IA Sponsors 50-State Racial Justice Legislative Tracker And Releases Additional Commitments To Increase Diversity & Inclusion

Washington, DC – Internet Association (IA) today released new industry-wide initiatives aimed at addressing systemic racial inequality and increasing diversity within the internet industry workforce. The latest initiatives, which build on IA’s initial commitments released in June 2020, include IA’s sponsoring of a Racial Justice State Legislative Tracker to serve as a centralized source to track state legislation related to racial justice and reform.

“Meaningful social justice reforms must be passed at the national, state, and local levels in order to successfully build an anti-racist society. That’s why IA is working to make it easier for our member companies and racial justice groups to support reform at the state and local level through our 50-state legislative tracker,” said Sean Perryman, IA’s Director of Social Impact Policy and Counsel. “The internet industry remains dedicated to creating a more diverse and inclusive society, and we will continue to fight for the reforms needed to achieve that goal.”

IA is partnering with TaskForce to develop the legislative tracker, which is intended to help racial justice groups and other stakeholders such as the NAACP, National Urban League, Color of Change, and National League of Cities coordinate advocacy efforts to pass criminal justice reform bills around the country. 

“Achieving the National Urban League’s mission of helping African-Americans and others in underserved communities achieve their highest true social parity, economic self-reliance, power, and civil rights requires awareness and engagement by not just advocacy organization, but all sectors of business,” said Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League. “We are excited to collaborate with Internet Association and TaskForce in the release of the Racial Justice State Legislative Tracker to ensure that there is more visibility and accountability with respect to the state legislative actions needed to ensure a more equitable future.”

As part of their latest racial justice and reform initiatives, IA and its members are also committing to improving supplier diversity — an area that had been previously identified for improvement in IA’s inaugural D&I Benchmark Report. IA is working to improve the chain of diverse suppliers by convening members and hosting events with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other stakeholders to connect diverse suppliers with companies. The first event will be held virtually on October 23 with the FCC Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment.

IA has also made internal commitments to host and participate in panels that represent diverse voices, interview more candidates of color, and observe Juneteenth (June 19) as a company holiday.

To read IA’s full list of initiatives aimed at addressing systemic racial inequality and improving diversity within the internet industry workforce, click here.

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