More than a decade ago, the protrusions on the lack of diversity in the technology industry through the main silicon valley companies from Facebook to Google.
Women and minorities talked about the feeling of the lack of place in male -dominated professions, and urged civil rights activists to make more effort, and pushing technology workers such as Trissy Chu, who was a software engineer at Pinterest at that time, companies to issue diversity data.
“There was already some movement in this direction, at least feeling as if we should do that,” said Zhu, who wrote a viral. Medium In 2013 about the lack of engineers. “What happened to me was a line of thinking that really resonated with the most reliable data aspect of this industry.”
For diversified preachers such as Chu, the tide is now turning. In the face of more political pressure and legal risks during President Trump’s second administration, technology companies that previously defended diversity including Google and Meta (the parent company on Facebook) and Amazon are to re -expand their diversity and equipment (Dei).
It is part of the broader reduction in the business community. About 20 % of companies have declined in the 100 Standard & Poor’s race from Dei’s obligations since Trump’s election, according to the Bloomberg News analysis. These include target corp. And MCDonald’s Corp. Disney.
Trump and Eileon Musk, who spent more than $ 200 million to help elected the president to a second term, was audio critics of Dei programs. in Fact paper About Trump Executive orderThe White House said that many companies use Dei as “an excuse for biased and illegal employment practices”, by sending a message to the companies they can obtain. Companies like Google and Amazon contract with federal agencies.
“They are reading the room, especially with Trump and Elon, they are giving the country,” said Zhou, CEO of Block Party, a tool that helps users to combat online harassment.
Companies pledges to fight racism, including Musk Tesla Company He rose after the 2020 police of George Floyd, which sparked huge protests against the police brutality.
However, the legal threats appeared in 2023 after it dropped the US Supreme Court Positive work based on race In admission to college. While technology companies cut thousands of jobs, the huge discounts hit the DEI teams.
The spending on DEI roles in the S&P 500 began to decrease in 2022 when they swept the collective workers Technology IndustryData from Revilio Display Laboratory. In November 2024, these companies spent an estimated $ 1.3 billion on DEI roles, a decrease of 10 % compared to the same month in 2022.
From December 2022 to December 2024, technology companies including the parent company of Google Alphabet, Netflix and Amazon are less on roles that strengthened diversity and integration.
During this period, the Tesla Dei spending decreased by 84 % and the META DEI spending decreased by 53 %, according to Revelio Labs, which analyzes data from different sources including online profiles on sites like LinkedIn or Jobcase.
Technology companies have referred to legal risks in internal notes about the reason for rethinking how they deal with their Dei programs.
“They wanted to keep President Trump alongside their good side, because they did not want to deal with any legal repercussions from the federal government,” said Jared Slater, a partner in Irvin Cohen and Jessoub.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, a former Trump critic who previously said that improving diversity in technology is important, and has in recent months has agreed with the president and talked about the benefits of “male energy”. The company told its employees in an internal note that the legal and political scene surrounding Dei had changed and pointed to the decisions of the Supreme Court.
“The term” DEI “has also become charged, partly because some understand it as a practice indicating preferential treatment of some groups over others,” Janel Jill, head of human resources in Meta, said in an internal note.
The company said that it wants to serve everyone and will not use the “diversity list approach”, in which employees of employment are considered candidates from the backgrounds of actress, an imperfect representative when conducting interviews with an open role.
Meta also ended the representation goals for women and minorities, a program for the source of supplies from various owned companies and the abolition of Dei teams. McCain Williams, the chief diversity official in Mita, has become the vice president of access and participation.
Meta’s sites Latis prejudice training and TechprepThe Resources Center for the actresses is no longer an incomplete representation and their parents to learn about computer science, on the Internet.
Meta refused to comment, but confirmed the memo, which I published for the first time Intuition.
Google said this month that she re -evaluating her DEI programs “after the decisions of the last court and executive orders on this issue.” The company said that it will not set employment goals related to improving diversity after setting a goal in the past by 30 % of the “leadership representation of the actress groups in an incomplete representation” by 2025.
Amazon told her employees that she “ends” certain programs after assessing “its effectiveness, impact and return on it. [return on investment]But none of them was specified.
In the December Memorandum of Employees reviewed by the Times, the company’s vice president of comprehensive experiences and Candi Castleberry employees told the company that the company focuses on “proven results programs” while also aimed at “promoting a truly more comprehensive culture”. The Amazon shared the memo.
Amazon Studios – which announced a series of ambitious inclusion goals in June 2021 – has made changes. Last September, the Collever City studio removed its headquarters for a general listing of its website on the Internet along with the goal included in movies or series with three or more people in higher roles than the line such as directors and producers at least 30 % and 30 At least women and 30 % members of the representative group are an incomplete representation.
“We have said from the beginning that our efforts to ensure the recitation of various and comprehensive stories will be liquid and change over time,” the Amazon spokesman Brad Glaser said in a statement. He added that the company is striving to “tell the best stories, while enabling various sounds in telling the stories whenever possible.”
Meanwhile, some technology companies such as Apple are resisting against Dei’s anti -conservative shareholders. The National Center for Public Policy Research, which is a conservative research reservoir, requests that Apple think about ending its programs, policies, departments and goals.
“The risks to which the company’s basic company is exposed to the file of filing a lawsuit by individuals for discrimination, and perhaps obtaining legal measures from the government to violate the Civil Rights Law, then react to the market “. .
Apple recommended that the shareholders reject the proposal at the company’s annual shareholders meeting on February 25.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment, but the company said in a document For shareholders, the Dei’s combat proposal was partially “unnecessary” because the board of directors and its administration supervises the legal and regulatory risks.
Netflix remained committed to Dei after Trump’s executive order, saying in its annual report that the “main focus” is “strengthening a varied cultural and comprehensive work environment” because it wants more people and cultures to see themselves on the screen.
The broadcast giant in Los Gatus said in its annual report in January that she is educating her deeds on how to hire more comprehensive.
Netflix spokesman did not respond to a comment request.
“What we have to do at this moment of time is to stand, speak and continue to move forward,” said Verna Mayers, Vice President of Netflix and the founder of Vernā Myers. Consultant on diversity, fairness and inclusion. “We cannot allow this type of bullying by making us fear that we feel paralyzed and review our basic values.”
The reverse reaction against DEI not only affects the culture of the workplace, but non -profit organizations focus on employing more women and minorities in the technology industry.
Last year, Code womenIt is a non -profit organization that started in California, closed due to lack of funding. anitab.org,, Which brings women in technology in the annual Grace Hopper celebration, reduced its power operating in 2024 and pointed to a contraction in the Dei’s investments for companies.
Some diversity defenders such as Fresh Kapor Klein, the co -chair of the Kapor Center, asks whether some technology companies have taken Dei seriously.
She said that the technology giants seemed more open to diversity efforts in talent deficiency times because they help to open a set of possible appointments. Now they wear Dei’s efforts amid the demobilization of workers and the political climate in which Republicans carry more power.
“It is now fashionable to be a control. It is now fashionable to talk about male energy. It is now modern … to match Maga’s interests.” “So you have to ask, what do people really and really believe?”