At the end of every year, many authoritative companies such as Yahoo Finance selects a ‘Company of the Year’ and the ‘Worst Company of the Year’ based on its market performance and its achievements that particular year by carrying out surveys.
In 2021, Microsoft comes out as the best company of the year smashing through the $2 trillion market capitalization mark and seeing a 53% surge in its stock price as of Dec. 16, year-to-date.
Also from the survey carried out by Yahoo Finance, the worst company of the year turned out to be Facebook (Meta). At least 1,541 respondents were mad about a lot this year about Facebook as the survey’s results shed more light on why the company decided to rebrand this year to a new name: Meta Platforms.
Why is Facebook the worst company in the world?
Facebook has had its share of controversies this year. It’s been under the antitrust microscope and faced a flurry of allegations from a whistleblower claiming Facebook ignored safety issues for the sake of growth. Congress is constantly demanding answers from the company on both fronts. At the same time, some critics, including conservatives, say Facebook over-policed the platform’s speech and stifled their voices. Other critics, including those on the left side of the aisle, claim Facebook allows the spread of misinformation.
The third group of users complains of censorship. We guess you will agree that Facebook users talk about whatever they want and in the way they want. And though some will argue saying it’s “free-speech policy”, we can insist that Facebook is fertile soil for immorality.
Facebook has got tons of negative comments due to its photo-sharing site Instagram. Users think there is almost no control over the content, which could have a bad impact on children and young people. By the way, for the same reason, the US government (and not only it) banned TikTok.
However, 30% of respondents think “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.” Others are sure that Facebook understands everything very well and rebrands itself to avoid further implications.
Interestingly, many respondents think it can redeem itself by growing its stock price. As for the latest news, the stock is up 22% year-to-date. This is not bad but still lagging the S&P 500. Moreover, it’s down around 13% from its September high.
