During its feud with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, conservatives railed against The Walt Disney Company, saying that the company had “gone woke,” after former Disney CEO Bob Chapekk was pressured into speaking out against Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act, known by its critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” Bill.
However, since Bob Iger’s return as CEO, the company has taken a more pragmatic approach, prioritizing profits over politics. Most recently, Disney removed a transgender storyline from an upcoming Pixar Disney+ show, and the company returned to X (formerly Twitter) after refusing to advertise on the platform.
With Donald Trump’s return to the White House in the coming days, Disney appears to be taking an even harder right turn after news of a secret meeting leaked this week.
Lawyers for The Walt Disney Company met with lawyers for the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) in a secret meeting to discuss the ADF’s potential lawsuit brought by Disney shareholders. The ADF is known for defending right-wing causes, including representing a Colorado baker who refused to bake a cake for a gay wedding. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which eventually sided with the baker.
The shareholders were concerned about Disney’s participation in the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), which advised companies to advertise on sites that best reflected its views. After GARM advised companies to discontinue its advertising on X over the platform’s hate speech, Congress began investigating GARM, and the group ultimately disbanded.
The ADF met with Disney on behalf of conservative shareholders, seeking a written promise that Disney would continue advertising on conservative news and social media sites like X. While Disney’s lawyers listened to the ADF, they refused to offer a written guarantee that it could continue supporting right-wing websites.
The ADF and other conservative legal groups, like America First Legal, have accused Disney of being part of a vast network of companies engaging in “conservative censorship.” An ADF representative said their goal is “setting the conservative agenda for shareholders.”
Disney took the meeting with the ADF in exchange for shareholders withdrawing a proposal requiring Disney to report on “how it oversees risks related to discrimination against ad buyers and sellers based on their political or religious status or views.”
Despite the meeting, an ADF representative said it would continue these conversations with Disney to promote its conservative agenda. Disney did not comment on the meeting.
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