By Sam Boughedda
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Communications Director Andy Stone has hit back at a report by The Washington Post on Wednesday titled "Meta plans to cut thousands of jobs after CEO predicted no more layoffs."
The report claims Facebook parent company Meta is readying for a fresh round of job cuts, deputizing human resources, financial experts, lawyers, and top executives to design plans to "deflate the company's hierarchy in a reorganization and downsizing effort that could affect thousands of workers."
WaPo, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that the social media giant plans to move some leaders into lower-level roles without direct reports, reducing the layers of management between Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the company's interns.
However, in a swift rebuttal, Stone tweeted: "The @washingtonpost got this one wrong. With all due respect, @loriamontgomery, @cpassariello, @markseibel, @laurastevens, how do you run a story with a headline/storyline that is contradicted by the reporting in the very same story — as well as previous reporting?"
In the tweet thread, Stone posts an article from BusinessInsider dated November 22, 2022, which says Meta CEO Zuckerberg has refused to rule out further job cuts after a previous round of layoffs.
Stone also points to a quote from Zuckerberg in January that was, in fact, used by the Washington Post article on Wednesday as evidence for the story's inaccuracy.
Zuckerberg previously said: "We closed last year with some difficult layoffs and restructuring some teams."
"When we did this, I said clearly that this was the beginning of our focus on efficiency and not the end."