Meta has informed their staff of the coming layoff in the risk division, attributing it to the development in the company’s internal technology. A Business Insider report quoted Meta’s chief compliance and privacy officer of product Michel Protti, telling workers in an internal memo that the company is moving away from manual reviews to more automated processes. While indicating to the after effects, he said, “As a result, we don’t need as many roles in some areas as we once did.” However, he didn’t disclose the number of employees to be laid off.
What does the memo say?
In the memo, Protti said that Meta has invested in building more global technical controls and has also made progress in its approach to risk management and compliance, Business Insider reported. The risk organisation in Meta ensures the tech giants’ regulatory and policy compliance. Protti wrote, “By moving from bespoke, manual reviews to a more consistent and automated process, we’ve been able to deliver more accurate and reliable compliance outcomes across Meta.”
He further added, “This standardization means that many routine decisions can now be handled efficiently by technology, freeing our teams to focus on the most complex and high-impact challenges.”
The Business Insider report further cited Meta spokesperson Thomas Richards, confirming the risk divisions’ job cuts and internal memo. He stated that the company routinely makes organisational changes and restructure to “reflect the maturity of our program and innovate faster while maintaining high compliance standards”.
Hiring for firing
The company’s recent cuts include 600 employees from its Superintelligence Labs division on Wednesday. According to Business Insider, despite the layoffs, Meta’s Chief AI Officer, Alexandr Wang, confirmed they will still “continue to hire industry-leading AI-native talent” to make the Labs more agile.
Furthermore, Meta is already automating parts of its business, such as using AI for interviews and coding assessments. This aligns with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s earlier expectation that, this year, the company will have an AI agent capable of doing the work of a midlevel engineer.
Netizens react
On the social networking platform ‘Blind’, users have shared their views on this latest development. A user named tech industry posted, “I get it if you want to join because you’re looking for a role, but Meta is hiring to fire and it’s continuing.”
Another user replied, “I would rather join now and pip you out using Machiavellian tactics,” mentioning that these are the tactics of Meta employees to buzz off the competition.
Another user shared a different perspective by saying, “For some of us, Meta pays so much that a single year followed by a firing would be worth several years of hard labor at out existing jobs. We could take the hire-to-fire situation and relax for a year or two before looking for work again.”
