Google is the latest US corporation to dial back its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policy, this week informing staff of the decision abandon diversity targets in its recruitment process.

The update, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, was said to have been communicated to staff via email following the company’s annual review of its corporate policies.

It’s a major gear shift for the tech giant, which amid calls for change following the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, had set a target to increase the proportion of underrepresented groups in its leadership by 30 per cent.

In a statement shared with Mi3, a global Google spokesperson said: “We’re committed to creating a workplace where all our employees can succeed and have equal opportunities, and over the last year we’ve been reviewing our programs designed to help us get there. We’ve updated our 10-k language to reflect this, and as a federal contractor, our teams are also evaluating changes required following recent court decisions and executive orders on this topic.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google’s annual report published on Wednesday omitted a sentence previously include in its reports from 2021 through to 2024, which had stated its commitment to “‘making diversity, equity, and inclusion part of everything we do and to growing a workforce that is representative of the users we serve.”

It comes after Meta last month announced it would be killing off third-party fact checking in the US in favour of an X-inspired community notes approach, several days later notifying staff of an overhaul to DEI policy. Amazon has since made a similar internal announcement, joining the likes of Pepsi, McDonald’s and Walmart to have rolled back their DEI efforts since Donald Trump was elected to office.

The US President has doubled down on his anti-DEI rhetoric in the weeks since his January inauguration, following through on promises to rid government agencies of DEI initiatives. Meanwhile, recent court decisions have reinforced DEI critics claims that such programmes constitute discrimination. In 2023, the US Supreme Court overturned the right for private universities to consider race in admissions decisions.