Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta on Wednesday announced that around 13 percent of its workforce—over 11,000 staff—will be laid off. In a message to employees announcing the cuts, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he’d misjudged how long COVID’s boost to e-commerce would last and said increased competition coupled with a wider economic downturn have caused the company’s revenues to fall “much lower” than he’d expected. “I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here,” he added in the statement. “I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted.” The massive layoffs follow a painful tech industry trend, with Meta’s firings coming a week after Elon Musk cut Twitter’s 7,500-strong payroll in half.
