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Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter comes as the U.S. holds midterm elections this week, with observers warning that online misinformation about the credibility of the electoral process can have real-world effects. Is Twitter, under Musk, ready? Tina Trinh reports. Michelle Quinn contributed.
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Facebook parent company Meta is preparing to begin large-scale layoffs this week, according to U.S. media reports. 

The layoffs, which were first reported by The Wall Street Journal, are expected to affect thousands of employees and would be the company’s first job cuts of this scale in its 18-year history. 

The job cuts are expected to come as early as Wednesday.  

Meta has not commented on the news reports.  

The expected layoffs would follow a string of job cuts at technology companies in recent months, including Twitter, Microsoft, Lyft and Stripe. 

Meta’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said in his company’s last earnings call in October that “we expect to end 2023 as either roughly the same size, or even a slightly smaller organization than we are today.” 

He said the company would focus its investments on a small number of “high priority growth areas” while most other teams would “stay flat or shrink over the next year.” 

Meta, along with other technology firms, are facing economic pressures on several fronts, including slowing economic growth, rising interest rates that force digital advertisers to cut back, and increasing interest rates, which make it more expensive for companies like Meta to borrow money.  

Social media companies are also facing growing competition from newer rivals like TikTok and Snapchat.  

Twitter cut around half of its staff last week after Tesla billionaire Elon Musk took over the company. 

Bloomberg News is reporting that Twitter is now reaching out to dozens of recently fired employees and asking them to return.  

It said some employees were let go by mistake while others were laid off before management realized their skills would be useful for the company’s plans. 

Some information in this report came from Reuters. 

 
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Meta Platforms Inc. is planning to begin large-scale layoffs this week that will affect thousands of employees, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter, with an announcement planned as early as Wednesday.

Meta declined to comment on the WSJ report.

Facebook parent Meta in October forecasted a weak holiday quarter and significantly more costs next year wiping about $67 billion off Meta’s stock market value, adding to the more than half a trillion dollars in value already lost this year.

The disappointing outlook comes as Meta is contending with slowing global economic growth, competition from TikTok, privacy changes from Apple, concerns about massive spending on the metaverse and the ever-present threat of regulation.

Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has said he expects the metaverse investments to take about a decade to bear fruit. In the meantime, he has had to freeze hiring, shutter projects and reorganize teams to trim costs.

“In 2023, we’re going to focus our investments on a small number of high priority growth areas. So that means some teams will grow meaningfully, but most other teams will stay flat or shrink over the next year. In aggregate, we expect to end 2023 as either roughly the same size, or even a slightly smaller organization than we are today” Zuckerberg said on the last earnings call in late October.

The social media company had in June cut plans to hire engineers by at least 30%, with Zuckerberg warning employees to brace for an economic downturn.

Meta’s shareholder Altimeter Capital Management in an open letter to Zuckerberg had previously said the company needs to streamline by cutting jobs and capital expenditure, adding that Meta has lost investor confidence as it ramped up spending and pivoted to the metaverse.

Several technology companies, including Microsoft Corp., Twitter and Snap have cut jobs and scaled back hiring in recent months as global economic growth slows due to higher interest rates, rising inflation and an energy crisis in Europe.
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