Meta has officially informed
its employees that it is killing off its biggest diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, according to an internal memo acquired by Axios.
“The legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States is
changing,” wrote Meta’s Vice President of Human Resources Janelle Gale.
“The Supreme Court
of the United States has recently made decisions signaling a shift in how courts will approach DEI,” Gale continued. “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.”
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Gale said that moving forward, Meta plans to
“end efforts to source business suppliers from diverse-owned businesses.”
Meta claims that it
will focus on how to apply “fair and consistent practices that mitigate bias for all, no matter your background,” despite the fact that DEI initiatives were created in response to biased
work environments and hiring practices, especially with America’s evolving workforce, which will continue to diversify in the coming years.
By casting aside DEI’s inherent purpose of promising a more equitable working environment
through promoting a heightened sense of empathy, understanding, and opportunity among employees, Meta is putting aside ethical considerations only to embrace conservative and even
far-right ideology as president-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office.
Over the past week, Meta CEO
Mark Zuckerberg has kowtowed to Trump’s wishes, publicly announcing the end of all third-party fact-checking for content across its family of wildly popular and impactful social media apps -- a
decision so clearly tied to Trump’s requests that it seems to lack all common sense, considering the real-world effects that political discussion and harmful misinformation on Facebook and
Instagram have led to in years past (including the January 6 attack on the Capitol).
Meta has also replaced its
president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, with prominent Republican Joel Kaplan and added Trump ally and UFC President and CEO Dana White to its board, and plans to move its content-moderation teams
from the liberal-leaning state of California to the conservative-leaning state of Texas.
Social-media platforms -- especially Facebook -- have already
divided citizens and inspired hateful acts across the globe, including terrorism, illegal surveillance and tampering with major political elections.
But with less content oversight,
Meta’s platforms, which boast a whopping 5 billion users, will almost certainly pave the way to more hateful and destructive acts driven by unchecked, unregulated, AI-altered content.
Meta’s decision to bury DEI initiatives comes at a time when X owner Elon
Musk and Donald Trump -- both of whom Zuckerberg has recently been courting -- are blaming DEI hiring practices for the devastating effects of the wildfires ripping across Los Angeles, which is proven
misinformation.
A major corporation controlling the way much of the world's population communicates and
accesses a variety of content and news bending to a fear-mongering political leader with a professed admiration for dictators -- and the rhetoric being endorsed by Fox News, a media source that
sets objective “reporting” aside to prioritize far-right propaganda -- is not only incredibly dangerous to democracies across the globe, but to the mental health of everyday users
(especially younger users), advertisers, and marginalized groups.
If simply claiming that DEI initiatives
and “wokeness” are the cause for devastating California wildfires -- claims that distract from the proliferation of life-saving news updates and even result in violence against front-line
workers -- can immediately prevent victims from receiving help while their homes burn around them, any level of destruction in the new age of social media is now possible.