Facebook and Instagram owner Meta canceled its diversity, equity and inclusion programs, the latest in a series of political maneuvers CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made to align his social media company with President-elect Donald Trump‘s administration and the MAGA anti-“woke” movement.
Meta said the sweeping policy shift was the result 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 approach 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 practice 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 company’s chief diversity officer, Maxine Williams, will take on a new role inside Meta. Meta is also shuttering its supplier diversity programs.
The moves come just days after Zuckerberg announced that Meta would turn over content moderation to users and loosen restrictions on hate speech on his company’s platforms.
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 expense of more qualified and deserving candidates.
On the campaign trail, Trump, a vocal DEI critic, promoted the idea 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 say 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 good 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 nation’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 new regulation of Big Tech, Zuckerberg has publicly signaled the Trump administration in other ways.
He named Trump ally and UFC boss Dana White to Meta’s board of directors and elevated prominent Republican Joel Kaplan to lead the company’s global affairs operation. Meta also pledged a $1 million donation to Trump’s inauguration.
