--- description: Find out why Facebook was selected for the inaugural list title: TIME100 Most Influential Companies 2021: Facebook image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5ea6acc34d72ed89/698a18e7e76ad29c3b638cd3/facebook-time100-companies.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 27, 2021 # Facebook Fighting (and fueling) misinformation by [Billy Perrigo](/author/billy-perrigo/) ## Billy Perrigo Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Correspondent  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies at a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees in Washington, D.C. on April 10, 2018. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies at a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees in Washington, D.C. on April 10, 2018.Ting Shen—Xinhua/eyevine/Redux Ahead of the [2020 election](https://time.com/5892347/social-media-platforms-bracing-for-election/ "undefined"), Facebook strengthened its protections against foreign interference to avoid a repeat of 2016, when Moscow conducted a pro-Trump disinformation campaign on the platform. But Trump’s presidency and the pandemic presented a tougher foe: homegrown threats to truth and democracy. Despite [Facebook](https://time.com/tag/facebook/ "undefined")’s rollout of new labels for election interference and COVID-19 misinformation, unsubstantiated claims [continued to spread](https://time.com/5949210/facebook-misinformation-2020-election-report/ "undefined") widely; dissemination of the QAnon conspiracy theory, for example, wasn’t banned until a month before the vote, and antivaccine misinformation reached millions of users before it was banned in February 2021, almost a year into the pandemic. Enforcing the bans remains a challenge. Still, under CEO [Mark Zuckerberg](https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people-2019/5567848/mark-zuckerberg/ "undefined")’s leadership, Facebook has seen its market cap surge some 50% since the start of 2020, to $890 billion, suggesting that the company isn’t likely to change its business model anytime soon. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5953736/facebook/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5953736/facebook/"},"headline":"Facebook","datePublished":"2021-04-27T00:15:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:49:29.362Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5953736/facebook/","keywords":["Lists","franchise","TIME100 Companies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5ea6acc34d72ed89/698a18e7e76ad29c3b638cd3/facebook-time100-companies.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Billy Perrigo","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/billy-perrigo/"}],"creator":"Billy Perrigo","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5ea6acc34d72ed89/698a18e7e76ad29c3b638cd3/facebook-time100-companies.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5953736/facebook/","name":"Facebook"}}]}] ```