Meta policy chief says decision to end DEI ensures company hires 'the most talented people'

FIRST ON FOX: Meta’s Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan told Fox News Digital that the move to end its diversity, equity and inclusion programs will ensure that the company is "building teams with the most talented people."

Meta, on Friday, announced it ended its major DEI programs, effective immediately. 

META ENDS CORPORATE DEI PROGRAMS

Meta’s vice president of human resources Janelle Gale sent a memo, first obtained by Axios, to employees explaining that the "legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion is changing." 

Kaplan, Meta’s chief global affairs officer, discussed the decision with Fox News Digital on Friday afternoon. 

"This is ultimately about doing what’s best for our company and ensuring that we are serving everyone and building teams with the most talented people," Kaplan told Fox News Digital. "This means evaluating people as individuals, and sourcing people from a range of candidate pools, but never making hiring decisions based on protected characteristics like race or gender."

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Kaplan pointed to the Supreme Court’s recent decisions "signaling a shift in how courts will approach DEI." 

"It reaffirms longstanding principles that discrimination should not be tolerated or promoted on the basis of inherent characteristics," Kaplan told Fox News Digital. 

He added: "It’s clear that there’s a shift on this issue from a policy and legal perspective, and we anticipate that will happen even more moving forward, and we want to ensure our programs are in a long-term and sustainable position."

Several other prominent companies have rolled back DEI policies in recent months.

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McDonald's announced on Monday that it was ending some of its DEI policies, saying that while it's committed to inclusion, it has dropped its "aspirational representational goals," as well as ended its DEI pledge for suppliers. The company also changed the name of its diversity team to the Global Inclusion team and ended external surveys on the subject.

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The fast food giant's decision followed similar changes made in 2024 by Walmart, Ford Motor Co., John Deere, Lowe's and Toyota.

In mid-December, a federal appellate court rejected Nasdaq's diversity rules that had previously been approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Meta’s move to end its DEI programs comes just days after CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company would end its fact-checking programs across its platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. 

Zuckerberg said his company is "going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms." 

Meta plans to replace fact-checking with a "Community Notes" model similar to the one used on X.

Meta’s third-party fact-checking program was put in place after the 2016 election and had been used to "manage content" and misinformation on its platforms, largely due to "political pressure," executives said, but admitted the system had "gone too far." 

President-elect Donald Trump reacted to Meta's move to end its fact-checking program on Facebook, Instagram and its other platforms, telling Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that the company has "come a long way." 

Trump said he thinks Meta's "presentation was excellent." 

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As for the timing of the changes to Meta's fact-checking programs, Kaplan told Fox News Digital the company has "a real opportunity now."

"We have a new administration coming in that is far from pressuring companies to censor and [is more] a huge supporter of free expression," Kaplan said. "It gets us back to the values that Mark founded the company on."

Last year, Zuckerberg sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, in which he admitted that he had felt pressure from the Biden administration, particularly with regard to COVID-19 content, and even subjects like satire and humor. 

"The thing is, as American companies, when other governments around the world that don’t have our tradition or our First Amendment, when they see the United States government pressuring U.S. companies to take down content, it is just open season then for those governments to put more pressure [on their companies]," Kaplan explained. "We do think it is a real opportunity to work with the Trump administration and to work on free expression at home."

Kaplan also said that Meta sees "opportunities for partnership" with the Trump administration, not only on issues of free expression but also in "promoting American business and America’s technological edge." 

"Those are issues of great importance to Meta and our sector," Kaplan said. "And we’re excited to work with the Trump administration to advance those goals."