Free Republic

t's a rough time to be working at Facebook, Instagram, or one of Meta's many other properties. Mark Zuckerberg's social media giant will reportedly hand out roughly 8,000 pink slips on Wednesday, May 20, eliminating about 10% of its global workforce. Notably, though, these cuts will arrive on the heels of one of the most lucrative quarters in the company's history: $56.31 billion in revenue and $26.8 billion in net income (1) for the first three months of 2026, per Meta's Q1 earnings filing. For many Meta employees, that stark contrast is apparently driving morale into the dirt. According to...

H-1B visa filings at major tech companies fell sharply late last year, according to federal data, as layoffs mount and new visa restrictions take hold. The decline comes as changes to the work visa program since September have made the process costlier and placed applicants under tighter scrutiny, and as tech goliaths like Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft have undergone successive rounds of job cuts. Department of Labor data shows that some employers filed markedly fewer H-1B visa applications in the first quarter of fiscal 2026 than they did a year earlier. On the federal calendar, Q1 runs from October...

It’s hard to even imagine now, but immediately after it launched in 2004, there was nothing on the internet cooler than Facebook. It was initially available only to Harvard students, then gradually expanded to students at other elite colleges, giving it an aura of exclusivity that founder Mark Zuckerberg clearly coveted. By the time it opened up to public accounts in 2006, the hype was palpable, paving the way to an explosive initial public offering in 2012. Since those salad days, its trajectory has never been quite the same. Sure, it’s maintained market share with a series of cynical acquisitions...

Social media giant Meta is threatening to shut down access to Facebook, Instagram, and even WhatsApp in New Mexico if a judge orders the company to implement sweeping child-safety mandates sought by Attorney General Raúl Torrez. The warning comes ahead of a bench trial beginning Monday in Santa Fe, where the New Mexico Department of Justice will seek court-ordered reforms to Meta’s platforms after previously securing a $375 million jury verdict against the company for violating the state’s consumer protection laws. According to newly unsealed court filings first reported by Source New Mexico and expanded upon by The Verge, Meta...

In February, workers at the company, Sama, told two Swedish newspapers they had witnessed glasses users going to the toilet and having sex. Less than two months later, Meta ended its contract with Sama, which Sama said would result in 1,108 workers being made redundant. Meta says it's because Sama did not meet its standards, a criticism Sama rejects. A Kenyan workers' organisation alleges Meta's decision was caused by the staff speaking out. Meta has not addressed that allegation but told BBC News in a statement it had "decided to end our work with Sama because they don't meet our...

Two killed in the latest US attack on a boat... Ukrainian attacks on Russia tonight... Explosions reported in Ukrainian cities... An Iranian delegation led by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arriving in Islamabad, Pakistan... The United Kingdom and Turkey signing a strategic partnership agreement... "..the question is whether NATO is logistically and politically prepared to respond if Russia tries to attack" Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk... New US sanctions aimed at Iran's oil trade... Argentina proposing new talks with Britain over the Falkland Islands... Four killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza tonight... The US waiver on foreign ships carrying cargo between...

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta plans to lay off 10% of its workforce in a companywide bloodbath next month – with even more cuts to follow later in the year, according to a report Friday. The Instagram parent will ax nearly 8,000 employees in the initial round set for May 20, Reuters reported. More layoffs are expected in the second half of the year, but Meta executives have yet to decide how extensive they will be or exactly when they will occur. Meta’s plans could be adjusted based on the state of the company’s artificial intelligence capabilities, sources ominously told the outlet....

A Reddit researcher just exposed how Meta funneled over $2 billion through shadowy nonprofits to push age verification laws that would force Apple and Google to build surveillance infrastructure into every device—while conveniently exempting Meta’s own platforms from the same requirements. Following the Money Trail Through Dark Networks Meta’s lobbying operation spans 45 states using nonprofit shells to avoid transparency requirements.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos have both reportedly invested in Synchron, a new brain-computer interface startup that aims to compete with companies like Elon Musk’s Neuralink. On Thursday, Synchron announced that it had completed a funding round of $75 million, with Bezos Expeditions contributing a portion of the investment. The round was led by ARCH Venture Partners and included investment from Gates Frontier, the venture capital branch of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, as well as other investors. In addition, several previous investors, including Khosla Ventures and its founder, Vinod Khosla, who introduced Oxley to Gates, also...

