Meta is overhauling its DEI initiatives, ending diversity-focused hiring and supplier programs, citing shifting legal and policy landscapes.
Facebook parent company Meta is reversing its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and practices with immediate effect, a spokesperson confirmed to The Epoch Times, with the change following a wave of similar corporate rollbacks across the United States.
Meta is dropping DEI practices used in hiring, development, and procurement services, according to an internal memo by Janelle Gale, the company’s vice president of human resources, which was posted on Meta’s internal Workplace platform and obtained by Axios. A Meta spokesperson confirmed the accuracy of Axios’ reporting on the memo and declined to share the document directly in response to a request from The Epoch Times.
Changes include revising hiring practices to eliminate diversity-focused targets, scaling back development programs designed to promote underrepresented groups, and adjusting procurement policies that previously prioritized vendors based on racial or gender criteria, according to the memo.
“We continue to be focused on serving everyone, and building a multi-talented, industry-leading workforce from all walks of life,” wrote Gale in the memo.
Meta will also dissolve its DEI team, while highlighting its commitment to evaluate people as individuals and not based on characteristics like race and gender.
The memo noted that the term DEI has become “charged,” with many understanding it as promoting preferential treatment for certain groups to the detriment of others. It also highlighted a recent Supreme Court decision that found affirmative action in college admissions was unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court’s 6–3 decision, issued in June 2023, noted that, for too long, universities have “concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin.”
After the high court found that racial preferences in college admissions violate the Constitution, attorneys general from over a dozen states warned 100 of the largest U.S. corporations about “illegality of racial quotas and race-based preferences” in hiring and contracting. The officials urged the companies to immediately end such practices. According to a Harvard Business Review 2022 survey, 60 percent of U.S. companies had a race- or gender-based diversity, equity, and inclusion program.
