Boycotted Companies in 2026: What the Data Shows
Boycotts are acts of moral conviction. But are they aimed at the right things?
Coca-Cola has been named the world's top plastic polluter for six consecutive years. Tesla has accumulated 15 substantiated labour violations in two years. Meta faces billions in regulatory penalties across multiple jurisdictions. These are three of the most boycotted companies of 2026 -- and the independent record suggests the boycotts have real substance behind them. For others on the list, the picture is less clear.
We scored eight of the most boycotted companies across 11 ethical dimensions using regulatory records, court filings, and investigative reporting. No corporate self-assessments. No sustainability report data. Just independently documented evidence processed through our scoring methodology.
The central question: do boycott campaigns target the issues where companies actually perform worst?
How Do Boycotted Companies Actually Score?
| Company | Honest & Fair Business | Fair Pay & Worker Respect | Safe & Smart Tech | Planet-Friendly Business | No War, No Weapons | Better Health for All | Respect for Cultures & Communities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meta Platforms | -60 | -30 | -70 | -10 | -50 | -60 | -50 |
| Amazon | -50 | -50 | -50 | -30 | -40 | -20 | +50 |
| Tesla | -60 | -20 | -20 | 0 | 0 | -30 | 0 |
| Coca-Cola | -20 | -20 | 0 | -50 | -30 | -70 | -10 |
| McDonald's | -10 | 0 | -60 | -60 | 0 | -50 | 0 |
| Nestle | -20 | +30 | -50 | -50 | 0 | -60 | 0 |
| Starbucks | 0 | -40 | -40 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -40 |
| Disney | 0 | 0 | -40 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -30 |
Scores range from -100 (worst) to +100 (best). Bold indicates notably low scores.
Not a single company scores positively on corporate integrity. Most are negative across the majority of dimensions. But the reasons differ from company to company -- and often from the reasons they are being boycotted.
Meta: What the Regulatory Record Shows
Meta scores -70 on Safe & Smart Tech, the lowest data privacy score of any company in this analysis. Three enforcement actions stand out:
- A record EUR 1.2 billion GDPR fine for unlawful data transfers to the U.S.
- A $1.4 billion settlement for illegally using facial recognition technology in Illinois
- A EUR 390 million fine for forcing users to accept personalised ads
Forty U.S. states urged Meta to address a surge in account hijackings in March 2024, with New York reporting a 1,000% increase since 2019.
On Better Health for All (-60), a multistate lawsuit alleges Meta's platforms are addictive and harmful to youth mental health -- a claim supported by internal research the company allegedly suppressed. Meta's own Oversight Board criticised the company for leaving up anti-Muslim and anti-migrant content during the 2025 UK riots.
On Respect for Cultures & Communities (-50), tribal nations filed lawsuits alleging Meta's platforms contributed to Native youth suicides. The company rejected a remediation request related to its role in the 2017 atrocities against the Rohingya in Myanmar. In January 2025, content moderation changes allow users to refer to LGBTQ+ people as mentally ill.
Boycott-Data Alignment: Boycott reason: Middle East conflict and political speech. Lowest score: Data privacy (-70). Alignment: Low -- the boycott targets political positioning, but the documented record is worst on privacy and public health.
View Meta's full score breakdown
Amazon: Military Contracts Meet Worker Hardship
Amazon scores -50 on Fair Pay & Worker Respect. The company accumulated seven substantiated labour-law violations in three years, including OSHA fines for unsafe conditions and an NLRB finding in February 2025 that Amazon illegally enforced its Unpaid Time Off policy. Among workers taking unpaid time off due to pain or exhaustion, the majority report food insecurity and inability to pay all bills, according to independent surveys.
On Honest & Fair Business (-50), Amazon will pay $2.5 billion to settle a U.S. lawsuit over deceptive Prime subscription practices. France's CNIL fined Amazon EUR 32 million for intrusive employee monitoring via handheld scanners.
Amazon's No War, No Weapons score of -40 reflects a share of the $9 billion Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract with the Pentagon and a $723.9 million contract with the U.S. Navy. AWS also provides cloud and AI services to the Israeli military, including for surveillance and confirming aerial strikes, according to investigative reporting.
