Meta continues its political shift: the social media giant has decided to end major programs designed to promote diversity in terms of recruitment, an additional measure that aligns the Californian group with Donald Trump.
These programs, which also concern hiring, training and selection of suppliers, will disappear immediately, according to an internal memo reported by Axios on Friday and confirmed by Meta to AFP.
In this note, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp explains that it is changing course because “the legal and political landscape around diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing “.
“We serve all,” the memo said, clarifying that the company will continue to seek candidates from diverse backgrounds while removing specific representation targets for women and ethnic minorities that were in place.
In recent months, other large American companies such as McDonald’s, Ford and Walmart supermarkets have announced that they are reversing some of their diversity practices, after a Supreme Court ruling in 2023 ending affirmative action measures in university admissions, one of the achievements of the civil rights struggle of the 1960s.
“The United States Supreme Court recently issued decisions signaling a change in the way courts will approach the issue of DEI” (the acronym for “diversity, equality and inclusion”, editor’s note), underlines Janelle Gale, vice -president of human resources of Meta, in her internal memo.
“The term ‘DEI’ has also become controversial, in part because it is seen by some as a practice that suggests preferential treatment of certain groups over others,” she continues.
The shift in business takes place in the context of an “anti-woke” offensive led by the Republicans.
In California, Elon Musk and his X platform (formerly Twitter) have liberated conservative voices that traditionally had little reach in the Democratic and progressive state.
-Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Meta, like several of his neighbors and competitors, has been making advances towards Donald Trump since this summer, and especially since his election.
He had dinner with him in November, donated $1 million to his inauguration ceremony on January 20 and appointed several of his allies to key positions.
This week, he ended fact-checking in the United States, a fact-checking program by independent organizations around the world, born in response to the flood of disinformation on its platforms, which worried the democratic authorities.
This reversal on fact-checking has caused a wave of concern in many countries, from Europe to Australia, via Brazil, to the UN and the Council of Europe.
If Meta generalized its decision to the whole world, it would have dramatic consequences, also warned the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), which brings together more than 130 organizations, including the AFP.
AFP participates in more than 26 languages in a fact-checking program developed by Facebook, which pays more than 80 media outlets around the world to use their “fact-checks” on its platform, on WhatsApp and on Instagram.
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