As the decade comes to a close, most of us are happy to see the end of the ’10s.
It was the decade of Donald Trump, Cambridge Analytica, water shortages, Eskom and load shedding, and a host of other things we’ll all be happy to see the back of.
It was also a decade of tech innovation that saw space travel and communication taken to new heights.
Along with these advancements, however, came a series of scandals that has left us more distrusting of technology than ever.
Here’s Business Insider:
Tech companies are increasingly at the center of political and social issues in the US and across the globe, and the past 10 years saw a wave of abuses of power, failed business ventures, and disastrous gadget rollouts.
Let’s take stock of 10 of the worst tech scandals of the 2010s:
2010
2010 was a brutal reminder of the conditions in factories where our devices are made.
Roughly 14 workers committed suicide due to their brutal working conditions at a Chinese factory making smartphones and HP computers.
Foxconn, which manufactures gadgets for clients including Nintendo, and HP, reportedly expected workers to put in extreme overtime shifts under dismal working conditions and with cruel management who would dock workers’ pay for minor infractions, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Since then, working conditions have improved and a new law that came into effect in 2012, limiting working hours.
2013
This was the year of Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who released confidential documents showing that the National Security Agency in the US secretly had access to Google and Yahoo servers.
Here he is explaining why he leaked the documents:
It’s the first time that we really took stock of the idea that ‘Big Brother’ is actually watching.
More recently, he searched the CIA network for facts about aliens and the moon landing.
2015
This was a bad year for Volkswagen who were forced to admit that they’d been cheating on their emissions tests.
2016
2016 saw a number of massive tech scandals, so you’ll want to get comfortable.
- Dodgy startup Theranos, under leader Elizabeth Holmes, fails to pull through on promises that it can run tests on a single drop of blood. Holmes is still under investigation and facing charges of criminal fraud.
- Samsung recalls the Galaxy Note 7 after a number of phones explode while charging.
- Apple ordered to pay €13 billion in EU back taxes after receiving illegal tax breaks from Ireland.
2017
Facebook is forced to admit that the 2016 election that put Donald Trump in power was helped along by the thousands of ads bought by fake accounts linked to Russia.
Accounts that were “likely operated out of Russia” spent roughly $100,000 (R1.4 million) in Facebook ads beginning in June 2015 with the aim of influencing the 2016 presidential election, Facebook disclosed in September 2017.
This brought an end to Facebook’s attempts to deny that Russia had used the social media platform for political ends.
Also in 2017, a Google engineer decided that it would be a good idea to circulate a manifesto criticising the company’s plans to increase racial and gender diversity.
2018
This is another big year for tech scandals, and a really bad year for Facebook.
- Google exec Andy Rubin is outed as a sexual predator, sparking multiple reports of sexual misconduct across the company and resulting in mass protests and walk-outs across the globe.
- Facebook is blamed for playing a part in Myanmar’s genocide of Rohingya Muslims by allowing hate speech on the social media platform.
- Facebook is forced to admit that Cambridge Analytica obtained and mishandled millions of users’ data, potentially influencing the Trump campaign.
- Google’s employees protest the company’s secret contract to help the Pentagon build AI for drones (horrifying thought). The company agreed not to renew the secret contract.
Which brings us to this year, and all the tech scandal that came with it.
2019
Messages reveal that a top Boeing pilot was warned of “egregious” problems with the Boeing 737 Max long before they took to the skies and started crashing.
The crashes, which took place in October 2018 and March 2019, killed 346 people. After the second crash, all Boeing 737 Max planes were grounded, and Boeing’s handling of the incident is the subject of an ongoing FBI investigation.
They should never have been allowed to leave the runway.
Well, that brings us to the end of a decade of tech scandals. Of course, there are more than those we’ve listed here, but these are some of the standouts.
I’m sure they won’t be the last.
Onwards and upwards!
[source:businessinsider]
