The ripple effect is here.
Following the lead of major tech companies like Meta, Amazon, and Google, other tech companies in the city are changing their tune on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
San Francisco-based Twilio, the cloud communications company that committed to being anti-racist back in 2021, is one of the latest to ditch traditional DEI vernacular and values, Gazetteer SF has learned.
On Feb. 3, Twilio’s diversity site proudly stated that DEI was “a fundamental part of the Twilio Magic, how we show up for one another, and also a business advantage when we bring diverse viewpoints to how we make products and serve customers," according to a web archive via the Wayback Machine. The site also outlined Twilio’s “4Cs” approach to DEI, which entailed being “committed, curious, uncomfortable, and courageous.”
But that’s all gone today.
Sometime between then and now, the page was updated to simply state that “Twilio Together” — whatever that means — is “a fundamental part of how we show up for one another, and a business advantage when we bring diverse experiences, viewpoints, geographies and backgrounds” to building products.
It’s quite the 180 from 2021, when Lybra Clemons, Twilio’s now-former chief diversity officer, along with Twilio founder Jeff Lawson said the company was committed to being anti-racist.
Samsara is another tech company that has quietly scrapped some mentions of DEI on its website. The company, headquartered in San Francisco, now redirects its diversity site to one about belonging. Samsara also no longer has publicly-posted long-term DEI goals. A web archive from Feb. 8 stated Samsara aimed to increase women in engineering representation to 30% and boost representation of women and underrepresented minorities in director levels and higher to 40%.
While Meta is gutting DEI efforts entirely and Amazon is scaling them back, it’s unclear whether Twilio and Samsara are doing the same. Neither Twilio nor Samsara responded to Gazetteer’s request for comment.
What is clear, however, is that tech companies now find themselves in a place where they’re trying to straddle the line between keeping employees happy by upholding previously-stated company values while simultaneously appeasing the Trump administration — a task that may not be possible.
If you work in tech and want to chat about your experience, hit me up at megan@gazetteer.co or securely via Signal at 415-516-5243.
