In a press release published on Jan. 21, the Federal Communication Commission’s new chairman, Brendan Carr, announced the ending of the agency’s promotion of all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs. Included among the list of DEI measures being eliminated are the FCC’s Equity Action Plan and the Digital Discrimination Task Force.
The FCC’s announcement came a day after President Trump’s Executive Order titled Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing, which takes aim at former President Biden’s Executive Order 13985 directing federal agencies to create DEI programs.
The FCC’s Equity Action Plan, which is no longer available online, helped further programs focused on bridging the digital divide, like the Affordable Connectivity Program and the Emergency Connectivity Program, which focused on the Homework Gap. Additionally, the Equity Action Plan was instrumental in improving the FCC broadband maps and in establishing the Digital Discrimination Task Force. The Equity Action Plan webpage has been archived.
“What Carr calls the ‘DEI Equity Action Plan’ is actually just the ‘Equity Action Plan’ and has no connection to the Biden DEIA Executive Order, or to any staff/operations issues,” Bill Callahan, the director of Connect Your Community, told CNET.
The FCC also announced the ending of the Digital Discrimination Task Force, what Carr calls “the FCC’s DEI Task Force.” The Task Force was instrumental in creating the FCC’s digital discrimination rules meant to combat cases of digital redlining. The Digital Discrimination Task Force webpage has also been archived.
“What Carr calls the ‘FCC’s DEI Task Force’ is actually the Task Force on Preventing Digital Discrimination. Again, no connection to the Biden DEIA [Executive Order] or to internal staffing and operations,” said Callahan. “It’s the inter-Office leadership group created to drive the Digital Discrimination rulemaking.”
In addition to the rescinding of the Equity Action Plan and the Digital Discrimination Task Force, the FCC is removing the promotion of DEI from its budget and nixing the promotion of DEI from its Strategic Plan.
Stay tuned as we follow developments impacting US efforts to close the broadband divide in the coming months.