Meta (Facebook & Instagram)

Reasons to avoid

1. The FTC fined Meta $5 billion in 2019 — the largest privacy fine ever imposed on any company — after Cambridge Analytica harvested personal data from 87 million Facebook users without consent and used it to target voters in the 2016 presidential election.ftc.gov2019-07-24
2. Zuckerberg personally approved a 2017 algorithm change that disproportionately cut traffic to progressive outlets — progressive site Mother Jones reported losing $400,000–$600,000 in annual revenue as a direct result.tomwellborn.substack.com2025-09-17
3. Unsealed court filings in a 1,800-plaintiff lawsuit allege Meta's algorithm was recommending 1.4 million potentially inappropriate adults to teens every day, even as the company publicly denied awareness of such harms.news.inbox.lv2025-11-22
4. The FTC sued Meta alleging it bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014 specifically to neutralize competitive threats; internal emails showed Zuckerberg wrote that he could 'neutralize' rivals through acquisition rather than compete on merit.cnbc.com2025-04-11
5. A 2023 Wall Street Journal investigation found Instagram's recommendation algorithm was actively connecting a network of pedophiles — researchers following just a handful of account suggestions found their test accounts immediately flooded with sellers of child sexual abuse material.cnbc.com2023-06-07
6. The Washington Post revealed in 2022 that Meta paid Republican consulting firm Targeted Victory to plant op-eds and letters to the editor in local newspapers — including the Denver Post and Des Moines Register — falsely portraying TikTok as a danger to American children.washingtonpost.com2022-03-30
7. Amnesty International filed an SEC whistleblower complaint in 2025 alleging Meta misled shareholders about its role in the 2017 Rohingya genocide; despite a UN conclusion that Myanmar's generals should face genocide charges, Meta has refused to pay even the $1 million in reparations requested.amnesty.org2025-02-17
8. Meta's content moderators in Nairobi, contracted through Sama, were paid as little as $1.46 an hour to review graphic violence and child abuse material; when 184 workers organized to demand better conditions, Sama shut down the entire moderation team and the workers sued, alleging they were fired in retaliation.restofworld.org2023-05-22