Meta plans to fire up to 5 percent of its employees based on performance reviews, according to an internal memo to employees seen by The New York Times on Tuesday.
“I've decided to raise the bar on performance management and accelerate the exit of underperforming companies,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in the memo. “We normally eliminate people who don't meet expectations over the course of a year, but now we'll be making more extensive, performance-based cuts during this cycle.”
Mr. Zuckerberg said in the memo that employees whose positions were cut would be replaced by new hires in 2025.
The layoffs came days after Meta announced sweeping changes to its content moderation policies. The company, which owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, said it would no longer police certain types of hate speech, including allowing users of its apps to suggest that LGBTQ identities are rooted in mental illness.
Meta also said it would stop moderating posts and promote political news in its news feed, rolling back some of its content moderation rules in preparation for the incoming Trump administration. President-elect Donald J. Trump has criticized Meta and other tech companies for what he describes as censorship of conservative viewpoints.
A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment on the layoffs. Bloomberg previously reported on the cuts.
Last week, Mr Zuckerberg said the company was ending its diversity, equality and inclusion programs with immediate effect. In an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan on Friday, Mr. Zuckerberg also said that “masculine energy, I think, is good.”
“It's like if you want feminine energy, you want masculine energy,” Mr. Zuckerberg said. “I think that's all good. But I do think that the corporate culture has become a little more neutered.”
On Meta's internal company message boards, employees asked whether the cuts would target specific groups, such as the LGBTQ community or people of color.
“Given what we heard Mark say about DEI last week, do we think these cuts are coming for people who don't have the masculine energy he's looking for?” an employee asked.
In a separate memo to managers seen by The Times, Meta said the cuts were to ensure the company had the “strongest talent” within the company, and would give Meta the ability to hire new employees. Managers were also told that those laid off would receive “generous” severance packages.
The changes coincide with Mr. Zuckerberg's broader effort to retool his company for the Trump era and shield Meta from the threat of regulation by forging closer ties with the new administration.
Last year, Mr. Zuckerberg made his first visit to Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump's private club in Palm Beach, Florida. Mr. Zuckerberg donated $1 million to Mr. Trump's inaugural fund, and he has embraced cooperation with the administration in fighting what he describes as unnecessarily strict regulations in the European Union and other overseas markets.
Mr. Zuckerberg also plans to attend Mr. Trump's inauguration ceremony on Jan. 20, according to two people familiar with his plans who spoke on condition of anonymity. And he will join Republican megadonors Miriam Adelson and Tilman Fertitta to host a black-tie reception for the incoming president that evening, according to a copy of the invitation shared with The Times.
A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment on Mr. Zuckerberg's political activities.
According to its latest earnings report, Meta has more than 72,000 employees, and the cuts Zuckerberg announced Tuesday would eliminate about 3,600 people.
The cuts also represent Meta's first major cull since 2023, when Mr. Zuckerberg embarked on what he called the “year of efficiency,” a move to thin out his workforce after years of what he said was “overhiring” during the pandemic . Mr Zuckerberg pressured managers across departments to set higher performance targets to weed out underperforming companies, leading Meta to cut around a third of its total workforce by 2023.
Yet Meta's ranks have grown. Mr. Zuckerberg has aimed to replace many of those workers with new hires focused on artificial intelligence, while Meta and other major tech companies focus on developing chatbots and other AI-powered services.
