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After the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. said it wanted to scale back how much political content it showed users. The company went further than almost anyone knew. The results of the effort are gradually reshaping political discourse on the world’s biggest social-media platform, even though the company backed off the most aggressive approach: hitting the mute button on all recommendations of political content.

☆ Facebook Parent’s Oversight Board Criticizes ‘Cross Check’ Program That Protects VIP Users
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Jeff Horwitz | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Meta Platforms Inc. has long given unfair deference to VIP users of its Facebook and Instagram services under a program called “cross check” and has misled the public about the program, the company’s oversight board concluded in a report issued Tuesday. The report offers the most detailed review to date of cross check, which Meta has billed as a quality-control effort to prevent moderation errors on content of heightened public interest. The oversight board took up the issue more than a year ago in the wake of a Wall Street Journal article based on internal documents that showed that cross check was plagued by favoritism, mismanagement and understaffing.

☆ How China’s Biggest Protests in Decades Unfolded Over Five Days
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Facebook’s Top Posts Were Trash. Here’s What It Did to Fix Things. Earlier this year Facebook parent Meta quietly formed a team to deal with an uncomfortable reality: the most popular posts on its platform were trash. WSJ tech reporter Jeff Horwitz joins host Zoe Thomas to discuss the war room Meta convened to deal with the problem and why fixing it was so critical to the platform's future plans. Photo: Johanna Geron/Reuters

☆ Facebook’s Most Popular Posts Were Trash. Here Is How It Cleaned Up.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Jeff Horwitz | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Earlier this year, Meta Platforms Inc. quietly convened a war room of staffers to address a critical problem: virtually all of Facebook ’s top-ranked content was spammy, oversexualized or generally what the company classified as regrettable. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, had historically been reluctant to judge what goes viral on its platform, trusting its recommendation systems and users to surface the best content.

☆ Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg Says He Is Accountable as Company Preps for Mass Layoffs
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Jeff Horwitz | Sam Schechner | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Meta Platforms Inc. will begin laying off employees on Wednesday morning, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg told hundreds of executives on Tuesday. The coming cuts are expected to total many thousands of employees and will likely be the largest of the year to date in the tech sector, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.

☆ Facebook Parent Meta Is Preparing to Notify Employees of Large-Scale Layoffs This Week
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( Jeff Horwitz | Salvador Rodriguez | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Meta’s planned layoffs would be the first broad head-count reductions to occur in the company’s 18-year history. Meta Platforms Inc. is planning to begin large-scale layoffs this week, according to people familiar with the matter, in what could be the largest round in a recent spate of tech job cuts after the industry’s rapid growth during the pandemic. The layoffs are expected to affect many thousands of employees and an announcement is planned to come as soon as Wednesday, according to the people. Meta reported more than 87,000 employees at the end of September. Company officials already told employees to cancel nonessential travel beginning this week, the people said.

Nearly a year after Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook as Meta Platforms in a bet-the-company move on the metaverse, internal documents show the transition grappling with glitchy technology, uninterested users and a lack of clarity about what it will take to succeed. While Mr. Zuckerberg has said the transition to a more immersive online experience will take years, the company’s flagship metaverse offering for consumers, Horizon Worlds, is falling short of internal performance expectations.

In response to stalling growth and intense competition, Meta Platforms Inc. executives have spoken of cost cuts, hiring freezes and “ruthless prioritization.” One word the company hasn’t used: layoffs. But Meta has begun quietly nudging out a significant number of staffers by reorganizing departments and giving affected employees a limited window to apply for other roles within the company, according to current and former managers familiar with the matter, in a move that achieves staffing cuts while forestalling the mass issuance of pink slips.

Meta Platforms is planning to cut expenses by at least 10% in the coming months, in part through staff reductions, as the social-media giant confronts stalling growth and increased competition, according to people familiar with the company’s plans. The Menlo Park, Calif., company has begun quietly nudging out a significant number of staffers by reorganizing departments and giving affected employees a limited window to apply for other roles within the company, according to current and former managers familiar with the matter, in a move that achieves staffing cuts while forestalling the mass issuance of pink slips.

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