CV NEWS FEED // Megacorporations including Disney, Comcast, PayPal, and JPMorgan Chase scored less than 10% on the 2023 Viewpoint Diversity Score Business Index, which measures corporate respect for free speech and religious freedom.
The index report, released by the legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) in partnership with Inspire Insight, rated 75 public companies across 42 performance indicators. The 2023 second-year edition saw eight companies, including Adobe and M&T Bank, increase their scores.
Fidelity National Information Services scored the highest at 50% out of a possible 100%. The company earned a 65% in its “Public Square Score,” which includes criteria such as “less than 45% of political spending undermined free speech” and “no support for litigation harmful to speech or religion.”
Airbnb scored lowest with a mere 2%. The “Market Score” for the rental market mogul was 0% for how it respects its customers’ freedom of expression and belief. Many companies like Airbnb got low scores primarily because they did not participate in the survey portion of the Business Index.
The Index focuses on the industries with “the greatest potential to impact individuals’ or institutions’ freedom of speech or religion,” ADF Senior Counsel and Senior Vice President for Corporate Engagement Jeremy Tedesco explained.
“Threats to freedom don’t just come from the government,” he said, “but from major corporations like financial institutions and big tech companies that have concentrated power over essential services and communication channels.”
“Companies need to take seriously the way their policies and practices can chill the exercise of speech and religion and deter individuals from participating in the democratic process,” he added.
Other companies in the single digits included Amazon, eBay, Pinterest, Twitter, Bank of America, Oracle, and BlackRock.
