early adopters of modern computing. Microsoft is a savvy company that offers everything from operating systems to word-processing programs. The “evil empire” is another name for them, though.
Authorities in charge of antitrust and consumer protection have humiliated Microsoft in front of the public for years. Microsoft’s decision to enter a market meant death – sometimes sooner, sometimes later – for other rivals in the same industry.
Because of this, Microsoft has pressured PC makers, engaged in a rivalry with its “cherished” software reseller/integrator partners, and kept its customers in the dark.
Is it still deserving of the label “Evil Empire”?
No doubt about it, Microsoft remains The Evil Empire. When you’re about to give up on Microsoft, business officials do something so heinous that it serves as a reminder of the company’s perseverance over the past forty years.
It was revealed in April 2019 that Microsoft’s research division in China collaborated on three artificial intelligence research papers with the nation’s National University of Defense Technology, which is run by the military.
And this isn’t just an improbable worry.
Without their permission, the business compiled a database of 100,000 writers, activists, policymakers, and other well-known individuals in 2016 that contained 10 million photographs.
Disney
Since it has absorbed companies like ABC, ESPN, Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, and more over the past 30 years, the benign entertainment conglomerate—and now streaming-video competitor—has caught the eye of antitrust enthusiasts.
Popular Twentieth Century Fox titles that were frequently seen in second-run theatres have been fading out of print. As New York magazine revealed in October, the studio has taken out of repertory movies like 1976’s The Omen and the 1986 remake of The Fly since Disney, known for its rigid policies, now owns it. Possibly not very evil, but not cool either.
Disney might be the only surprise on my list, despite the fact that it certainly behaves similarly to many other IT companies in aggressively enforcing copyrights. Here are two responses: First off, Disney is being pushed to become a digital company, like all other media companies, as social networking and streaming video gain traction.
Second, Disney and other businesses involved in copyrighted content have historically exerted significant influence over the course of technological advancement: They nearly killed out the VCR, may have actually killed off peer-to-peer technology, and have made it extremely difficult and complicated to build new technology in order to secure their copyrights.
Although the microblogging site suffers from many of the same issues as larger social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube, such as abuse, false information, and fraudulent accounts, its influence may be exaggerated because of its polarising appeal among journalists.
A decentralized social network concept that inspired the ideals of a more traditional, unadulterated internet was announced by Dorsey. However, several detractors viewed the concept as a practical means by which Twitter could eventually abdicate accountability for what its users do.
The president of the United States has threatened war crimes on Twitter. But even before that, it (together with Facebook and YouTube) fostered the worst aspects of human nature by promoting impulsivity, brutality, insincerity, rapid satisfaction, and performativity.
Byte Dance
A social networking start-up established in Beijing. ByteDance runs an A.I.-curated news app in China, raising typical censorship worries. However, the business has been under investigation in the US due to its app TikTok, which is favored by American teenagers for lip-syncing, short-form nonsense, and building a brand.
Since deep fakes can be used to create disinformation and revenge porn, the majority of major social media networks have avoided them. Except for ByteDance: Early in January, a market research company found unreleased code in TikTok and its sibling app Douyin that would let users create their own deep fakes. (ByteDance refuted claims that it intended to add a deep fakes function to TikTok.)
With regard to geopolitical issues aside, “TikTok is the closest that the world has ever come to ‘the Entertainment’ of Infinite Jest, an immersive experience that is so compelling that its users fail to remember to eat, drink, or sleep. Just be grateful that your phone’s battery life is limited.
