It looks like Facebook’s recent strategy of rebranding to distract from its long list of controversies has failed (at least partly). According to a recent survey by Yahoo Finance, Meta (formerly Facebook) has been rated ‘worst company of 2021’.
Unliking Meta
Every year, the platform crowns the best company of the year (congrats on the title, Microsoft), and this year Yahoo Finance decided to comply with the recent theme of cynicism and crown the worst company too. It gathered its data from a pool of 1,000 respondents, who voted in favour of making Facebook the year’s biggest loser.
“Facebook received 50% more votes for the spot compared to Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce platform,” MacRumors reports.
Apparently, most of the respondents brought up a list of grievances they’ve experienced with the company now known as Meta, including concerns over censorship, Instagram’s direct impact on younger users’ mental health and privacy. All very valid concerns if you consider what the company made headlines for this year.
It’s not all doom and gloom, however, and about 30% of respondents said that they believe the company can redeem itself if it considers “acknowledging and apologising for what it did.” Which is a big ask for a company like Facebook… ahem… Meta. The company essentially rebranded in a bid to escape its tainted name.
The company’s found itself connected to various privacy and user safety issues over the past few years. And it’s not getting better. New name and all.