Photo: Depositphotos
A large-scale “clean-up” of the army’s digital archives is underway in the United States. According to AP, the US Department of Defence has begun deleting thousands of materials related to the Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) policy.
This process was the result of President Donald Trump’s executive orders, which, after his inauguration, closed all DEI programmes in federal agencies and recognised only two biological states – male and female.
What exactly is being deleted?
According to journalists, the Pentagon is preparing to delete up to 100,000 photos and publications from the army’s websites, social media and archives. The deletions include:
– posts about the achievements of women in the Marines;
– photographs of the first black pilots of the United States during the Second World War;
– publications on commemorative months for women, blacks and Latin Americans;
– photographs of the Enola Gay bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima (the photo is likely to be removed due to the word “Gay” in its title).
Interestingly, the purge even affected photos of a US Army engineer whose surname is Gay and materials about biologists who studied fish, indicating their gender.
What’s next?
By order of Defence Secretary Pete Haggett, all flagged content must be removed by 12 March.
What does this mean?
Experts warn that this process could become the largest digital revision in the history of the Pentagon. And it’s not just a fight against references to DEI – references to important historical figures and events that shaped the modern American army are actually being erased.
At the same time, the US private sector is already following the Trump administration’s lead: large corporations are abandoning their inclusive recruitment policies, which could radically change the country’s HR culture.
The question remains whether this process will stop at digital archives or will also affect real monuments, museums and historical exhibitions.
