Meta employees usually vote on which questions managers should answer during company meetings. Prior to such a meeting planned for Thursday, several of the most worn questions were related to Dei. But Meta leadership has told employees that the popularity of a certain question no longer guarantees that according to one of the employees it will be answered by business leadership. The New York Times previously reported the change.
A number of American companies, including in the technical industry, removed mentions of diversity goals and programs in their annual archives about a year ago in the midst of the growing public criticism of the initiatives in the form of civil laws cases and pressure from activist investors. A new round of austerity has been announced by retailers, restaurants, manufacturers and technical developers when President Donald Trump returned to the White House this month.
Trump has repeatedly criticized the dei policy and programs and called them 'nonsense' and 'discriminatory'. After he was inaugurated on January 20, Trump quickly moved to terminate dei programs at agencies in the federal government.
In recent months, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has tried to heat Frosty relationship with the president. On Wednesday, Meta and Trump reached an agreement to arrange a lawsuit that Trump had submitted on the temporary suspension of his user account after the Capitol uprising of 6 January, according to a federal court application. Meta agreed to pay around $ 25 million, with most funds going to the future Presidential Library of Trump, the Wall Street Journal reported. Dani Lever, a meta spokesperson, confirmed the report to Wired. Trump's lawyers in the case did not respond to requests for comments.
Zuckerberg did not recognize the settlement on the company's quarterly call on Wednesday, but welcomed the president. “We now have an American administration that is proud of our leading companies, prioritizing to winning American technology, and that will defend our values and interests abroad,” he said. “And I am optimistic about the progress and innovation that this can relax.”
At Meta, the effect of the dei cutbacks can be partially filled in because the company has been working behind the scenes for some time, according to a former Meta employee who is immediately familiar with the changes. “It has been a slow, painful death,” they say. After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg led the increased commitments of the company for diversity, including setting an internal audit of civil rights. In the Diversity Report 2022, Meta noted that since 2019 it had doubled the number of women and black employees as part of its diversity goals.
With the support of Sandberg, the former Meta employee says: “There was a huge stream of energy to make a difference.” But in July 2022 Sandberg announced its departure from the daily activities at the company. Around the same time, the Tech giant announced that it would start with identifying teams to let go during upcoming widespread fired, which took place a few months later. The final cuts met around 11,000 people and were the first blow to Meta's progress on diversity, the former employee claims.
