Meta and Amazon roll back diversity initiatives ahead of Trump’s second term

Meta and Amazon are rolling back their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives ahead of president-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

The decision by Meta – the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Threads – comes just days after chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced the social media platforms would no longer moderate comments on topics such as immigration and gender and will end their independent fact-checking programme, moving instead to a community notes system.

The changes, alongside an update to the firm’s hateful conduct policy, mean social media users will be able to call LGBTQ+ people “freaks”, “abnormal” and “mentally ill”.

In response, some queer members of staff are said to have suggested calling in sick, citing “mental illness”.

In a memo to employees, first reported by Axios, Janelle Gale, the vice-president of human resources at Meta, said the company was dropping the DEI initiatives because of changes to the “legal and policy landscape”.

She went on to say: “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.”

Meta will end equity and inclusion training in favour of courses which “mitigate bias for all, no matter your background”, Gale announced.

Meanwhile, Amazon have told employees that they were “winding down outdated programmes and materials” with regard to DEI, Bloomberg reported.

“Rather than have individual groups-build programmes, we are focusing on programmes with proven outcomes. We also aim to foster a more truly inclusive culture,” inclusive experiences and technology vice-president Candi Castleberry told staff in a memo.

In recent months, a number of big-name brands have distanced themselves from DEI, including Walmart, Ford, Lowe’s, Harley-Davidson and Jack Daniel’s, in the face of campaign of conservative backlash led by right-ring pundit Robby Starbuck.

Starbuck claimed on X/Twitter that he “warned Meta in October that they were one of my DEI targets for 2025”, adding: “We told the media this would happen and many laughed in my face. I wonder what the look on their face is today.”

He similarly threatened Amazon, he claimed.

“They’re announcing a halt to some DEI policies and they’ve removed language about DEI goals and transgenderism from their site. Amazon has not, however, listed what those changes are going to be and they have not communicated those changes to me,” Starbuck said, adding in another post that “if they do not specifically state what these changes are, I’ll proceed with our report later this month, exposing their woke policies, practices and failures”.

Commenting on Meta’s move, tech journalist and author Kara Swisher branded owner Zuckerberg’s decision cynical.

“He wants to kiss up to Donald Trump, and catch up with Elon Musk in that act,” she said.

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