Meta lays off employees across teams at WhatsApp, Instagram and more

NEW DELHI:  Social media giant Meta has laid off employees across multiple teams, including at WhatsApp and Instagram, as part of an apparent restructuring exercise, reports said on Thursday.

Meta did not immediately comment on how many employees were impacted in the latest round of job cuts.

In a statement to TechCrunch, the company confirmed multiple teams were hit by layoffs.

“A few teams at Meta are making changes to ensure resources are aligned with their long-term strategic goals and location strategy,” a Meta spokesperson was quoted as saying.

“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,” the spokesperson added.

Employees working on Reality Labs, Instagram and WhatsApp were affected by the layoffs, according to reports.

Several Meta employees took to social media platforms to announce they have been laid off.

Jane Manchun Wong, who was part of the Threads team, posted: “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”.

“If anyone is interested in working together esp on software/security engineering, please reach out via my email, LinkedIn, etc noted on my personal website,” she wrote on Threads.

Earlier this year, Meta laid off employees at its Reality Labs division.

The social media company run by Mark Zuckerberg first laid off 11,000 employees in 2022. In 2023, Meta laid off another 10,000 employees and withdrew 5,000 open roles it had yet to fill, as part of CEO Zuckerberg’s “year of efficiency”.