That's not my experience at all. Maybe if you're a junior engineer, then you are told what to do, but generally speaking these companies have many senior people who have to decide for themselves.
The idea that a company has money and that workers are just cogs is an outdated way of thinking. These stories are often focusing on the ethical concerns of senior engineers, often ones whose job is directly tackling problems of ethics (such as ethics of AI, or censorship systems).
The idea that a company has money and that workers are just cogs is an outdated way of thinking. These stories are often focusing on the ethical concerns of senior engineers, often ones whose job is directly tackling problems of ethics (such as ethics of AI, or censorship systems).