Pentagon orders new purge of social media sites to dump diversity, inclusion mentions by March 5
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/pentagon-orders-new-purge-of-social-media-sites-to-dump-diversity-inclusion-mentions-by-march-5/ar-AA1zRUXW?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=8eed351d040c4e04a416d461b2aed961&ei=126
Story by LOLITA C. BALDOR and TARA COPP (26 Feb 2025)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Building lethality in the military may be the buzzword for the new Trump administration, but busywork and paperwork have become the reality at the Pentagon, as service members and civilian workers are facing a broad mandate to purge all of the department's social media sites and untangle confusing personnel reduction moves.
On Wednesday, the department's top public affairs official signed and sent out a new memo requiring all the military services to spend countless hours poring over years of website postings, photos, news articles and videos to remove any mentions that "promote diversity, equity and inclusion."
If they can't do that by March 5, they have been ordered to "temporarily remove from public display" all content published during the Biden administration's four years in office, according to a copy of the memo obtained by The Associated Press.
The latest social media directive hits just days after the department issued a separate memo to the services reminding forces to remain apolitical and focused on "the non-partisan execution of their duties."
"Given the intense focus on recent changes within the department, maintaining the public trust is more important than ever," said the memo, signed Feb. 19, by Darin Selnick, who is temporarily working as the undersecretary for personnel.