Mired in controversy throughout the year, Facebook, which recently rebranded as Meta, was named the worst company of the year in a recent survey by Yahoo Finance.

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The open-ended survey was conducted by the publication on Survey Monkey on December 4 and 5, and 1,541 respondents participated in it.

Facebook received 50 percent more votes than Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba, which was the runner-up.

Last year, electric truck startup Nikola was rated as the worst company by the same publication.

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“The survey’s results shed more light on why the company (Facebook) decided to rebrand this year to a new name: Meta Platforms,” Yahoo Finance said.

Facebook is said to have rebranded as Meta Platforms in September to deflect the press after a scathing testimony by former employee-turned-whistleblower Frances Haugen to the US and UK lawmakers on how the social media platform disregarded user safety in pursuit of profit.

Recently, parent company Meta said around 50,000 Instagram and Facebook users may have been targeted by seven private surveillance-for-hire firms to “collect intelligence, manipulate them into revealing information and compromise their devices and accounts.”

Also read: More Meta trouble: Facebook and Instagram collect browsing data from minors, say researchers

Respondents in the Yahoo Finance survey had a litany of grievances, including complaints of censorship, against Facebook. On the other hand, some complained that the social media giant was unable to control misinformation. Some respondents were upset about the impact of its photo-sharing site Instagram on the mental health of children, teens and young people.

However, around 30 percent of the survey respondents said Facebook could redeem itself.

The survey rated Microsoft as the company of the year, based on its market performance and achievements. This year, Microsoft became the second company after Apple to achieve a market capitalisation above $2 trillion. The tech giant’s stock price surged 53 percent as on December 16, year-to-date.

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)

First Published:Dec 21, 2021 7:49 PM IST