TripleLift - 1792 Exchange

Rating Overview

TripleLift is Medium Risk.

TripleLift 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. TripleLift 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	No Data
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	No Data

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:

TripleLift was a member of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, which demonetized and suppressed content that it deemed to spread “hate speech” or “misinformation”, discuss “debated social issues in a negative or partisan context”, or “vilif[y]” individuals based on sexual orientation and gender identity. These arbitrary guidelines were used to censor mainstream perspectives online (1)(2)(3). TripleLift has not 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:

N/A

Rationale:

TripleLift does not publish charitable giving guidelines (1).

Criteria:

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

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

TripleLift appears to prioritize diversity over merit in its hiring, employee benefits, and mentorship program. From its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion page: “DE&I is truly embedded in the way we do business… DE&I affects everyone starting with our inclusive hiring practices and our employee benefits, to our mentorship, inclusion and anti-racism training” (1). TripleLift also “satisf[ies] diverse spending goals”, and its “curated deals drive spend (sic) to Black, Latin, AAPI, LGBTQ+, and women-owned media companies, increasing monetization for publishers and helping advertisers support diverse communities” (2). The company offers anti-racism training to its employees (3). TripleLift does not provide viewpoint protections for its employees (4)(5).

Corporate Governance and Public Policy

Criteria:

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

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

TripleLift’s former CEO, Eric Berry, signed the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion pledge, which includes a commitment to promote DEI through bias education training in the workplace, strategize on DEI programs/initiatives with other signatories, and engage boards of directors when developing and evaluating DEI strategies (1)(2). The company opposed various state and local legislation intended to protect parental rights, girls’ sports, bathroom facilities, and gendered spaces (3)(4). TripleLift supports DEI within its business practices. From its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion page: “We believe in the power of diversity…Our commitment to DE&I is about educating and empowering people through the work we do, the employees we support, and the communities we serve” (5). TripleLift supports ESG within its business practices. From its Environmental Commitment page: “we created an environmental task force charged with instituting comprehensive, long-term environmental policies that meet or exceed industry guidelines” (6). The company has also established goals for reducing its carbon emissions (7).

Criteria:

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

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

TripleLift was a member of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (1)(2)(3). TripleLift partners with Display & Video 360 “to support Black and Latino-owned publishers” and “Underrepresented Voices” (4)(5). TripleLift partners with GroupM “to help buyers direct more spend to minority-owned publishers” (6). TripleLift partners with Raptive to “elevat[e] underrepresented voices” (7). TripleLift partners with Reset Digital “to significantly expand diverse spend and representation across the programmatic ecosystem” (8)(9). TripleLift partners with Patch, a company focused on carbon emission reduction (10)(11). Otherwise, there are no publicly known cases of TripleLift using corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies (12).