In the wake of the FCC chairman’s probe into DEI practices at Comcast and NBCUniversal, Amazon Studios has walked back its inclusion program that laid out standards for achieving racial diversity, Variety has confirmed.
“We’ve said from the beginning that our efforts to ensure diverse and inclusive storytelling would be fluid and change over time,” said a spokesperson for Amazon. “We continue to evolve this vital work in concert with our commitment to keep our global audience of viewers at the center of everything we do. Above all, we strive to tell the very best stories, while empowering diverse voices in our storytelling wherever possible.”
The inclusion playbook was removed from Amazon’s website in September 2024. The company also said in a Dec. 16 memo that it was “winding down outdated programs and materials,” the Associated Press reported. Now Hollywood studios are coming under the same scrutiny as other corporations, with the FCC probing Comcast and Disney making changes to its diversity efforts.
Amazon introduced its inclusion playbook in 2021, with the goals of increasing racial, ethnic and gender diversity and casting a variety of characters in speaking roles. The goals also included aiming for 30 percent of jobs to be held by women and people form underrepresented groups and seeking bids from women and minority owned businesses. One year later, Amazon’s then-head of DEI Latasha Gillespie told Variety that there had been measurable progress in hiring as a result. (Gillespie exited Amazon last summer and was replaced by Amanda Baker-Lane.)
The change in policy was first reported by the Hollywood Reporter. It comes as numerous corporations have ended their DEI programs in alignment with the Trump administration’s policies, including Google and Meta.
