Employees at Meta typically participate in voting to determine which questions executives should address in companywide meetings. In anticipation of a gathering slated for Thursday, many of the top-voted questions focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). However, leadership at Meta has informed employees that simply having a question endorsed by many does not guarantee it will be addressed by company leaders, according to one staff member. The New York Times previously reported on this development.
Several U.S. companies, particularly in the tech sector, have recently removed references to diversity objectives and initiatives from their annual reports, following a rise in public scrutiny including civil lawsuits and pressure from activist investors. A new wave of cutbacks has been announced by retailers, restaurants, manufacturers, and tech companies as President Donald Trump returned to the White House this month.
Trump has consistently criticized DEI policies and initiatives, labeling them as “nonsense” and “discriminatory.” Shortly after taking office on January 20, Trump moved swiftly to terminate DEI programs within federal agencies.
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, has been working to mend his previously strained relationship with the president in recent months. On Wednesday, Meta and Trump reached an agreement to resolve a lawsuit Trump initiated regarding the temporary suspension of his user account following the January 6 Capitol riot, as revealed in a federal court filing. Meta agreed to pay roughly $25 million, with a majority of the funds directed toward Trump’s forthcoming presidential library, according to The Wall Street Journal. Dani Lever, a spokesperson for Meta, confirmed this information to WIRED, while Trump’s legal team did not respond to inquiries.
Although Zuckerberg did not mention the settlement during the company’s quarterly earnings call on Wednesday, he did express praise for the president. “We now have a U.S. administration that is proud of our leading companies, invests in American technological success, and will protect our values and interests on the global stage,” he stated. “I am hopeful about the advancements and innovation this may foster.”
The impact of the DEI cuts at Meta may be lessened, in part, because the company has been quietly scaling back these initiatives for some time, as noted by a former employee familiar with the internal changes. “It’s been a slow, painful decline,” they remarked. Following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, then-COO Sheryl Sandberg led the charge for the company’s heightened commitment to diversity, which included an internal civil rights audit. In its 2022 diversity report, Meta announced that it had doubled its representation of women and Black employees since 2019 as part of its diversity commitments.
With Sandberg’s endorsement, the former employee recalled, “there was this tremendous surge of enthusiasm to effect change.” However, in July 2022, Sandberg announced her exit from day-to-day operations at Meta. Around that same period, the tech giant revealed it would begin identifying teams for potential layoffs, which ultimately occurred several months later. These layoffs resulted in the reduction of around 11,000 jobs and were seen as the first setback to Meta’s diversity achievements, according to the former employee.
