Meta lays off employees at WhatsApp, Instagram and others

Meta has begun laying off employees in various departments, including WhatsApp, Instagram and Reality Labs, according to people familiar with the matter. Rather than a company-wide mass layoff, these smaller cuts appear to coincide with restructuring of specific teams.

Some Meta employees have begun to post that they have been laid off. Among them is Jane Manchun Wong, who rose to prominence by reporting on unannounced features for apps before joining the Threads team in 2023.

“Today, some teams at Meta are making changes to ensure resources are aligned with their long-term strategic goals and site strategy,” company spokesman Dave Arnold said in a statement shared with The edge. “This includes moving some teams to other locations and moving some employees to other roles. In situations like this where a position is eliminated, we work hard to find other opportunities for the affected employees.”

This new round of layoffs follows a small series of job cuts in the company's Reality Labs division earlier this year. Meta laid off 11,000 employees for the first time in 2022 after being overly optimistic that the company would grow after the Covid pandemic. Subsequently, cuts of 10,000 more jobs were announced in 2023 as part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg's “Year of Efficiency.”

Update, October 16: Added statement from Meta.