One contrast: Amazon scores +50 on Respect for Cultures & Communities -- the highest score on any dimension for any company in this analysis, driven by its tribal partnerships and $2.2 billion investment in affordable housing.
Boycott-Data Alignment: Boycott reason: Labour practices and political spending. Lowest scores: Worker respect (-50) and corporate integrity (-50). Alignment: High -- the boycott targets match the documented evidence.
View Amazon's full score breakdown
Tesla: 15 Substantiated Labour Violations in Two Years
Tesla scores -60 on Honest & Fair Business. The company was removed from the S&P 500 ESG Index, faces allegations of false and misleading statements about its Autopilot technology, and has been involved in two Foreign Corrupt Practices Act cases resulting in over $14 million in penalties. It recalled 363,000 vehicles over safety and Full Self-Driving software concerns.
On Fair Pay & Worker Respect (-20), Tesla faced at least 15 substantiated labour law violations in 2023 and 2024 alone. These include OSHA citations related to a worker's electrocution death, a $3.2 million jury award to a former Black employee for a racially hostile work environment, and NLRB complaints for unlawful anti-union policies. Almost none of Tesla's 120,000 global employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements.
A data breach in May 2023 impacted 75,735 employees, with 100 gigabytes of confidential data leaked. Between 2019 and 2022, employees privately shared invasive videos recorded by customer car cameras, leading to a class action lawsuit.
One area where Tesla registers differently: on No War, No Weapons, the company scores 0, with no identified involvement in military contracting.
Boycott-Data Alignment: Boycott reason: CEO political conduct and corporate governance. Lowest score: Corporate integrity (-60). Alignment: Moderate -- the boycott targets governance, which is indeed the weakest dimension, though the specific complaints differ from the regulatory record.
View Tesla's full score breakdown
Coca-Cola: Six Years as the World's Top Plastic Polluter
Coca-Cola has the lowest Better Health for All score in this analysis at -70. Its core product line is linked to rising rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease globally. The WHO classified aspartame, used in its low-calorie alternatives, as "possibly carcinogenic." The company funded public health conferences without full disclosure, raising questions about the integrity of health information.
On Planet-Friendly Business (-50), Coca-Cola has been named the world's top plastic polluter for six consecutive years through 2023. In December 2024, the company revised down its environmental goals. Los Angeles County filed a lawsuit alleging deceptive practices regarding the recyclability of its plastic bottles.
For a broader look at how major consumer brands perform, see our analysis of the biggest consumer brands' ethics scores.
Boycott-Data Alignment: Boycott reason: Middle East conflict. Lowest score: Public health (-70). Alignment: Low -- the company's documented record is worst on health and plastic pollution, not geopolitics.
View Coca-Cola's full score breakdown
McDonald's: 60 Million Tonnes of CO2 and Child Labour Violations
McDonald's scores -60 on Planet-Friendly Business, with total greenhouse gas emissions of 60.2 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2023. On Safe & Smart Tech (-60), a March 2023 data breach in South Korea affected 4.87 million customers. The company was fined for insufficient access controls, failure to destroy expired personal data for 766,846 customers, and delayed breach notifications.
On Fair Pay & Worker Respect, the U.S. Department of Labor found in May 2023 that franchisees in Kentucky employed over 300 children in violation of labour laws -- including two 10-year-olds working unpaid until 2 a.m.
The Middle East boycott connection: McDonald's Israeli franchise provided free meals to the IDF during the Gaza conflict, prompting McDonald's Corporation to purchase all Israeli outlets in 2024. But on No War, No Weapons, McDonald's scores 0 -- no identified arms revenue or military contracts.
Boycott-Data Alignment: Boycott reason: Middle East conflict. Lowest scores: Emissions (-60) and data privacy (-60). Alignment: Low -- the boycott centres on geopolitics, but the documented record is worst on climate and data security.
View McDonald's full score breakdown
Nestle: Selling Its Least Healthy Products to Its Most Vulnerable Consumers
Nestle scores -60 on Better Health for All. In 2024, 62% of its net sales came from products with a health star rating below 3.5 out of 5. The Global Access to Nutrition Index found that Nestle's product healthiness was lowest in low-income countries.
