Unlocking Potential: Meta’s 2024 Responsible Business Practices Report

Takeaways

• Today Meta is releasing its second annual Responsible Business Practices Report, highlighting the company’s efforts to maximize the positive impacts and minimize the negative impacts of its business on society.
• Built around the theme of ‘Unlocking Potential,’ the report compiles key metrics and insights on Meta’s societal impact, including milestones, policies and programs that underpin its responsible business strategy.  
• The Responsible Business Practices Report is supplemented by in-depth reports on key areas such as human rights, sustainability and transparency, to provide a detailed overview of the company’s business practices and progress.  

September 20, 2024 /3BL/ - Today marks the launch of Meta’s second annual Responsible Business Practices Report, offering a detailed look at progress in addressing social and environmental priorities, as well as efforts to create sustainable value for stakeholders.

Meta organizes its responsible business approach around key pillars that enable the company to have a sustainable impact: operating transparently and sustainably, building responsibly and empowering people and partners. The 2024 Responsible Business Practices Report details progress in these pillars.

This year’s report was prepared in reference to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards and informed by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), Internet and Media Services Industry Standards, the United Nations Global Compact and the Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).

Unlocking Potential for Good

Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and the metaverse represent Meta’s long-term bets on the future. In 2023, these technological pathways began to intersect in the form of products, apps and services that help bring the metaverse to life. This year’s report highlights efforts to develop these and other technologies responsibly, openly and transparently, with a focus on open source innovation.

In 2023, Meta made strides toward its goal of building general intelligence that’s accessible to all by releasing Llama, a collection of open source LLMs. Meta believes access to cutting-edge AI can unlock potential for individuals around the world, and is proud to report that its models have been downloaded more than 170 million times since release.

Report Highlights 

The theme of this year’s report is unlocking potential. The report provides insights centered on the goal of creating positive change through open and transparent operations, app development and employee and partner relationships. 

Here are some highlights:

• Providing access to cutting-edge AI for individuals around the world through the release of Llama, Meta’s collection of open-source LLMs 
• Launching the AI Alliance to accelerate responsible AI innovation, in collaboration with more than 50 companies and organizations 
• Expanding parental supervision tools globally to Facebook, Messenger and Horizon Worlds
• Providing the infrastructure for Lantern, a program enabling technology companies to share signals about accounts and behaviors that violate child safety policies
• Becoming founding members of Take It Down, a platform designed to help prevent young people’s intimate images from spreading online
• Completing a Human Rights Salient Risk Assessment, paying special attention to the rights, needs and challenges of individuals at heightened risk of becoming vulnerable or marginalized
• Maintaining net zero in global operations, and establishing a science-based emissions reduction target and decarbonization roadmap to systematically transform the way Meta does business
• Continuing to focus on building a diverse workforce that reflects and supports Meta’s ability to serve billions of users around the globe

Further Reporting

The Responsible Business Practices Report is supplemented by in-depth reports on key areas such as human rights, sustainability and transparency, to provide a detailed overview of our business practices and progress.

Today, Meta is also launching its third annual Human Rights Report, which reflects a commitment  to understanding, preventing and mitigating its highest priority human rights risks. In August, the company published its annual Sustainability Report, which outlines the progress made toward net zero, climate, water, energy and supply chain goals. And Meta regularly publishes transparency reports to give the community visibility into how it enforces its policies, responds to data requests and protects intellectual property, while monitoring dynamics that limit access to Meta technologies.

You can read the full Responsible Business Practices Report to learn more about responsible business practices at Meta.