Disney and ABC Under FCC Investigation Over DEI Policies

The FCC said an inclusion standard at ABC required 50 percent of regular or recurring characters featured on its network to be from ‘underrepresented groups.’

Visitors walk through the Disney Springs shopping center in Orlando, Fla., on Oct. 9, 2024. Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty Images

Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has ordered a probe into Disney’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies to assess whether they amount to discrimination, racial or otherwise.

“I have asked the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau to open an investigation into Disney and ABC,” Carr wrote in a March 27 letter addressed to Disney CEO Robert Iger. “In particular, I want to ensure that Disney and ABC have not been violating FCC equal employment opportunity regulations by promoting invidious forms of DEI discrimination.”

The ABC media brand is owned by Disney.

“In recent years, Disney made DEI a key priority for the company’s businesses and embedded explicit race- and gender-based criteria across its operations,” the letter reads, adding that public reports “paint a disturbing picture of Disney’s DEI practices.”

The company started an initiative called “Reimagine Tomorrow” to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion measures, according to the letter. The initiative aimed to “amplify underrepresented voices.”

Disney mandated “inclusion standards” across ABC, with the network required to ensure that 50 percent of recurring and regular characters featured in its content, such as TV shows, are from “underrepresented groups,” the letter said.

“These standards may have forced racial and identity quotas into every level of production—demanding that ‘50 percent or more’ of writers, directors, crew, and vendors be selected based on group identity,” it reads.

ABC has restricted fellowships to certain demographic identities, used race-based hiring databases, and may have linked executive bonuses to their DEI performance, the FCC chairman wrote.

The letter reminded Disney that FCC rules and the Communications Act prohibit regulated entities such as the company’s ABC network from discriminating against people on the basis of color, race, gender, age, national origin, or religion.

FCC’s equal employment opportunity rules specify certain requirements that Disney entities must strictly follow.

“Although your company recently made some changes to how it brands certain efforts, it is not clear that the underlying policies have changed in a fundamental manner—nor that past practices complied with relevant FCC regulations,” the letter reads.

“I want to ensure that Disney ends any and all discriminatory initiatives in substance, not just name.”

He added, “I want to determine whether Disney’s actions—whether ongoing or recently ended—complied at all times with applicable FCC regulations.”

In an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, a Disney spokesperson said, “We are reviewing the Federal Communications Commission’s letter, and we look forward to engaging with the commission to answer its questions.”

The Epoch Times reached out to ABC for comment.

Cracking Down on DEI

The FCC letter underscored President Donald Trump’s efforts to end DEI programs across the federal government.

“And at my direction, the FCC has already taken action to end its own promotion of DEI,” Carr wrote. “I have been pleased to see that some regulated companies are already taking steps toward rooting out discriminatory DEI policies.”

Several large corporations such as Ford, McDonald’s, John Deere, Walmart, Nissan, Toyota, and Molson Coors have acted to cancel or dial back DEI programs.

Last month, Citibank announced rolling back employment diversity initiatives, citing changes in the government policy.

“We will no longer have aspirational representation goals except as required by local law,” the bank said.

Earlier in January, a spokesperson for Facebook parent company Meta told The Epoch Times it was ending DEI in hiring, development, and procurement services.

One of the DEI-related presidential actions, signed by Trump on Jan. 20, aimed to end “radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing.”

Another presidential action sought to end “illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity.”

Major companies and other institutions were adopting and using “dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences under the guise of” DEI, the order said.

However, these measures have faced legal challenges. This week, a federal judge blocked the U.S. Labor Department from enforcing parts of Trump’s anti-DEI policies among federal contractors and grant recipients for a period of two weeks.

The administration has been pushing ahead with its efforts against diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in several sectors.

This month, Trump signed a memo removing DEI policies from foreign service positions. He also signed an executive order this week to get rid of “improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology” from facilities operated by the Smithsonian Institution.