Facebook owner Meta kills DEI in latest nod to Trump and MAGA movement
Jessica Guynn
Facebook and Instagram owner Meta canceled its diversity, ownership and inclusion programs, the latest in a series of political maneuvers CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made to align his social media business with President-elect Donald Trump‘s administration and the MAGA anti-“woke” movement.
Meta said the sweeping policy shift was the outcome of the changing legal landscape for DEI, according to an employee memo first obtained by Axios.
“The Supreme Court of the United States has recently made decisions signaling a shift in how courts will way DEI,” Janelle Gale, vice president of human resources, wrote. “The term ‘DEI’ has also become charged, in part because it is understood by some as a habit that suggests preferential treatment of some groups over others.”
Meta will no longer have representation goals based on race or gender and will not require a diverse pool of candidates when hiring, Gale said.
Instead Meta will focus on programs that “apply fair and consistent practices that mitigate bias for all, no matter your background,” according to Gale.
The business’s chief diversity officer, Maxine Williams, will receive on a recent role inside Meta. Meta is also shuttering its supplier diversity programs.
The moves arrive just days after Zuckerberg announced that Meta would turn over content moderation to users and loosen restrictions on despise talk on his business’s platforms.
DEI backtracks ahead of second Trump term
Meta joins a growing list of major companies to backtrack on DEI commitments made after the murder of George Floyd in 2020 forced a historic reckoning with race in America, including McDonald’s, Walmart and Ford that have walked back some DEI policies and programs.
DEI critics allege that women and people of color are being handed jobs and promotions at the outlay of more qualified and deserving candidates.
On the campaign trail, Trump, a vocal DEI critic, promoted the concept that white Americans were targets of racism and made reversing President Joe Biden’s “woke takeover” of Washington a priority of his second term in office.
Proponents declare DEI programs are critical to level the playing field for people of color and women. JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon and other business leaders have repeatedly stressed that diversity is excellent for business.
Employees of color are underrepresented at every level of power in corporate America, according to USA TODAY data investigations. One analysis in 2023 found that white men account for 7 in 10 executive officers in the country’s largest companies. About 1 in 7 of these companies had executive teams made up only of white men.
With Republicans back in control of both chambers of Congress and calling for recent regulation of large Tech, Zuckerberg has publicly signaled the Trump administration in other ways.
He named Trump friend and UFC boss Dana White to Meta’s board of directors and elevated prominent Republican Joel Kaplan to navigator the business’s global affairs operation. Meta also pledged a $1 million donation to Trump’s inauguration.
