This year was a mix of vaccine misinformation, random internet outages, and another T-Mobile data breach.
Most of us thought 2020 was the peak of challenges as the coronavirus pandemic shook the world. Several problems we encountered in 2020, ranging from misinformation to ransomware to QAnon, trailed a notch higher this year. And while technology continued to keep us informed and connected during this pandemic, it also complicated our lives. Things kept getting worse.
Here are the biggest tech fails of 2021:
Misinformation
It seems like a deja vu from 2020’s record. Misinformation was a serious problem last year. Whether it was dangerous and false conspiracy theories about vaccine dangers or the rise of QAnon, it’s gotten difficult to identify what’s real and what’s fake. The extent of anti-vaccine misinformation has led to delays in reaching the targets on vaccination rates stalling. Also, it results in worst cases sending more people to the ICU.
The blame falls to social media such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. It is where conspiracy theories, false claims, and misinformation spread quickly.
Capitol riots
Trump’s speech wasn’t the only means that drove the angry mob to gather upon the Capitol, a violent act that even resulted in five deaths. Trump used Twitter and Facebook to push baseless accusations that the election was a fraud. Discussion of revolution exploded on traditional social media sites such as Parler, which went dark after the riots.
The clash led to Facebook and Twitter banning Trump from their platforms. Meanwhile, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg took criticism for saying the US Capitol riot wasn’t “largely organized” on Facebook.
Facebook Rebranded to Meta
Facebook COO Sandberg pushing back against any involvement in the election-related riots was just a tip of the iceberg for Facebook. There were many criticisms regarding Facebook last year. There were issues with its Instagram for kids project. Likewise, there were allegations for whistleblower Frances Haugen that the company prioritized profits over containing a toxic platform full of hate and misinformation.
Amidst all of the controversy, Facebook held its annual virtual reality conference at which it rebranded itself, Meta. The pre-recorded event, which focused on the potential of a new metaverse, was not ideal in the middle of headlines about the company.
Supply Chain Crisis
We were shocked at the Ever Given cargo ship jammed in the Suez Canal. It was part of a much larger supply chain crisis that has resulted in shortages in everything from PlayStation 5 to tennis balls.
In addition, automakers have had to suspend car production because of the shortage of supply of lower-end chips that power most of the electronics in vehicles.
The disruption in the global supply chain and the impact of the pandemic will still be felt through 2022.
Activision Blizzard’s ‘frat boy’ culture
Maybe the only thing as bad as the revelation of the toxic culture at Activision’s Blizzard unit, with accounts of everything from sexual discrimination to rate, has been the mindless response by its leadership. Several issues arose after California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a case against the gaming giant.
Instead of confirming the allegations, Activision Blizzard pushed back through a staff email sent by Frances Townsend, Vice President for Corporation Affairs. But, the letter was drafted by CEO Bobby Kotick, who was reportedly aware of the concerns but failed to take action.
Now, employees and shareholders ask Kotick to resign, and Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have all condemned Activision’s behavior.
Internet outages
In June, the Fastly outage was when their cloud computing service provider suffered a glitch that almost shut down half the internet. It knocked out critical providers like Amazon.
Then, Facebook’s lousy year continued in October when it suffered its outage due to incorrect configuration, disconnecting the data centers from its various social networks.
T-Mobile data breach
T-Mobile suffered a massive data breach that disclosed the information of over 54 million people. It is getting worse, considering this is the company’s fifth hack in three years.
Tesla’s Full Self Driving rollout
The biggest tech fails of 2021 don’t stop with Elon Musk himself. Tesla’s long-promised Full Self Driving rollout remains unclear. For several years, Tesla buyers have been shelling out thousands of extra dollars for the promise of a self-driving car.
The billionaire space race
The race among billionaire CEOs Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and Elon Musk to be the first to get to space prompts the question: Why couldn’t you have spent your fortune helping people down here on Earth?
Read more of the biggest tech fails of 2021 here.
