Before the name change to Meta, Facebook was not having a good year. Multiple reports exposed the company's unwillingness to combat antisemitism and deals to allow political misinformation to spread. Additionally, plans to trick preteen girls to join its social media platforms despite evidence it harms their mental health were revealed.
To bookend the company's terrible year, Yahoo Finance has worked its magic. As part of the outlet’s annual awards ceremony, a Worst Company of the Year award had to be handed out. For 2021, that company was none other than Meta.
Yahoo Finance awards Meta ‘Worst Company of the Year 2021’
Decided by the readers of Yahoo Finance, Meta’s crowning of Worst Company of 2021 was barely a competition. Despite hedge fund companies like Robinhood being lined up amid this year’s Gamestop scandal, The Company Formerly Known As Facebook easily took the “win”.
Additionally, not only did Facebook win the most votes, but it also received the highest number of write-in votes. For comparison, traditional votes simply require a voter to select an option whereas write-in votes require additional, written information.
Meta’s landslide victory dominated the competition. In second place, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba was crowned. However, Meta received 50% more votes, ensuring that its first place position wasn't even close to being bested.
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Why was Meta voted Worst Company of the Year?
Yahoo Finance explained that there wasn't a single reason behind readers voting Meta the Worst Company of 2021. Instead, it was a multitude of reasons, ranging from its CEO Mark Zuckerberg to The Metaverse and its treatment of children. The outlet explained that it was hard to pin down a “singular offense”.
Despite this, a sizable section of Yahoo’s audience believes the company could redeem itself. However, this number is slim at just 30% of people who voted for the company as being the absolute worst.
Yahoo wrote:
"One respondent said Facebook could redeem itself by acknowledging and apologizing for what it did and donating a “sizable amount” of its profits for a foundation to help reverse its harm. While some people saw the Meta rebrand as a cynical attempt to change the conversation, following Don Draper’s advice in scandal, others were excited by the potential of a new direction that could a) be interesting and b) something different from the aging social media model. A significant amount of responses focused on executives and founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.”
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The Metaverse Future
Part of Facebook’s massive rebrand came from the company's incredibly negative association. Nevertheless, the company has been unable to escape a constant wave of negativity, so much so that governments have said the exact same thing.
Even in its quest for the metaverse, the company has been met with constant roadblocks such as The Metaverse’s first sexual predator. As it turns out, the mega-corporation is constantly followed by negativity.