Meta Lays Off Employees Across Multiple Departments Including Instagram and WhatsApp

Meta has been laying off workers from different departments in small cuts during team reorganization processes. According to The Verge, people familiar with the matter have reported multiple company-wide layoffs across Instagram, WhatsApp, and Reality Labs.

Yesterday, Jane Manchun Wong—who joined Threads’ team in 2023—posted on the social media platform that she had been laid off.

“I’m still trying to process this but I’m informed that my role at Meta has been impacted. Thank you to everyone, especially my Threads and Instagram teammates, for my wild journey at Meta,” wrote Wong on Threads.

Dave Arnold, a spokesperson from Meta, told The Verge yesterday that multiple teams had been impacted as part of an internal restructuring process. “Today, a few teams at Meta are making changes to ensure resources are aligned with their long-term strategic goals and location strategy,” declared Arnold. “This includes moving some teams to different locations, and moving some employees to different roles. In situations like this when a role is eliminated, we work hard to find other opportunities for impacted employees.”

Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, had declared 2023 the “year of efficiency” and laid off 10,000 employees that year, after cutting 11,000 jobs in 2022. The new layoffs have been related to the efficiency strategy announced last year.

According to Reuters, Meta’s shares have raised 60% this year, beating the market’s expectations in recent quarter results, “signaling that robust digital-ad spending on its social media platforms can cover the cost of its artificial intelligence investments.”

A few days ago, TikTok fired hundreds of employees in content moderation to replace them with AI.