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IBM settles its DEI lawsuit with the DOJ for $17 million
Engadget.com ^ | April 11, 2026 | Jackson Chen

Posted on 04/12/2026 4:45:39 AM PDT by Twotone

IBM has agreed to settle the US Department of Justice's accusations that the company violated civil rights laws with its DEI practices. According to a press release from the DOJ, IBM will pay more than $17 million to resolve allegations of taking "race, color, national origin, or sex" into account when making employment decisions. This settlement is the latest development in a longstanding effort from the Trump administration to end DEI programs, which was kick-started from an executive order in early 2025.

IBM denied any wrongdoing and said the settlement wasn't an admission of liability, while the US government said this conclusion wasn't a concession that its claims weren't well founded, according to the settlement agreement. According to the DOJ, IBM had violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with practices that included altering "interview criteria based on race or sex," developing "race and sex demographic goals for business units," using "a diversity modifier that tied bonus compensation to achieving demographic targets" and more.

An IBM spokesperson told Engadget in an email that the company "is pleased to have resolved this matter," adding that "our workforce strategy is driven by a single principle: having the right people with the right skills that our clients depend on.”

According to Todd Blanche, the agency's acting attorney general, this action is one of the first resolutions to come out of the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative, which was launched in May 2025. IBM isn't the only company to alter its policies, with both T-Mobile and Meta agreeing to put an end to its DEI initiatives last year.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: dei; discrimination; doj; ibm; labor; settlement

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1 posted on 04/12/2026 4:45:39 AM PDT by Twotone
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To: Twotone

Because of the H1B visa system. If you do the math. Around 5 million white, Christian, heterosexual men are owed a million bucks.


2 posted on 04/12/2026 4:58:31 AM PDT by jroehl (And how we burned in the camps later - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - The Gulag Archipelago)
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To: Twotone

…But if you DON’T have enough minorities on the payroll…


3 posted on 04/12/2026 5:16:01 AM PDT by TalBlack (Their god is government. Prepare for a religious war.https://freerepublic.com/perl/post?id=4322961%2)
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To: Twotone

Well all the Job Stealing Devious Indian Managers now imbedded there wont be hiring
White American Males.

The Black HR staff are happy to assist them.


4 posted on 04/12/2026 5:26:19 AM PDT by ncalburt ( Gop DC Globalists are the evil )
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To: Twotone

Does IBM have to fire people they hired based on race, or do they simply pay a fee like a sort of 1-way racism permit?


5 posted on 04/12/2026 6:01:06 AM PDT by UnwashedPeasant (The pandemic we suffer from is not COVID. It is Marxist Democrat Leftism. )
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To: TalBlack

I was thinking IBM was probably forced into their DIE policies by the Biden Regime.

Now they are punished for them by the Trump Administration.


6 posted on 04/12/2026 6:09:13 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd (Import the third world. Become the second world.)
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To: Twotone

The overlook factor need always be applied in working(employing) people.
Capability matching to the task at hand is the key with a judicious amount of expectation tempering depending on circumstance if you know what I mean .
Then along came heir giverment with notions of grandeur sticking nose into their perceived right and wrong. The yield and it was!! results in the installation of HR departmental (run the show overalls and not a wearable type)
strangleationing, open the window wide where as common sense flew out the window.
Defund the fed nothing good ever comes from a dogooder.


7 posted on 04/12/2026 6:31:34 AM PDT by Recompennation ( Deeeeeeeeezout)
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To: Twotone

the definition of DEI is a person who’s stupidity is protected by a movement that puts pressure on those in the work place that have to pick up the slack for this now protected arrogant piece of crap


8 posted on 04/12/2026 6:48:56 AM PDT by ronnie raygun
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To: Twotone
Who will fine the UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT for "taking race, color, national origin, or sex" into account when making employment decisions"? To whom will that fine be paid?

The UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT was the absolute worst DEI/AA racism offender ... and was the instigator of the practice.

9 posted on 04/12/2026 6:53:16 AM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: Twotone

IBM is very lucky it was only 17M
They should have fired the CEO over this one as it could easily been billions.


10 posted on 04/12/2026 7:02:16 AM PDT by Zathras
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To: Responsibility2nd

Most likely yes.
They were forced by Biden to implement the “Jab or fired” for every employee even if you worked remotely.


11 posted on 04/12/2026 7:04:18 AM PDT by Zathras
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To: Responsibility2nd

“I was thinking IBM was probably forced into their DIE policies by the Biden Regime.”

It started way before that.


