Across social media platforms, U.S. military branches are removing content to be in compliance with President Donald Trump’s executive order to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion from the armed services.
The U.S. Army posted a statement on its Instagram, tagging the secretary of the Army and the office of Sgt. Maj. of the Army, Michael Weimer.
The statement read:
“In alignment with Department of Defense (DoD) Instruction 5400.17 and recent Executive Orders issued by the President, the U.S. Army has reviewed and adjusted its social media content to ensure compliance with DoD policies and priorities. As a result, certain posts have been removed, are in a process of being removed, or modified to maintain consistency with federal guidance and uphold the integrity of our official communication channels. Content will be archived in accordance with DA PAM 25–403.”
Similar statements were released on the official pages of the Navy and Air Force.
The posts were published this week, prompting questions about what kind of content was removed from the social media pages.
Documents obtained by TPR provided instructions and guidance shared across the Department of Defense on specifics to comply with the Feb. 26th Digital Content Refresh.
The directive detailed certain terms and types of content to remove:
- Gender, including transgender and gender ideology
- Race and Ethnicity, topics related to race and to remove the whole post if the entire post is based on race
- Equal Opportunity and underrepresented groups
- Observance months that fall under these categories like Black History Month, Women’s History Month and others
According to the directive, any and all posts that include these terms are to be removed or amended.
One of the points of the directive also required the removal of “firsts” from social posts, e.g., “first female Ranger.” These include all persons from a specific group to achieve the first something in the service.
A 59-word list was also presented to help identify content for removal.
The list included these words and phrases:
- Accessibility
- Culture
- DEI
- Discriminate
- Dignity
- Empowerment
- Equal Opportunity
- Gender
- History
- Historic
- Inclusion
- Multicultural
- Racism
- Racial Equity
- Respect
- Sense of Community
- Social Justice
The documents also gave directions on how to identify, remove or archive the terms from social media platforms including Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.
The military’s implementation of its DEI review led to confusion about a number of its policies in recent weeks.
The U.S. Air Force will resume teaching about the nation’s first Black pilots, and the women pilots of World War II. The Air Force paused that part of its basic training curriculum last week pending a review of its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies.
Officials at JBSA-Lackland Air Education and Training command told TPR that they were not removing any material in relation to the Tuskegee Airmen, the first Black pilots in the Air Force, from their basic training curriculum.
But that decision is now in question once again due to the directive to remove “firsts.”
The latest action comes a week after Trump fired Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Brown, as chief of staff of the Air Force, was the first Black man to lead a branch of the military. He was the second Black man to serve as chairman, after Colin Powell.
The Department of Defense did not respond to TPR’s request for comment.
