The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States has launched an investigation into Disney and ABC regarding DEI discrimination.
In a letter to Disney CEO, Bob Iger, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said the enforcement bureau wanted to ensure that Disney has not been violating equal employment regulations.
“Numerous reports indicate that Disney’s leadership went all in on invidious forms of DEI discrimination a few years ago and apparently did so in a manner that infected many aspects of your company’s decisions,” Carr said.
This comes after Donald Trump kicked off a campaign to abolish DEI initiatives at the start of his second term as president.
While Disney has scaled back on its DEI practices, Carr argued that it wasn’t enough and took particular issue with the company's “Reimagine Tomorrow” initiative.
“In recent years, Disney made DEI a key priority for the company’s businesses and embedded explicit race- and gender-based criteria across its operations,” Carr wrote.
“The company also publicly launched a 'Reimagine Tomorrow’ initiative, it would appear, as a mechanism for advancing its DEI mission.
“It also implemented mandatory 'Inclusion Standards’ across ABC, requiring, for example, that '50% of regular and recurring characters' be drawn from 'underrepresented groups.’”
In a statement, Disney said: "We are reviewing the Federal Communications Commission's letter, and we look forward to engaging with the commission to answer its questions."
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