OAN Staff James Meyers
1:33 PM – Friday, January 10, 2025
Meta has announced that they are officially ending all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, effective immediately, joining other large companies cutting back on DEI policies.
The outlet Axios first reported the news, citing a memo to Meta employees explaining that the company would immediately be halting its DEI programs for hiring, training, and picking suppliers.
The company told employees that the “legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts is changing” in a memo from Meta’s vice president of human resources, Janelle Gale, according to Axios.
Additionally, Gale’s memo highlighted the Supreme Court’s recent rulings, which will be “signaling a shift in how courts will approach DEI,” contributing to the change.
“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,” Gale added in the memo, according to Axios.
Meta’s new chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, told Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman: “This is ultimately about doing what’s best for our company and ensuring that we are serving everyone and building teams with the most talented people.”
“This means evaluating people as individuals, and sourcing people from a range of candidate pools, but never making hiring decisions based on protected characteristics like race or gender,” Kaplan said.
“The Supreme Court of the United States recently made decisions signaling a shift in how courts will approach DEI,” Kaplan explained. “It reaffirms long-standing principles that discrimination should not be tolerated or promoted on the basis of inherent characteristics.”
“It’s clear that there’s a shift on this issue from a policy and legal perspective, and we anticipate that will happen even more moving forward, and we want to ensure our programs are in a long-term and sustainable position,” he added.
Meta’s most recent move follows after announcing earlier this week that it be would be ending its “fact-checker” tool, in order to implement something more similar to X’s Community Notes. CEO Mark Zuckerberg reiterated that the company will utilize community notes to fact-check users online, similar to Elon Musk’s platform.
Several other prominent companies have rolled back their DEI policies in recent months as well. The companies include McDonald’s, Walmart, Ford Motor Co., John Deere, Lowe’s, and Toyota.
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts
