Illustration: Sarah Grillo/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 also follows a host of public moves by tech companies and executives to align with the politics and cultural views of President-elect Trump and the MAGA movement.
State of play: Friday's memo by Gale — announcing changes to "our hiring, development and procurement practices" — was posted for Meta employees in Workplace, the company's internal communications tool.
- "The legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing," Gale wrote.
- "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 big picture: Similar moves have been made recently by other major companies, including Walmart in November and McDonald's just this week.
- Meta last week replaced its president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, with Joel Kaplan, a prominent Republican who is now chief global affairs officer. Meta pledged a $1 million donation to Trump's inauguration — and added UFC president and CEO Dana White, a top Trump ally, to its board Monday.
Zoom in: Citing the "shifting legal and policy landscape," Meta's memo announced five big DEI pullbacks.
- Cutting Meta's DEI team: Meta will no longer have a team focused on DEI. Maxine Williams, the company's chief diversity officer, is taking on a new role at Meta, focused on accessibility and engagement, Gale wrote.
- Ending equity and inclusion programs: Meta will instead build programs "that focus on how to apply fair and consistent practices that mitigate bias for all, no matter your background," Gale said.
- Sunsetting supplier diversity efforts: Meta will end efforts to source business suppliers from diverse-owned businesses. Moving forward, the company will "focus our efforts on supporting small and medium-sized businesses that power much of our economy," Gale wrote.
- Ending the "Diverse Slate Approach" to hiring: While Meta will continue to source candidates from different backgrounds, it will no longer use the diverse-slate hiring approach, which ensures a diverse pool of candidates is considered for every open position. "We believe there are other ways to build an industry-leading workforce and leverage teams made up of world-class people from all types of backgrounds," Gale wrote.
- Ending representation goals: Having representation goals, "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. She noted the company, "previously ended representation goals for women and ethnic minorities."
Zoom out: Data suggests tech employees tend to be more liberal than their employers. But over the last year, the public sentiment has shifted about corporations taking a stand on major issues like DEI, as well as environmental, social and governance issues.
- President-elect Trump, buoyed by a growing friendship with Elon Musk, last month endorsed the H-1B visa program for foreign tech workers.
What they're saying: "Meta has the privilege to serve billions of people every day," the memo concludes.
- "It's important to us that our products are accessible to all, and are useful in promoting economic growth and opportunity around the world. We continue to be focused on serving everyone, and building a multi-talented, industry-leading workforce from all walks of life."
Go deeper: Read the full memo ... Trump's anti-DEI brigade prepares to take power.
Go deeper
Read: Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs
Photo: Jason Henry/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Meta is ending its major DEI programs across the company, effective immediately, Sara Fischer and Mike Allen scooped.
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.
Read the memo from Meta in full:
Hi all, I wanted to share some changes we're making to our hiring, development and procurement practices. Before getting into the details, there is some important background to lay out:
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. It reaffirms longstanding principles that discrimination should not be tolerated or promoted on the basis of inherent characteristics. 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.
At Meta, we have a principle of serving everyone. This can be achieved through cognitively diverse teams, with differences in knowledge, skills, political views, backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences. Such teams are better at innovating, solving complex problems and identifying new opportunities which ultimately helps us deliver on our ambition to build products that serve everyone. On top of that, we've always believed that no-one should be given - or deprived- of opportunities because of protected characteristics, and that has not changed.
Given the shifting legal and policy landscape, we're making the following changes:
- On hiring, we will continue to source candidates from different backgrounds, but we will stop using the Diverse Slate Approach. This practice has always been subject to public debate and is currently being challenged. We believe there are other ways to build an industry-leading workforce and leverage teams made up of world-class people from all types of backgrounds to build products that work for everyone.
- We previously ended representation goals for women and ethnic minorities. Having goals can create the impression that decisions are being made based on race or gender. While this has never been our practice, we want to eliminate any impression of it.
- We are sunsetting our supplier diversity efforts within our broader supplier strategy. This effort focused on sourcing from diverse-owned businesses; going forward, we will focus our efforts on supporting small and medium sized businesses that power much of our economy. Opportunities will continue to be available to all qualified suppliers, including those who were part of the supplier diversity program.
- Instead of equity and inclusion training programs, we will build programs that focus on how to apply fair and consistent practices that mitigate bias for all, no matter your background.
- We will no longer have a team focused on DEI. Maxine Williams is taking on a new role at Meta, focused on accessibility and engagement.
What remains the same are the principles we've used to guide our People practices:
- We serve everyone. We are committed to making our products accessible, beneficial and universally impactful for everyone.
- We build the best teams with the most talented people. This means sourcing people from a range of candidate pools, but never making hiring decisions based on protected characteristics (e.g. race, gender etc.). We will always evaluate people as individuals.
- We drive consistency in employment practices to ensure fairness and objectivity for all. We do not provide preferential treatment, extra opportunities or unjustified credit to anyone based on protected characteristics nor will we devalue impact based on these characteristics.
- We build connection and community. We support our employee communities, people who use our products, and those in the communities where we operate. Our employee community groups (MRGs) continue to be open to all.
Meta has the privilege to serve billions of people every day. It's important to us that our products are accessible to all, and are useful in promoting economic growth and opportunity around the world. We continue to be focused on serving everyone, and building a multi-talented, industry-leading workforce from all walks of life.
Go deeper: Exclusive: Meta rolls back DEI programs in latest bow to Trump
McDonald's is ending some DEI programs
Photo: Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images
McDonald's on Monday said it is rolling back some of its diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Why it matters: Backlash against corporate DEI efforts appears to be intensifying ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration.
Anti-DEI shareholder proposals tripled since 2020
Anti-DEI shareholder proposals have surged over the past few years.
Why it matters: These measures are a somewhat obscure but important piece of the pushback against corporate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts — programs meant to broaden a company's hiring pool of candidates and make employees from different backgrounds feel more welcome.