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From Axios: Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is terminating major DEI programs, effective immediately — including for hiring, training and picking suppliers, according to a new employee memo obtained by Axios.
Why it matters: The move is a strong signal to Meta employees that the company’s push to make inroads with the incoming Trump administration isn’t just posturing, but an ethos shift that will impact its business practices.
Context: Meta said it was changing course because the “legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing,” per a memo by Janelle Gale, vice president of human resources.
The moves come just three days after Meta ended many of its efforts to fact-check and police speech on Facebook, Instagram and Threads.
The announcement on Friday was shared with Meta employees in Workplace, the company’s internal communications tool, Axios noted.
In explaining the reason for the decision, Gale told Meta employees, “The legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing. The Supreme Court of the United States has recently made decisions signaling a shift in how courts will approach DEI. … The term ‘DEI’ has also become charged, in part because it is understood by some as a practice that suggests preferential treatment of some groups over others.”
The announcement said Meta is taking the following five steps:
- Cutting Meta’s DEI team
- Ending equity and inclusion programs
- Sunsetting supplier diversity efforts (where they tried to source business supplies from ‘diverse-owned businesses’)
- Ending the “Diverse Slate Approach” to hiring
- Ending representation goals
CLICK HERE to read the entire memo from Meta, announcing the rollback of the DEI programs.
Last week, Meta also announced that Joel Kaplan, a longtime Republican political operative and a personal friend to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, has been promoted to be the president of global affairs of Meta Platforms. Kaplan has previously served as the company’s vice president of global public policy for several years, and was the head of Facebook’s Washington, D.C. office.
Kaplan has reportedly helped place conservatives in key positions in the company, and has stepped in to advocate for multiple conservative news websites, pushing back against the company’s algorithm that targets conservatives.
Earlier this week, Zuckerberg released a video with the bombshell announcement that he was replacing the third party fact checkers with a Community Notes program, similar to what X uses, and said, “It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression.”
EXCLUSIVE: Meta is cutting major DEI programs, effective immediately — including for hiring, training and picking suppliers.https://t.co/92ebIABDpn
— Axios (@axios) January 10, 2025
Massive news: Meta is ending DEI. Only days after @finkd promised to end biased fact checks, now his company is ending DEI.
I warned Meta in October that they were one of my DEI targets for 2025.
Here’s what’s changing at Facebook & IG:
• Meta will no longer have a DEI team.… pic.twitter.com/owBeg7zIbV
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) January 10, 2025
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