Meta is reportedly killing its DEI programs — just days after CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the tech giant would no longer restrict speech on its popular social media platforms.
The Facebook, Instagram and Threads parent said it will no longer take the controversial Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies into consideration before hiring, training and picking suppliers, Axios reported Friday.
According to a memo sent by Janelle Gale, vice president of human resources, the company said it was pivoting away from DEI because the “legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing.”
A Meta spokesperson reached by The Post confirmed the memo, which was first obtained by Axios.
Meta’s latest decision seemingly furthers Zuckerberg’s attempts to endear Meta to the incoming Trump administration.
The billionaire announced Tuesday that the tech giant would end its efforts to fact-check and police speech on Meta’s popular social media platforms.
In the memo sent by Gale, she noted that DEI has “become charged, in part because it is understood by some as a practice that suggests preferential treatment of some groups over others.”
Meta will instead institute programs “that focus on how to apply fair and consistent practices that mitigate bias for all, no matter your background,” Gale wrote.
The memo was posted to Workplace, the internal company messaging board that employees have used in recent days to protest Zuckerberg’s decision to scrap partnerships with third-party fact-checkers, as well as the naming of pro-Trump MMA entrepreneur Dana White to the board of directors.
The new policy means that Meta will dismantle its team devoted to DEI. Maxine Williams, the firm’s chief diversity officer, will be reassigned to a new role within the company, according to Axios.
Meta will no longer aim to attain “representation goals” since they “can create the impression that decisions are being made based on race or gender,” Gale wrote.
“While this has never been our practice, we want to eliminate any impression of it,” she said.
DEI, which was initially aimed at diversifying the workforce, has been criticized as a means to implement reverse discrimination that disadvantages white applicants and de-emphasizes merit.
Fortune 500 companies rushed to institute DEI in the wake of the Black Lives Matter-led demonstrations that were touched off by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020.
Since then, however, public pressure campaigns by right-leaning influencers such as Robby Starbuck have succeeded in forcing firms to either pare back or eliminate the programs.
Among the brands that have retreated from DEI in recent months include Walmart, Ford Motor Company, Molson Coors, Jack Daniel’s parent company Brown-Forman, Boeing and Harley Davidson.
Earlier this week, McDonald’s said it was ending some of its DEI practices — citing a Supreme Court decision that outlawed affirmative action in college admissions.
