Hello Allies and Friends:
Welcome to the 1792 Exchange Spotlight Report on Corporate Bias Ratings. 1792 Exchange assessed 2,500+ companies to determine the likelihood a company will cancel a contract or client, or boycott, divest, or deny services based on views or beliefs. The ratings have an overarching goal: provide a resource for small businesses, individuals, and not for profits to assist in selecting vendors that are less likely to cancel a contract or deny services based on views or beliefs. In this era of cancel culture in many institutions, we help protect continuity of operations when organizations choose reliable and respectful vendors.
The threat is real, and it is not limited to political personalities or social media suspensions. Cancel culture has become frequent in today’s society. Religious liberties, First Amendment rights and philanthropic freedoms are under attack. The unfortunate reality is that ideological cancellations are occuring at an alarming rate, and are being reported more frequently but often goes unreported. For example, a CEO of a private company was fired for publicly expressing his personal pro-life views. In September 2022, just 6 months after getting banned from Twitter, the Babylon Bee was canceled by its internal email service. In October 2022, Ambassador Sam Brownback’s religious freedom nonprofit was de-banked by JPMorgan Chase.
This first cancellation example in particular is instructive for understanding the power of behind-the-scenes vendors in the cancellation movement. After the CEO of Tripwire tweeted that he was a “pro-life gamer” who supported Texas’ abortion restrictions, the company began receiving threats from its suppliers and vendors, as well as other partners, that they would cancel their contracts if he remained employed. In response, the company behind games such as “Maneater” and “Killing Floor 2” quickly denounced its own CEO saying, “his comments disregarded the values of our whole team, our partners and much of our broader community.” The CEO was forced out for exercising his First Amendment right to respectfully disagree with many of his colleagues about abortion laws and human life. And his position is shared by a majority of citizens in many states so the company alienated current and potential customers.
While powerful public and private companies continue their cancellation campaigns against those who dissent from secular progressive ideology, we remain committed to protecting the freedoms we cherish and need. We must fix and protect our economic system, which has lifted millions out of poverty and created unprecedented prosperity, and restore viewpoint neutrality. Only then will excellence once again be rewarded, shareholders honored, and every person treated with dignity and respect. We hope that our work and resources prove useful to you.
HOW IT WORKS
To create a risk rating, 1792 Exchange assesses a company’s policies, corporate practices, and other relevant criteria to determine the likelihood a company will cancel a contract or client or boycott, divest, or deny services based on views or beliefs. We encourage users to read the notes on each criterion and the specific information on each vendor. Some information might be more relevant to certain individuals or organizations than others. The information was gathered from publicly available sources unless otherwise noted. This gives users the opportunity to examine the sources for themselves to understand the details of the incidents the database records. This public data was then analyzed and interpreted to provide a “risk rating” based on the criteria below.
Companies are scored across 6 criteria. For more information, visit our criteria page.
- Has previously denied service to customers, suppliers, or vendors based on their political or religious beliefs or affiliations OR corporately boycotts, divests, or sanctions regions, people groups, or industries.
- Charitable giving (including employee matching programs) policies or practices discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or religious beliefs.
- Employment policies fail to protect against discrimination based on political affiliation/views and/or religion.
- Uses corporate reputation to support ideological causes and/or organizations hostile to freedom of religion or speech.
- Uses corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of religion or speech.
- Uses corporate political contributions for ideological, non-business purposes in a manner that threatens freedom of religion or speech.
When possible, 1792 Exchange cites direct sources to support the analysis for scoring, such as corporate websites, to ensure precise information upon which a company is scored. At times our research team utilized third party sources. We can not ensure the veracity of those sources, however the methodology was vetted and appears accurate. For instance, the Human Rights Campaign’s “Corporate Equality Index” uses a survey-based methodology – thus a 100% rating on the Index is based on information provided by the company being evaluated itself. Our research team analyzed open sources, then based on criteria below, scored each company. A high risk score earns 2 points, while a medium risk score is 1 point. Lower risk criteria do not score any points. N/A scores do not count towards the total. A high score (10+ total points) earns a company a HIGH RISK rating. MEDIUM RISK companies score generally between 5-9, and LOWER RISK 1-4. If you notice that relevant information appears to be missing from a company report or that some information is inaccurate, please notify us at [email protected].
The 2,500 plus companies rated in our report were evaluated based on a totality of the six criteria outlined above. Illustratively, a “High Risk” rating would be for a company that canceled business relationships based on viewpoint and/or has been weaponized to discriminate against people and businesses who do not share their political views. In practice, few companies directly claim to discriminate against particular views and beliefs. Whereas companies might point to ambiguous terms of service or dense user agreements to justify this discrimination, 1792 Exchange reserves discretion to apply this rating to public and non-public companies that do not disclose a specific purpose for terminating or denying services, such as religious affiliation. “Lower Risk” companies have not terminated business relationships because of ideological disputes and generally respect or allow differing viewpoints, despite some potential advocacy efforts or support for ideological policies.
“Medium Risk” rated companies generally have not canceled business relationships. However, “Medium Risk” companies have generally demonstrated willingness to advance ideological agendas and lack policies preventing corporate discrimination against those who disagree. Moreover, they sometimes require suppliers or customers to agree with the company’s views on cultural/religious/social issues, and they often have donated to ideological organizations and/or PACs and advocated for non-business-related ideological causes. Companies with a “Lower Risk” rating often proactively protect employees against both viewpoint and religious beliefs, have not canceled relationships due to viewpoint or religious beliefs, allow donations across a broad spectrum, including to religious organizations, and have not publicly used their corporate reputation to advance agendas or take sides on socio-political or cultural issues. Some “Lower Risk” companies have conducted limited ideological advocacy but have not used their corporate brand to closely identify with these causes.
The company reports are reviewed on a regular basis multiple times a year. The date of the latest update is available at the bottom on each scorecard. Through this updating process, we seek to ensure that all links work, that all information is up to date, and the report is timely and as accurate as possible.
The purpose of this report is to assist small businesses, not for profit organizations and consumers with difficult choices regarding vendors, suppliers, and business allies. If a company cancels customers, suppliers or employees because of their viewpoints, unilaterally imposes unfair restrictions on faith-based funding, does not provide protection for employees for both viewpoint and religious discrimination, and donates and advocates for one ideology, it will earn a “High Risk” rating. Small businesses, not for profit organizations and consumers may make choices in what companies are safe to ally with, and how best to create strategic partnerships with companies that protect First Amendment rights, including religious liberties.
1792 Exchange develops policy and protocols to protect and equip nonprofits and small businesses from the effects of woke capitalism, to educate Congress, state legislatures, statewide elected officials and stakeholder organizations about the dangers of ESG (environmental, social, and governance) policies and “woke capitalism,” and to help steer public companies in the United States back to neutral on ideological issues, so they can best serve their shareholders and customers with excellence and integrity. The Corporate Bias Ratings report is intended to help allies choose vendors and service providers. It is our sincere hope corporate America moves back to neutral and gets out of the business of political and ideological debates