Mark Zuckerberg's Meta is undergoing a radical transformation, dismantling DEI initiatives and loosening restrictions on harmful speech. This alarming shift, fueled by a meeting with Donald Trump and potential antitrust concerns, raises serious questions about Meta's priorities and the future of online discourse.
Mark Zuckerberg has always been a bit of an oddball, even among tech billionaires. There’s his vacant stare, the near constant air of awkward sweatiness. The former Apple CEO Steve Jobs oozed a kind of nerdishly brutal charisma, but Zuckerberg never quite seemed to transcend his moon-faced college days, even as his wealth skyrocketed him into the league of the ultra-rich. Well, no longer. The last few weeks have seen Zuckerberg transformed, a destroyer amongst men.
The main thing he’s destroying at Meta is anything related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). All major DEI programmes at the parent company of Instagram and Facebook have been unceremoniously killed, including diversity hiring targets and a policy to prioritise the use of minority-owned business vendors. One internal memo explained that Meta intends to “focus on how to apply fair and consistent practices that mitigate bias for all, no matter your background” – which sounds reasonable until you realise that the DEI team, presumably one of the key players to help mitigate this bias, has also been kicked to the curb.There are plenty of reasons to be sceptical of DEI in its corporate incarnation. In 2024, Boston University researchers found that the majority of company training sessions were ineffective and that few peer-reviewed studies tracked their efficacy. But it’s clear that the corporate U-turn at Meta isn’t motivated by thoughtful critique, but by a dramatic reorientation towards an incoming, which includes the suspension of its fact-checking initiative – a move that Joe Biden described as “shameful” – and a dramatic loosening of rules around speech once considered harmful by the company. Illustrative examples highlight the levels of racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia now regarded as acceptable, with statements such as “gays are freaks”, “women are crazy” and “migrants are no better than vomit” highlighted as examples of posts that should be allowed to remain on Meta platforms. Trump has repeatedly expressed inflammatory sentiments that roughly align with much of what Meta now regards as non-hateful opinions. (Anybody remember his claim that immigrants were eating dogs in Springfield, Missouri?) The company’s backtracking on DEI and harmful speech comes after Zuckerberg flew to Mar-a-Lago to dine with president-elect Trump – an audience that was swiftly followed by a $1m donation to his inaugural fund.Meta is facing an upcoming Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawsuit because, as it turns out, US anti-trust regulators don’t look too favourably when you appear to create a monopolistic business juggernaut. Having a powerful friend in the Oval Office is one way that Meta can insulate itself from the fallout, with outgoing FTC chair Lina Khan stating that Meta was looking for a “sweetheart deal” from Trump. If so, it already appears to be working: Trump has declared the company changes “excellent”. Another arguably more alarming way of understanding these changes is that Zuckerberg simply thinks that this is the right thing to do – that the 40-year-old sincerely believes, among other things mentioned in a recent interview, that the pendulum has swung too far in the direction of diametrically opposite feminine values, such as, er, equality. This rhetoric is nothing new if you have spent any time observing the manosphere, where ideas like this permeate that particular swamp of misogyny – and the idea that one of the richest men in the world, who built a platform capable of pumping out industrial-strength misinformation and disinformation, believes anything even remotely Andrew Tate-adjacent should be cause for concern. Does the shake-up at Meta signal the death knell of DEI? It’s not looking good – those working in the field were already facing an uphill battle. I suspect there are plenty of people on the left and right who would cheer the death of vacuous feelgood corporate programmes that promise much and deliver little. But the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion are more necessary than ever, particularly when you consider that the workplace is still far from a level playing field. In the UK, for example, gender pay gaps persist, and BAME employees are still disproportionately represented in lower-paying roles. In a world where misogyny is rewarded with another four-year term in the White House, huge companies like Meta can choose to bend the knee or buck the trend. It’s now clear which approach Zuckerberg favours
Social Issues Meta DEI Diversity Equity Inclusion Mark Zuckerberg Donald Trump Hate Speech Social Media Antitrust
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