The company is also planning to integrate AI into its operations in 2025, according to founder Mark Zuckerberg
Thousands of Meta employees could be axed this year as part of more extensive performance-based cuts, according to an internal memo by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, cited by Bloomberg and other media on Tuesday.
In the memo, reportedly sent to all Meta employees, the company said it is planning to cut about 5% of staff it considers to be its lowest performers, with 2025 set to be “an intense year.” The affected employees will be notified by February 10 and receive “generous severance” in line with what the company has provided previously.
The chief executive said he had “decided to raise the bar on performance management,” noting that the company typically “manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year,” but was now planning on “more extensive performance-based cuts” sooner.
The measures represent Meta’s largest layoffs since it trimmed 21,000 jobs, nearly a quarter of its workforce, in 2022 and 2023. The company has more than 72,000 employees, according to its most recent quarterly report.
Last week, Zuckerberg announced that Meta plans to replace mid-level engineers with Artificial Intelligence (AI) this year, suggesting that the technology could soon handle much of the coding currently performed by human engineers.
In another drastic policy change, the tech giant has announced it is stopping the use of its fact-checking service, which has become “too politically biased,” and moving to a system similar to the ‘Community Notes’ system used by Elon Musk’s platform X. It said it will also get rid of rules that had restrictions on topics like immigration and gender identity.
Meta has also decided to drop its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and revised its approach to the hiring process, which previously took gender and the racial background of applicants into account. The changes have reportedly already started taking effect across the company’s offices. Examples include an order to remove tampons from male bathrooms, as well as transgender and non-binary themes having been taken off the company’s messenger app.
Zuckerberg has said that the changes were influenced by the recent political climate in the US, including the election of Donald Trump.
