Meta’s recent layoffs have sparked outrage among its workforce, as details emerged of employees’ activities being tracked by the company’s internal surveillance system to enhance its artificial intelligence systems. Reports indicate that the system tracked mouse movements, took screenshots and logged keystrokes on company devices to create training data for Meta’s AI goals. The company felt that seeing engineers at work would be a better way of generating AI learning material than the traditional datasets, employees said. Over 1,000 employees are said to have signed an anti monitoring petition, but the job cuts still took place, further fueling dismay among those in the US, Singapore and Europe.
How Were The Recent Meta Lay Offs Done?
The dismissals impacted almost 10% of Meta’s total workforce across the globe, including roughly 8,000 people. Staff members in certain countries reportedly received instructions to report for work but instead work remotely on the day of the notifications. No company wide communication or public briefing. The termination emails reportedly began to arrive to employees around 4 AM in Singapore, and from there, the emails trickled out over time zones. A lot of employees thought that the work from home advice was meant to ensure the process was kept quiet and prevent public disruptions within offices. The cuts also reportedly saw at least one employee being fired within the past month, adding to the company’s criticism for the exercise.
I just got laid off from Meta.
Obviously it sucks to lose the income. But between the never-ending layoffs, stack ranking, etc., I’m good. Pretty convinced that when I look back at this moment a few years into the future, I’ll be grateful it happened.
There’s a lot I want to…
— Jeremy Bernier (@jeremybernier) May 20, 2026
What Is The New Team At Meta?
A new unit dubbed ‘Applied AI and Engineering’ is at the heart of the changes, and is led by Meta VP of Engineering Maher Saba, according to report. The team includes roughly 2,000 workers who have already been transferred, according to the report, while data gathered under the controversial monitoring program is being adopted by the team.
‘Employee Data Extraction Factory’: What Does It Mean?
Those who were employed said they were assured they would not be laid off. The project was said to be a ‘high priority initiative, directly from Mark,’ according to internal e-mails. Cats in orange hard hats appeared at the Burlingame office of Meta in protest flyers depicting a ‘Employee Data Extraction Factory’. In an internal post which gained more than 2,000 likes from employees, software engineer Mack Ward wrote: ‘AI is a freight train, but the future is not a foregone conclusion, so keep talking.’
NEW DETAILS ON THE META LAYOFFS FROM INSIDE THE BUILDING
At least one employee who was hired within the past month was laid off today.
Over 1,000 employees signed a petition against Meta’s new program that tracks keystrokes, mouse movements, and screenshots to train AI models.… https://t.co/SUVvP8Gtjn pic.twitter.com/9c1ZGbp4Xc
— Official Layoff (@LayoffAI) May 20, 2026
What Did Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth Say?
However, the concerns were taken up later by Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth, who reportedly told employees in an internal Q&A session: ‘It’s all bad. I’m not going to try to sugarcoat that’. Staff at the director level were reportedly given almost half a million dollars of extra stock to stay on at the company, but some of them still resigned.
‘Never A Dull Moment…’
Before the cuts, hundreds of employees in New York showed up for drinks Tuesday night, to ‘commiserate or celebrate, pick your poison’, according to a copy of an invitation seen by The New York Times. The name of the get together, read like a dare: ‘Never a dull moment [salute emoji]’. The announcements coincide with a wider trend in the tech sector, as other tech firms such as Microsoft, Amazon, Cisco and Oracle have also made major layoff announcements in recent months, all of which are centered on revamping themselves around AI.
Also Read: ‘I Just Got Fired By Meta…’: Employee Opens Up On Heartbreaking Layoffs | Read Full Post
