back to article Meta's plan to erase 5% of workforce starts today

Meta has confirmed to The Register that today marks the start of a mass redundancy process with thousands of workers getting the chop. Word of looming job cuts emerged last month when CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees in a leaked memo that he intended to “move out low-performers faster” and “raise the bar on performance …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why does Meta need all those staff

    If you can run the entire USA on 5 interns

    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Remids me of

      someone in Westminster back in the 1950's said that (from memory) the UK could be run on FIVE computers. If the number is wrong then it is close to that.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Why the downvote?

        do you work for IBM?

      2. Bebu sa Ware
        Coat

        Re: Remids me of

        the UK could be run on FIVE computers. If the number is wrong then it is close to that.

        I imagine when Bloody Stupid was running the shop a mixed half dozen Radio Shack TRS-80s and Amstrad CPC464s would have been sufficient.

        1. theOtherJT Silver badge

          Re: Remids me of

          I mean, it wouldn't have been less effective but I'm not sure "sufficient" is a fair description of any part of that government.

      3. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

        Re: Remids me of

        All calculations ever needed in Sweden was supposedly able to be done on SMIL (Siffermaskinen i Lund) in that era, as well.

        Things changed a little since then.

  2. trevorde Silver badge

    Redundancy List

    * fact checkers

    * moderators

    * anyone hired under DEI

    * anyone not driving a Tesla

    * anyone who did not vote for Trump

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Redundancy List

      Anyone female / black / Muslim / Jewish (Memo from Zuckerberg about that one)

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

  3. alain williams Silver badge

    When are the other 95% going ?

    Hopefully not too far in the future.

  4. xyz Silver badge

    We'll never know....

    Imagine the embarrassment of putting "worked for Meta" on your cv. (resume in orange land). McDonald's will never hire you.

  5. vogon00

    Meta gulps the cool-aid?

    Now, I'm wondering if the Zuck has decided that - due to Meta drinking it's own kool-aid - the increasing internal use of 'AI' justifies a reduction in headcount of 5%.

    I'm not a fan of the AI thing, mainly as IMO all it will let us do in the medium to long term is forget how to think for ourselves and pass even more control into the hands of the 'AI Wranglers'.

    It's rough on the people about to get RIFed, but probably better for everyone else in the long term as the sooner Meta fucks up by relying too much on it's own and 3rd party AI, the better!

    1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      We don't need AI to stop thinking for ourselves.

      Do you still know someone's phone number by heart, or do you just click on the Contact entry ?

      Do you know their birthday, or do you rely on FaceBook to send you a reminder ?

      We are conveniencing ourselves to death.

      With the best of intentions, of course . . .

      1. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge

        ...and losing our sense of direction. I do use a sat-nav, but only once I've arrived at an unfamiliar town/nearby - until then, it's navigation from notes made from consulting an online map.

        Sat-navs help in the night on unlit country roads as they allow you to plan ahead more

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hi, that job you’ve been doing fine for the last 5 years

    Yeah, nah!

    Bye.

    1. UnknownUnknown

      Re: Hi, that job you’ve been doing fine for the last 5 years

      Low performers like …. Zuckerberg.

      Let’s see the ROI for your AI investments… and what happened to the Metaverse??

      Oh and endemic harbouring criminality within your environment… and Meta’s multiple breaches of data protection, data hovering up etc.

      … and running a hateful cess-pit.

  7. Bebu sa Ware
    Coat

    "Meta confirmed it was expunging fact checking in the USA"

    Would imply that fact checking would have to continue in other locations.

    I can imagine non-US Meta tagging demonstrable falsehoods while the US Meta promoting the same non facts as gospel. Altogether rather schizophreniac.

    Possibly save the Z† some letters "Meta confirmed it was expunging facts in the USA."

    † odd that was also painted on certain invading tanks. But also having a bunker (in Hawaii) not such a coincidence.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "Meta confirmed it was expunging fact checking in the USA"

      Just an anecdote, but a bunch of my (UK based) family members have recently left facebook and moved to some other social media thingy in protest against the removal of fact checking in the US. (No idea which one they've moved to, I'm not on social media apart from lurking on El Reg forums.)

      1. UnknownUnknown

        Re: "Meta confirmed it was expunging fact checking in the USA"

        I junked Facebook - as it was already a Cess-pool of abuse, AI Soft-Porn reels, criminality, fraud and shit-posting…. Before the fact checker debacle.

        I didn’t feel the need to go elsewhere and an uptick in use of my time and general well-being is the outcome.

        Highly recommended.

      2. juice

        Re: "Meta confirmed it was expunging fact checking in the USA"

        Anecdotally, a number of friends have been sharing their blue sky details; a few have dropped off Facebook altogether.

        Personally, since the election - and despite not being in the USA - I've seen a large uptick in the amount of right-wing political posts. Mostly from the USA (and mainly involving people crowing about how the democrats have been "owned"), but there's also been a lot of Reform and even Tory posts.

        There's also been a lot of crap AI generated stuff - "I'm 130 years old, and I baked a cake for the first time", or "This couple has been married for 5 zillion years", being posted by multiple accounts. Quite what the point of these is, I don't know; I'd guess it's like-gathering so that these accounts can be used for phishing scams/political propaganda, further down the line?

        Either way, my block-hammer has been in overdrive, and things are slowly starting to settle. But it does genuinely make me worried about how much junk is being crammed down people's throats, and it's definitely pushed me closer towards switching Facebook off.

      3. that one in the corner Silver badge

        Re: "Meta confirmed it was expunging fact checking in the USA"

        Definite upvote for including El Reg forums as social media.

  8. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

    Luckily, Zuck can at least enjoy his super yachts, which should come as some comfort to all involved.

    1. UnknownUnknown

      Like Waterworld - drinking his own piss once AI has caused the rest of the Polar Ice and mountain glaciers to melt.

  9. codejunky Silver badge

    Ok

    "In recent years we’ve developed increasingly complex systems to manage content across our platforms, partly in response to societal and political pressure to moderate content. This approach has gone too far."

    I thought Zuck was American? This looks like a British understatement.

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