Meta, the owner of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, is to cut about 5% of its global workforce, with its poorest-performing employees most likely to leave.
In a memo to staff, the chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said he had decided to “move out low-performers faster”, ahead of what he said would be an “intense year”, and would be accelerating the company’s usual performance management system.
Meta employed 72,000 people globally at the end of September, according to its latest financial report, meaning that 3,600 workers could be affected by the planned cuts. The company plans to hire new people to fill the roles later in the year.
The announcement came just days after Meta said it would get rid of third-party factcheckers and would prioritise free speech as Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House. It is also terminating its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes.
Meta employees in the US who are affected by the job cuts are expected to be notified by 10 February, while those in other countries will be told at a later date.
“I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management,” Zuckerberg wrote in the memo, which was first reported by Bloomberg.
“We typically manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year, but now we’re going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle.”
The 40-year-old billionaire added: “This is going to be an intense year, and I want to make sure we have the best people on our teams.”
The terminations will only include staff who have been at Meta long enough to qualify for a performance review.
Zuckerberg said the company would “provide generous severance” in line with previous job cuts for those who lose theirs.
Meta shares fell by 2.3% on Tuesday, continuing a slide that had begun the previous day.
The company attracted widespread criticism for its decision to scrap factcheckers to flag misleading content, in favour of notes from other users. Commentators said it would enable the flow of misinformation and harmful content on Meta’s platforms.
Like many other technology companies, Meta has poured money into artificial intelligence projects, and Zuckerberg said it would be focusing on “some of the most important technologies of the world” including AI.