‘Digital content refresh’: Hill AFB removes posts about DEI
Mar 6, 2025, 8:30 PM
Utah's Hill Air Force Base. ( Meghan Thackrey, KSL TV)
( Meghan Thackrey, KSL TV)
SALT LAKE CITY — After the Pentagon released its “Digital Content Refresh Memorandum” on Feb. 26, Hill Air Force Base followed through with the federal government’s calls to remove digital content relating to diversity, equity and inclusion.
“By March 5, 2025, all Components must remove and archive DoD news articles, photos, and videos promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), including content related to critical race theory, gender ideology, and identity-based programs,” the Pentagon memorandum said.
That document referenced an earlier memorandum titled “Identity Months Dead at DoD,” which mandated that military departments would no longer “use official resources, to include man-hours, to host celebrations or events related to cultural awareness months.” The Department of Defense prefaced that order, saying, “Efforts to divide the force – to put one group ahead of another – erode camaraderie and threaten mission execution.”
On Feb. 27, the day after the digital content memorandum was released, Hill Air Force Base posted on social media that “content on this channel is being reviewed and removed to align with the President’s executive orders and DoD Instruction.”
Hill ‘met its goal’ on time
A spokesperson for Hill Air Force Base said the base met its goal before the mandated March 5 deadline to purge DEI content. They also said other commands posted similar messages and were following the same guidance.
Among the content removed from Hill Air Force Base’s platforms were social media posts about Hispanic Heritage Month, Black History Month and Pride Month — going along with the Pentagon’s calls to abandon recognition of identity months.
Also deleted were posts about certain holidays and days of remembrance, including content for International Women’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Holocaust Days of Remembrance.
Holocaust Days of Remembrance post on Hill Air Force Base’s Instagram was deleted prior to the March 5 content review deadline. (Hill Air Force Base)
The Digital Content Refresh Memorandum defined DEI content as “information that promotes programs, concepts, or materials about critical race theory, gender ideology and preferential treatment or quotas based upon sex, race or ethnicity, or other DEI-related matters with respect to promotion and selection reform, advisory boards, councils, and working groups.”
Hill Air Force Base would not comment on specific posts or content that were removed. A spokesperson said Hill Air Force Base “followed the guidelines we were sent in removing content.”
