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Facebook, currently known as Meta, was named the worst company in 2021 according to an audience survey conducted by Yahoo Finance, which seeks every year to announce the best and worst companies from around the world.
The company ranked the worst and received 50% more votes than the second worst-rated company, Chinese e-commerce Alibaba. On the other hand, Microsoft won the award for the best company this year.
People chose Facebook to be the worst company of the year based on the perception of censorship—feelings that freedom of expression was unfairly targeted. At the same time, users could not communicate what they wanted on the platform. Some spoke of Facebook’s impact on mental health and concerns about privacy, while others found that Facebook is responsible for the rise of far-right views.
Many criticized the platform for failing to monitor important false information, which in critics’ view contributed to people not taking the possibility of death seriously, especially concerning information related to COVID-19.
Despite the poll’s result, 30% of the participants said that Facebook could still redeem and restore its luster and improve its image. Facebook has been through many events this year; it changed its name to Meta and received much criticism after several former employees came out and revealed internal issues. Amongst other issues, the spread of false and misleading news on the platform has also had its toll on the company’s reputation.
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