Ahead of the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, global big tech companies have started "waiting and watching" in response to the political changes. They are focusing on improving their relationship with the Trump administration by either abolishing or scaling back diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.

◆ Movement to Abolish DEI Policies... Adapting to Political Changes

According to Reuters on the 12th (local time), Meta, the world's largest social media platform, recently announced in an internal memo that it would end its DEI policies, which had been implemented in areas such as employment, training, and vendor selection.

Jernel Gale, Meta's Vice President of Human Resources, stated in the memo, "The legal and policy environment surrounding DEI is changing in the United States," and explained, "While we will continue to seek employees from diverse backgrounds, we will abolish the previous approach of selecting candidates based on diversity criteria."

The largest e-commerce platform in the U.S., Amazon, also announced in an employee memo last month that it plans to scale back its diversity-related programs by the end of 2024.

DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) policies were introduced by U.S. companies following the 2020 George Floyd incident, which spurred the anti-racism movement. These policies are aimed at hiring talent regardless of race, gender, or religion, with the goal of fostering a more inclusive and equitable workforce.

However, after the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in 2023 that abolished affirmative action in college admissions, conservatives have increased pressure, arguing that DEI policies lead to "reverse discrimination." President-elect Trump has also clearly expressed his opposition to DEI policies.

In contrast, Apple has maintained its stance to uphold DEI policies. Ahead of its annual shareholder meeting, the company rejected proposals from some shareholders to end DEI programs, emphasizing the importance of diversity.

◆ Attending Inaugurations and Making Donations... Aligning with the 'Trump Code'

In addition to abolishing DEI policies, big tech companies are also taking various steps to align with the policy direction of President-elect Trump.

In particular, Meta abolished its "third-party fact-checking" program on January 7 (local time), which was used to identify fake news and verify facts. This move is seen as a response to the requests from President-elect Trump's camp, which opposes social media content censorship.

Meta also strengthened its ties with President-elect Trump by hiring Dana White, the CEO of UFC and a close ally of Trump, as a director, and promoting Republican figure Joel Kaplan to the position of global policy head.

Additionally, major big tech leaders, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, are set to attend President-elect Trump's inauguration on January 20. These individuals have each donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration committee.

Earlier this month, Amazon joined the effort to align with political codes by announcing the production of a documentary film centered around Melania Trump, the wife of President-elect Trump.

Industry insiders analyze these actions as a proactive response to the potential for big tech regulation under the Trump administration. It is interpreted as an active effort to align with the political direction ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration as President.

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