Mark Zuckerberg puts on his mask and walks away from diversity

Mark Zuckerberg is finally ready to be his true self. Surprise: she gets angry.

New Report from the New York Times Zuck details how Meta platforms found a small leadership team to help him reshape Facebook, Instagram and Threads as he sees fit. So far this has been included end of fact checking, roll back the moderation rules protected marginalized people and increased the algorithm promoting more political content. Now, according to a memo to employees Acquired by Axiosyou can add diversity, equality and inclusion to the list of principles Zuckerberg’s businesses live by.

The company announced it would ax the DEI group, end efforts to work with minority-owned supplier businesses and end representation goals, among other policy changes. Changes will take effect immediately.

The shift to the right comes after Zuckerberg visited Mar-a-Lago on Thanksgiving Day, where he spent time with President-elect Donald Trump. However, according to the Times, this has been simmering within Meta’s CEO for some time. He reportedly felt compelled by his staff and outside forces for “progressive” causes — you know, radical leftist beliefs like “equal opportunity is good” and “you just don’t have to lie about things.” Behind the scenes, the Times says it spoke to him crazy Marc Andreessen and others about how he wants to adopt a “free speech” approach to running his company.

Interestingly, Zuckerberg’s techno-libertarian version of “free speech” in practice resembles the “oppression of marginalized people.” Zuck, along with a small circle of like-minded people, rewrote the company’s content moderation policies that forbids saying “white people have mental illnesses” in a way that allows saying, for example, “gay people have mental illnesses.” The company too drew transgender and non-binary subject choices From the Messenger chat app.

And then there’s the decision to end DEI programs. Meta argued that the reason for the call was “the changing legal and political landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States.” In a memo obtained by Axios, Janelle Gale, Meta’s vice president of human resources, cited recent Supreme Court decisions that “signal a shift in how courts will approach DEI” — an apparent reference to the SCOTUS decision. Abolish affirmative action programs in college admissions committees as well as upcoming “reverse discrimination” case the court will hear whether it could set a precedent for attacking DEI initiatives.

But more than that, it seems the decision is an extension of Zuckerberg’s worldview. His friends in the Silicon Valley venture capital world have spent years Talks about DEI programsthinking of themselves as the kings of meritocracy, they wonder if someone from a less privileged background would face any discrimination if it were them. indeed capable as colleagues. Of course, this is the reality meritocracy is a myth. In fact, research has revealed believing that achievement is due to merit results in less empathy and more discriminatory behavior.

It’s a definite departure from how the company has presented itself over the past few years. After all, the company is just DEI successfully defended one of its efforts in court last summer. In 2023 Meta clearly reported“Our commitment to DEI remains at the heart of who we are as a company.” And just two years ago, Meta published a diversity report highlighting how it was able to attract more talent from marginalized communities by hiring more remote workers. (The company has since back to office order that disproportionately affected the same workers.)

From all the decisions Zuckerberg has made at his company over the past few weeks, it’s clear that there’s one kind of diversity he’s really dealing with: Diversity of opinion that disagrees with him.