X Corp. (formerly Twitter) — Ethics Grade F

X Corp. (formerly Twitter) receives an overall ethics grade of F (14/100) on CancelCo's corporate accountability database. Sector: Social Media. Market cap: Large Cap.

Category scores

• labor: 10
• privacy: 8
• consumer: 12
• environment: 40
• humanRights: 15

Documented incidents (3)

• Misuse of Security Data for Ads (high, 2022) — The FTC fined the company for deceptively using users' personal phone numbers and email addresses, provided specifically for two-factor authentication, to serve targeted advertisements. This violated a previous 2011 consent order.
• Illegal Hate Speech Proliferation (high, 2023) — The European Commission opened formal proceedings against X for failure to tackle the spread of illegal content and disinformation, specifically regarding the rise of hate speech following staff layoffs in the safety department.
• Mass Layoffs and Unpaid Severance (high, 2022) — Following Elon Musk's acquisition, the company terminated roughly 50% of its workforce without proper notice periods required by the WARN Act and faced multiple lawsuits for failing to pay agreed-upon severance packages.

Documented good deeds

• Community Notes Expansion — Open-sourced the Community Notes algorithm to allow for crowdsourced fact-checking and transparency in disinformation mitigation.

Ethical alternatives

• Mastodon — Decentralized, non-profit platform with no ad tracking and community-led moderation.