In the United States, technology giants, but also, for example, the grocery chain Walmart, have announced that they are cutting diversity programs.
In the United States, conservative winds are now blowing even in technology companies that used to be considered liberal.
An example of this is the reduction of corporate diversity training, which started even before Donald Trump’s re-election as president.
The Guardian magazine writes about it, among others. The pace has accelerated after the elections.
The Walmart chain decided to eliminate DEI, or diversity, equality and inclusiveness training, at the end of last year, the McDonald’s hamburger chain a month later. Some giant Meta announced that it will terminate the training programs and the company’s DEI team this month.
DEI programs to be banned again at the federal level as well?
Towards the end of his first term in 2020, Donald Trump wrote a presidential decree banning diversity training in government agencies. However, the order fell through several lawsuits against it.
President Joe Biden promoted diversity training during his term of office.
However, the regulations concerning the federal government do not extend to the activities of private companies. Governor of Florida Rob DeSantis recently tried to ban company employees from participating in trainings.
Metan Zuckerberg changed course after Thanksgiving at Mar-a-Lago
However, the companies have changed the guidelines voluntarily.
CEO of Meta Mark Zuckerberg announced new guidelines for his 72,000-employee company after a Thanksgiving dinner at Trump’s mansion. The changes were discussed According to The New York Times first in a small circle in nightly remote meetings.
Former and current employees of the company, who remained anonymous, told NYT about Zuckerberg’s new policies.
Zuckerberg also announced the end of Meta’s fact-checking program in the United States.
Meta relaxed the restrictions and conditions of hate speech. You can use the phrase “gays have mental health problems” on Facebook. Instead, the phrase “white people have mental health problems” is banned.
The new guidelines took sanitary napkins out of men’s bathrooms
The changed instructions extend from social media to sanitary facilities.
At Meta’s facilities in Silicon Valley, Texas and New York, sanitary napkins intended for use by non-binary and transgender people with a gender identity have been removed from the men’s restrooms.
Marketing Director of Meta Alex Schultz said this week that issues related to gender identity, for example, have become politicized.
Meta’s director responsible for civil rights Roy Austin has resigned from the company.