12 posted on 04/12/2026 7:07:13 AM PDT by dljordan (Yeah, I'm a Boomer and it's all my fault you whiny little bitch.)
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To: Zathras

“They were forced by Biden to implement the “Jab or fired” for every employee even if you worked remotely.”

I worked for them and I never got the jab.


13 posted on 04/12/2026 7:08:46 AM PDT by dljordan (Yeah, I'm a Boomer and it's all my fault you whiny little bitch.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

“I was thinking IBM was probably forced into their DIE policies by the Biden Regime.”

Almost certainly that was the case. What IBM, and literally every other country, needs to learn, although they won’t learn much for settlements like $17M, is that they need to SPEAK OUT when Democrats tell them to break the law - and POINT FINGERS at just how it’s being forced on them.


14 posted on 04/12/2026 7:16:14 AM PDT by BobL (Trusting one's doctor is the #1 health mistake one can make.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

You were probably thinking wrong
ibm ceo is Arvind Krishna - (indian/american).
This indian takeover has been going on in tech for 10+ years.
They only hire more indians, and people they can control.


15 posted on 04/12/2026 7:37:54 AM PDT by BereanBrain
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To: Twotone
Seems like a pretty small fine. The find would probably be $17 billion if the discrimination had been against black people.
16 posted on 04/12/2026 7:39:14 AM PDT by libertylover (The HBM (Has Been Media) is almost all AGENDA-DRIVEN and HATE-DRIVEN, not-truth driven.)
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To: Twotone

The money should go to all Caucasians who have been discriminated by IBM .


17 posted on 04/12/2026 8:47:15 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Illegally "born in the U.S." doesn't make you an American. It makes you a thieving ANCHOR BABY. )
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To: Twotone

I grew up and lived in IBM territory in the Hudson Valley, New York, when IBM built massive research, manufacturing, and other facilities, and the population exploded with IBM employees and other people and businesses that provided support to IBM and its workforce. Farms and ranches became housing developments, shopping malls, and commercial/industrial campuses; two lane highways became four lane, and then six lane highways. Many of the IBM manufacturing facilities ran three shifts, 24 hours a day. Every IBM employees from janitors to executives were automatically a member of the IBM County Club, which had a Robert Trent Jones Golf Course, bowling alley, indoor and outdoor shooting ranges, tennis courts, swimming pools, softball leagues, etc. Back then (until 1992), IBM had a “no lay-off” policy. Employees in good standing had a job for life.

My father worked at IBM from 1949 to 1984. Even back then, IBM had an extremely diverse workforce, although I would not call its hiring practices “DEI.” Rather, it offered employment preferences to veterans and disabled people (my father was a WW II combat vet and legally deaf). And while IBM was an industry leader back then in hiring women and minorities, I don’t recall my father or any other person complaining that the woman and minority employees were unqualified. Indeed, I went to school with the children of IBM’s minority employees, and they were just like the white kids: some were really smart, some were not; some were screwballs, some were studious; some were jocks, others were nerds; some of their parents had professional positions, others (like my father) were blue collar workers.

Looking back, I suspect that IBM hired women and minorities that were equally if not more qualified than white males. And while I am certain that IBM hired and promoted unqualified women and minorities, I am equally certain that it hired and promoted unqualified white men because mistakes in judgement are inevitable in any organization with 350,000+ employees.

I also suspect the IBM’s DEI initiative started back in 1992 when IBM for the first time laid off 125,000 employees over a two year period, and the local economy suffered a micro depression. By then, many of the employees making the hiring and firing decisions had been brainwashed into the affirmative action mindset, which led to where IBM is today — a proud DEI employer that is no longer a cutting edge technology giant.


18 posted on 04/12/2026 10:14:27 AM PDT by Labyrinthos
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To: Labyrinthos

Yes, in the early 90’s is when IBM brought in DEI types to tell the new managers at new manager school session start, that every white person there (perhaps 4/5ths to 5/6ths of us) should be totally ashamed of themselves for taking a management job away from a far more deserving “person of color”.

That was when the old merit based IBM became the new racism based IBM.


19 posted on 04/12/2026 12:36:02 PM PDT by EasySt (Say not this is the truth, but so it seems to me to be, as I see this thing I think I see. #MAGA-A)
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To: dljordan

“It started way before that.”

Yep. I got outsourced to IBM in 2002. It was blatant. They didn’t really want us, but the customer made them take us. They outright told us new employees they wanted to hire women only.


20 posted on 04/12/2026 12:57:07 PM PDT by rxh4n1
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