Block - 1792 Exchange

Rating Overview

Block is Medium Risk.

Block (Square) is Medium Risk. The company often yields to political activism in shaping corporate governance, potentially alienating consumers, dividing employees, and harming shareholders. The company implements race and identity-based policies that replace merit, excellence, and integrity with preferential treatment and outcomes. Block occasionally embraces corporate initiatives that redirect its central focus from business goals to partisan policies and divisive issues at times. This approach fails to safeguard free exercise, free speech, and free enterprise.

Rating Criteria

Corporate Weaponization Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Cancellations	Medium Risk
Discriminatory Philanthropy	Lower Risk
Employment Protection	High Risk

Corporate Weaponization ⓘ

Corporate Governance and Public Policy Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Advocacy Bias	High Risk
Funding	High Risk
Political Actions	Lower Risk

Corporate Governance and Public Policy ⓘ

Rating Criteria Detail

Criteria Risk Level Rationale

Corporate Weaponization

Criteria:

Has canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors due to their political views or religious beliefs OR corporately boycotts, divests, or sanctions regions, people groups, or industries.

Risk Level:

Medium

Rationale:

Block received a score of 55 on the 2025 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a political stakeholder group. The company recruits employees based on sexual identity issues, indicating it prioritizes sexual issues over merit (1)(2). The company promotes divisive sex and gender policies. Its Supplier Code of Conduct requires international vendors to include sexual orientation and gender expression in their nondiscrimination policy (3). However, the company has not publicly canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors based on political views or religious beliefs (4).

Criteria:

Charitable giving (including employee matching programs) policies or practices discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or religious beliefs.

Risk Level:

Lower

Rationale:

Block does not appear to discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or beliefs (1).

Criteria:

Employment policies fail to protect against viewpoint or other discrimination and/or are ideological in nature.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Block offers unconscious bias training to its employees (1). The company appears to prioritize diversity over merit in its promotions. From its Building and Inclusive and Diverse Workplace Page: “We embed checks within our system to combat bias…Our approach includes…checklists to reduce the influence of bias, and an audit for evidence of bias before decisions are finalized (2).” The company does not provide viewpoint protections for its employees (3).

Corporate Governance and Public Policy

Criteria:

Uses corporate reputation to support causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Block (then Square, Inc.) issued a statement in 2015 opposing a Religious Freedom Restoration Act law in Indiana (1). The company signed an open letter endorsing the Equality Act, a contentious proposal to amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act by adding sexual orientation and so-called gender identity as protected categories. The legislation would, among other implications, grant biological men access to women-only spaces such as sports teams and public restrooms, and compel healthcare providers to deliver sex-denying healthcare (2). The company opposed the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, which would prohibit teaching gender identity and sexual orientation to kids in K-3rd grade (3). Block’s CEO Jack Dorsey is a signatory to CEOs For Gun Safety (4). The company opposed various state and local legislation intended to protect parental rights, girls’ sports, bathroom facilities, and gendered spaces (5)(6). It opposed legislation in Iowa intended to protect parental rights, girls’ sports, bathroom facilities, and gendered spaces (7). The company’s, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Sivan Whiteley, co-signed a letter to law firms demanding an improvement in diversity in order to retain business with the company (8). The company is committed to net zero emissions by 2030 (9).

Criteria:

Uses corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Block provides a benefits package for employees that covers travel/lodging costs for an abortion (1)(2). The company’s HRC 2025 CEI rating indicates the company covers transgender related costs for its employees and their children, including paid short-term leave, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, chest surgeries, genital surgeries, medical visits and lab monitoring, travel and lodging. By allowing a political stakeholder group to dictate operations, the company increases health care costs and risks dividing employees, alienating customers and harming shareholders (3)(4). In 2020, it committed to investing $100 million into “minority and undeserved” companies as part of its Racial Equity and Social Impact Pledge (5). Otherwise, there are no publicly known cases of the company using corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies (6).