Meta has issued a harsh reality check to its employees. Business Insider shared insights from a leaked all-hands recording, revealing the company’s vision for the future. Among the key takeaways was an ambitious plan for a “highly intelligent and personalized” digital assistant, which is anticipated to reach 1 billion users. “I think whoever gets there first is going to have a long-term, durable advantage towards building one of the most important products in history,” Zuckerberg explained in the recording. He also addressed the company’s decision to steer clear from third-party fact-checkers in place of the community notes system and changes in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Meta is among the major companies that have retracted its policies, adhering to conservative agendas. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, Meta dismantled its programs tied to DEI and stopped the initiative that required it to consider hiring diverse candidates in every open position. “The way...

Costco is doubling down on its decision to maintain its DEI policies. This comes amid several major companies retracting their commitments, such as Google. CNBC reported that Google had established new programs to empower Black staffers following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. At the time, its CEO, Sundar Pichai, stated the intention “to build sustainable equity for Google’s Black+ community, and externally, to make our products and programs helpful in the moments that matter most to Black users.” The company aimed for a benchmark of 30% of leadership being composed of underrepresented groups by 2025. However, in the years since, Google has fallen significantly short of that goal by reducing staff and shrinking programs related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), as has its parent company Alphabet. By mid-2023, DEI job postings by companies in general were showing a downward trend. Job site Indeed offered data that revealed a drop of 44% in postings compared to the...

Amazon is pulling the plug on its remote work policy and reinstating a full-time office presence, reverting to pre-COVID operational norms. CEO Andy Jassy shared the news on Monday, letting employees know to prepare to return to the office full-time starting on Jan. 2, 2025, as the world’s largest online retailer works to strengthen its culture and teams. In a memo to employees , Jassy stated, “When we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant.” He asserted that the last 15 months of hybrid work have only strengthened this belief, noting that “collaborating, brainstorming, and inventing are simpler and more effective” when teams are physically present. According to Fox Business, Amazon shifted from a remote work model to a mandatory three-day-in-office policy in May of last year. The retail giant’s CEO reflected on the pre-pandemic work culture in his memo, explaining, “Before the pandemic, not...

Al Roker and his production company, Al Roker Entertainment, have been sued for allegedly not following through with a commitment to diversity. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bill Schultz filed a lawsuit against the “Today” host and CEO’s company as he claims that executives failed to commit to its DEI initiative, which would bring Black writers on board for PBS’s “Weather Hunters.” Al Roker Entertainment is the owner of the animated children’s show. As an executive producer for “Weather Hunters,” Schultz addressed the issue at hand, confronting the leaders about the failure to adhere to the diversity program, which is mandated by PBS. However, he says that their response was firing him. In addition, a Black producer was also reprimanded for speaking up. “I put nine years of my career into ‘ Weather Hunters ,’ a project I strongly believe in, with the goal of making a wonderfully crafted show for children to enjoy and learn from,” Schultz shared in a statement, according to...

With April being National Minority Health Month, it is time to highlight the advancement and need for continued resources that support the health of historically underrepresented communities. The onset of COVID-19 highlighted some of the resounding disparities in the availability of healthcare for Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities. Additionally, there is a historic rationale to justify the distrust of the health community and its ability to serve BIPOC individuals properly. In light of this, people have not been as open to treatment and suggested solutions related to the recent pandemic. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) uses National Minority Health Month to help re-establish trust in BIPOC communities. A part of reestablishing this trust is ensuring equitable access to resources. To speak on this topic, AfroTech had the opportunity to sit and talk with Dr. Desmond Banks, Senior Policy Advisor, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to discuss...

Tech giant Intel is continuing its long-standing global diversity and inclusion initiatives with its latest partnership with HBCU North Carolina Central University (NCCU). According to a company announcement, Intel has pledged a generous $5 million donation — $1 million annually over the next five years — toward building the university’s very own tech law and policy center and empowering the next generation of HBCU tech leaders. Intel plans to allocate its funds to build up a strong foundation for the center — which consists of key staff, an endowed professorship, need-based scholarships for students experiencing financial hardships, and additional startup costs needed to develop the center. “As a company and industry, we need to do better to ensure legal and policy jobs are available to all communities, because talent is everywhere but opportunity is not,” said Steven R. Rodgers, Intel’s general counsel, in a press statement. “At the beginning of this year, we began to hold our...

Using social media as a vehicle for political advertisements and posts filled with misinformation aimed at sabotaging the Black vote was put on display with Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. As the 2020 presidential election approaches, questions around the allowance of paid political ads that specifically misinform Black demographics and measures social media platform executives, like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, will take to prevent such ads are being heavily discussed. During a town hall meeting held in September, civil rights leaders met with Facebook’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg, in hopes to discuss the preventive measures the social media giant would put into place to combat the racial geared voter suppression messages that ran rampant on the platform during the 2016 election. Instead, Sandberg upheld Facebook’s policy that exempts politicians from its third-party fact-checking program. This means politicians including sitting president Donald Trump — whose...

Google will no longer stop its employees from taking the tech giant to court, which puts an end to its forced arbitration practices. The new rule kicks in on March 21; however, the rules will not apply to contractors, vendors and temps, who make up about half of the company’s workforce. Nearly 20,000 Google employees walked out of work in November to protest Google and other companies’ force arbitration rules along with a list of other grievances. Google responded by ending force arbitration on sexual harassment and discrimination cases, but is now ending the rule for all cases. The protest also encouraged other major tech companies like Facebook, Airbnb and Square to end force arbitration in November. Google’s latest leap may be a big win for full-time employees, but that may not be the case for contractors and temps. As Recode’s Shirin Ghaffary points out , most temp workers are employed by third parties and not by Google itself. This portion of their workforce not being included...