On Safe & Smart Tech (-50), Nestle experienced multiple data breaches, including a leak of 4,409 employee records in Brazil and an earlier breach by threat actor R00TK1T that exposed sensitive internal information.
One contrast: Nestle scores +30 on Fair Pay & Worker Respect, with 1:1 gender pay equity achieved in 2019 and five consecutive years on Bloomberg's Gender Equality Index.
Boycott-Data Alignment: Boycott reason: Water privatisation and infant formula marketing. Lowest score: Public health (-70 when historical record is included). Alignment: High -- the boycott targets health practices, which is the documented weak point.
View Nestle's full score breakdown
Starbucks and Disney: Where Boycotts Outpace the Evidence
The boycott campaigns against Starbucks and Disney are primarily driven by perceived political positions and the Middle East conflict.
Starbucks scores 0 on No War, No Weapons -- the company publicly stated it has never funded military operations and provided over $3 million to World Central Kitchen for humanitarian meals in Gaza. Its lowest scores are in Fair Pay & Worker Respect (-40), where CEO compensation reached 6,666 times median employee pay in 2024 and NLRB judges cited "egregious and widespread misconduct" in anti-union dealings. On Fair Trade & Ethical Sourcing (-30), a 2023 investigation uncovered slave and child labour on certified coffee farms in its supply chain.
Disney's scores are among the least severe in this group. Its notable weaknesses are in Safe & Smart Tech (-40), driven by a July 2024 breach leaking over a terabyte of company data including employee passport numbers, and a $20 million COPPA penalty for collecting children's data without parental consent.
For a wider view of how everyday brands compare on integrity, see our ethical breakdown of everyday companies.
Boycott-Data Alignment (Starbucks): Boycott reason: Middle East conflict. Lowest score: Worker respect (-40). Alignment: Low -- documented issues centre on labour practices, not geopolitics.
Boycott-Data Alignment (Disney): Boycott reason: Political speech and cultural content. Lowest score: Data privacy (-40). Alignment: Low -- documented issues centre on data security, not content decisions.
Which Boycotts Are Backed by Evidence?
The strongest alignment between boycott campaigns and documented evidence is with Amazon and Nestle. Amazon is boycotted partly for its labour practices, and its labour record is among the worst in this group. Nestle is boycotted for health-related practices, and its health scores reflect that.
Meta, Tesla, and Coca-Cola sit in a middle ground. All three have severe documented records, but the boycott campaigns target different issues than where the companies score worst. Meta's boycotts focus on political speech; its worst scores are on data privacy. Tesla's boycotts target CEO conduct; the regulatory record centres on corporate fraud and labour violations. Coca-Cola's boycotts relate to the Middle East; its record is worst on plastic pollution and public health.
The weakest alignment is with Starbucks and Disney, where the boycott activity does not correspond to the areas where these companies score lowest.
McDonald's illustrates the gap clearly: boycotted over the Middle East conflict, its actual documented record is worst on greenhouse gas emissions and data breaches -- neither of which features in the boycott narrative.
What Boycott-Data Gaps Mean for Investors
For investors building portfolios aligned with their values, the question is not whether a company is being boycotted. It is whether the underlying behaviour is documented and recurring.
Meta has been fined repeatedly for the same data privacy violations. Amazon's labour issues span years and geographies. Coca-Cola's plastic pollution record has worsened, not improved. These are patterns, not isolated incidents.
Advisors navigating client conversations around boycotted companies can use Mashinii's independently sourced data to distinguish between social media sentiment and documented corporate conduct. See how Mashinii supports advisors.
Every company profiled here is available for free research on Mashinii, with full score breakdowns and source citations across all 11 dimensions.
How We Score
Mashinii scores companies across 11 ethical dimensions using evidence from public records, regulatory actions, and investigative reporting. Every score is backed by cited sources. No corporate self-assessments are used.
Learn more about our methodology
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Mashinii provides integrity data for informational purposes. This is not financial advice.