Do we like Meta?
Owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and sells ads on them. It also works on AI and VR. Based in Menlo Park, California.
Our score: 2 out of 10. Probably not. Courts and juries keep finding it misled people or put children at risk, and Reuters reported it profits from scam ads. One man controls it.
Zuckerberg started Facebook in 2004, and it grew into Meta, owner of Instagram and WhatsApp. It's now a roughly $1.7 trillion company. Zuckerberg owns about 13% of the shares but controls about 61% of the votes, so he picks the board and can't be removed as CEO against his will.
2026 was rough in court. In March a New Mexico jury ordered $375m over child safety on Instagram and Facebook. In August a judge added $567m and ordered limits on notifications for under-18s. A Los Angeles jury also found Meta and Google negligent in an addiction case. Meta says it disagrees and will appeal.
Then came October. A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25bn after a jury found it misled users about privacy and content rules. He wrote that senior leadership was involved. Meta says it will appeal. In August it also settled claims from 29 states for $18bn, without admitting wrongdoing.
Then there are the scam ads. Reuters reviewed internal documents suggesting Meta expected about 10% of its 2024 revenue to come from scam and banned-product ads. Meta says that figure was overly inclusive and that the documents give a selective view. Poland is now pushing the EU to act.
It did win one big fight. In November 2025 a judge ruled the FTC hadn't proved Meta is an illegal monopoly, so it keeps Instagram and WhatsApp. That's a win, but it doesn't offset the child-safety and honesty findings. We score it a 2.