ISTANBUL
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the removal of all content related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) from Pentagon websites, multiple defense sources said Thursday.
According to a CNN report, the directive was broad, with military units advised to use keyword searches such as “racism,” “ethnicity,” “history,” and “first” to identify articles and images for deletion.
Officials were also instructed to apply the order widely.
The list of targeted terms included references to key historical milestones, such as the first female ranger and the first Black commanding general.
Other flagged keywords, according to a list reviewed by CNN, included “LGBTQ,” “historic,” “accessibility,” “opportunity,” “belonging,” “justice,” “privilege,” “respect,” and “values.”
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell described the effort in a video posted to X on Thursday as an “arduous – but incredibly important – undertaking” with an “aggressive timeline.”
“Every now and then, because of the realities of AI tools and other software, some important content was incorrectly pulled offline to be reviewed,” Parnell said.
“We want to be very, very clear: History is not DEI. When content is either mistakenly removed – or if it is maliciously removed – we continue to work quickly to restore it,” he added.
Regarding the removal of “firsts” in the military, a defense official stated: “That’s just history. It’s not really DEI – it’s literally just history.”
Additional keywords flagged for deletion included “gender-based violence,” “cultural observances,” “cultural awareness,” “African ethnicity,” “Asian ethnicity,” “Caucasian ethnicity,” and “Hispanic ethnicity.”
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