Investors Called To Oppose Discrimination At Meta, Twitter, And Lowe’s

Washington, D.C. – Investor activists from the Free Enterprise Project (FEP) will present shareholder proposals this week at the annual shareholder meetings of Meta (formerly Facebook), Twitter and Lowe’s, each proposal critical of “Diversity, Equity & Inclusion” (DEI) policies that give preference to individuals based on surface-level characteristics such as race and sex.

“It’s appalling how many companies have been discriminating in recent years on the bases of race, sex, orientation and ethnicity,” said FEP Director Scott Shepard. “It’s all terrifically — and not secretly — illegal. Directors who merrily violate the Constitution, and who hire legal departments who ignore first-year con law precedent, are not competent to run frozen banana stands, much less global companies. The directors and the legal staffs must go, in disgrace.”

At tomorrow’s meeting of Meta shareholders, Shepard will present Proposal 12, which requests “an audit analyzing the Company’s impacts on civil rights and non-discrimination, and the impacts of those issues on the Company’s business.” In his supporting statement, he warns the company – which until recently was known as Facebook – that it is setting itself up for further trouble:

This has not been a good year for Facebook’s integrity. It has been caught in lie after lie, and may be caught in many more when federal investigatory power next changes hands. It has actively interfered in the U.S. political process on claims that have proven false: what it labels misinformation turns out to be true; what it supports, false.

At very minimum Facebook would be wise to get outside of its bubble to find out that all Americans have not only civil rights but the same civil rights, so that its equity-based discrimination is very illegal indeed.

Meta shareholders can vote for Proposal 12 here, and attend the meeting – which will be held virtually tomorrow at 1:00 pm ET – using this link. Shepard’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, can be read here. The audio of his presentation can be heard here. Proposal 12, and the board’s response to it, can be found here.

At Twitter’s meeting tomorrow, FEP Associate Ethan Peck will present Proposal 7, which also requests an audit of the company’s DEI policies. In his supporting statement, he calls upon prominent Twitter investor Elon Musk to help FEP “cure the DEI mind virus spreading inside Twitter.”

“If Twitter had nothing to hide, then the board wouldn’t have recommended that shareholders oppose our proposal for transparency and nondiscrimination,” Peck added. “There’s nothing that Twitter shareholders stand to lose by requesting more transparency around Twitter’s DEI policies.”

Twitter shareholders can vote for Proposal 7 here, and attend the meeting – which will also be held virtually tomorrow at 1:00 pm ET – using this link. Peck’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, can be read here. The audio of his presentation can be heard here. Proposal 7, and the board’s response to it, can be found here. An April letter that FEP wrote to Musk regarding the proposal can be read here.

At the Lowe’s shareholder meeting on Friday, Shepard will present Proposal 8, another proposal requesting a nondiscrimination audit. In his supporting statement, he specifically criticizes employee training curriculum that is steeped in critical race theory:

This programming created an illegally hostile work environment. If you have any doubt at all, imagine what would have been the national response if Lowe’s had been caught telling non-white employees that they were uniquely evil and had to step aside for the good of other races.

Because we all have the same civil rights, this programming was just as evil, and just as wrong.

Lowe’s shareholders can vote for Proposal 8 here, and attend the meeting – which will be held virtually on Friday at 10:00 am ET – using this link. Shepard’s supporting statement can be read here. Proposal 8, and the board’s response to it, can be found here.

“DEI is immoral and entirely illegal. It explicitly violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in no uncertain terms,” said Peck. “The boards of Meta, Twitter and Lowe’s all recommended that shareholders vote against our proposals requesting a nondiscrimination audit. That in and of itself should tell you all you need to know about DEI and woke boards.”

This week, FEP also plans to attend the meetings of BlackRock, Amazon, Exxon, Chevron, McDonald’s, Morgan Stanley, Merck and Lincoln National, which together with the meetings of Meta, Twitter and Lowe’s will mark the 40th – 50th shareholder meetings that FEP has attended or attempted to attend so far in 2022. To schedule an interview with a member of the Free Enterprise Project on these or other issues, contact Judy Kent at (703) 477-7476 or Jenny Kefauver at (703) 850-3533.

Investors wishing to oppose race-based discrimination and other “woke” policies infiltrating Corporate America should download FEP’s 2022 editions of the Investor Value Voter Guide and the Balancing the Boardroom guide. Other action items for investors and non-investors alike can be found on FEP’s website.

Launched in 2007, the National Center’s Free Enterprise Project focuses on shareholder activism and the confluence of big government and big business. Over the past four years alone, FEP representatives have participated in over 100 shareholder meetings – advancing free-market ideals about health care, energy, taxes, subsidies, regulations, religious freedom, food policies, media bias, gun rights, workers’ rights and other important public policy issues. As the leading voice for conservative-minded investors, it annually files more than 90 percent of all right-of-center shareholder resolutions. Dozens of liberal organizations, however, annually file more than 95 percent of all policy-oriented shareholder resolutions and continue to exert undue influence over corporate America.

FEP activity has been covered by media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Variety, the Associated Press, Bloomberg, Drudge Report, Business Insider, National Public Radio and SiriusXM. FEP’s work is prominently featured in Stephen Soukup’s new book The Dictatorship of Woke Capital: How Political Correctness Captured Big Business (Encounter Books) and Kimberley Strassel’s 2016 book The Intimidation Game: How the Left is Silencing Free Speech (Hachette Book Group).