T-Mobile, seeking federal approval for two deals, is the latest company to drop its diversity programs amid scrutiny by the Federal Communications Commission.
T-Mobile is the latest in a string of corporations to retreat from their diversity, equity and inclusion programs while the Federal Communications Commission reviews the companies’ proposed mergers or acquisitions.
In a letter this week to the F.C.C.’s chairman, Brendan Carr, the company said it would end all D.E.I.-related policies “not just in name, but in substance.” That includes redirecting employees working on D.E.I. initiatives to “focus on employee culture and engagement” and removing all references of D.E.I. from the company’s website, the letter said.
The moves announced by T-Mobile this week go even further than the steps the company told the F.C.C. in March that it was taking to end some of its D.E.I.-related programs.
The F.C.C., which typically reviews whether deals in the media and telecommunications industries will benefit the consumer, is an unusual agency to be taking such an active role in furthering the Trump administration’s goals of rooting out D.E.I. from corporate America.
But Mr. Carr has aggressively embraced the Trump administration’s executive order to eliminate “illegal D.E.I.,” in the private sector. He has threatened to block media and telecom deals over their D.E.I. policies and opened investigations into companies including Disney and Comcast for their D.E.I. initiatives. T-Mobile’s decision to end its D.E.I. policies is a “good step forward for equal opportunity, nondiscrimination, and the public interest,” Mr. Carr wrote on X on Wednesday.