The initial wave of a massive bloodbath at Oracle has begun to show up in public filings — with 700 workers expected to lose their jobs by June 1, according to California state records. The software giant headed by billionaire Larry Ellison will cut 310 workers in Redwood City, 184 in Santa Clara, 158 in Pleasanton and 50 in Santa Monica. The statewide tally of roughly 700 job cuts, in addition to 491 firings in Seattle, is part of the software maker’s recently announced bloodbath that is reportedly in the thousands of jobs. Analysts at investment bank TD Cowen predicted...

“Saturday Night Live UK” has been slammed for a distasteful joke aimed at Meta owner and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “It’s been revealed that Meta billionaire Mark Zuckerberg is building a bunker under his compound in California,” said “Weekend Update” co-host Ania Magliano. “And I hope he uses that bunker in exactly the same way Hitler did,” she added, prompting shocked reactions from the live audience. The joke referenced the Führerbunker, an underground air-raid shelter near the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, where Adolf Hitler spent his final 105 days, ultimately committing suicide on April 30, 1945.

A Los Angeles jury found Wednesday that Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube harmed a young user with features designed to hook kids — in a bombshell verdict that “shakes Big Tech’s predatory business model to its core.” The high-profile case involved a 20-year-old woman who claimed she became dangerously obsessed with the apps at a young age because they were deliberately built to be addictive, using features like infinite scroll and autoplay. The tech giants were found liable for $3 million in damages. The multi-million-dollar judgment is likely to grow, as the jury of seven women and five men will...

Tech giant Meta has reportedly announced that it is shutting down its metaverse project, which was a dream project of its founder Mark Zuckerberg, who had called it “the next frontier" upon rebranding the social media company from Facebook to Meta in 2021. Four and a half years later and a total outlay of humongous $80 billion, the project has been dumped, making it a failed project. The shift in Meta’s approach came at a time when generative artificial intelligence (AI) has become the new hotbed for tech companies, with capital expenditure reaching trillions of dollars and a heated race...

Meta Platforms may shrink its workforce by up to 20% in a sign that artificial-intelligence productivity gains are finally materializing. According to a Reuters report from Friday, Meta has not finalized specific dates or details for cuts but is considering widespread reductions to its workforce. The company had nearly 79,000 employees as of its last annual filing. A Meta spokesperson told Reuters, “This is speculative reporting about theoretical approaches.” The company didn’t respond to a MarketWatch request for comment. But Wall Street seems encouraged that the company is thinking about paring back its staff. Shares are up 2.9% in Monday’s...

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his pediatrician wife Priscilla Chanhave bought a waterfront mansion in Miami that’s still under construction... The property on ultra-exclusive Indian Creek Island, otherwise known as ‘Billionaire Bunker,’ was on the market for $200 million. The price that Zuckerberg and Chan agreed to pay: a colossal $170 million. A message seeking comment from Zuckerberg was not returned by press time. The couple’s move from California to Florida follows in the recent footsteps of fellow online billionaires Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who are the co-founders of Google. They’re fleeing the Golden State as California prepares to...

Crab Costumes courtesy of "A Meta AI security researcher said an OpenClaw agent ran amok on her inbox" by Julie Bort, February 23, 2026 Okay, AI is going to take away all serious jobs, we have to reinvent ourselves with a new life mission that's not totally ridiculous make-work, we'll get perhaps $150 per month "guaranteed" minimal income, live in pod communities like the Coppertops in The Matrix, eat bug-burger, "you'll own nothing and be happy". But if it's A.I. that is trying to run down this "you will be assimilated, resistance is futile" trope, they'd better get cracking with...

A newly granted patent to Meta is raising unsettling questions about the future of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital identity. The company’s developments suggest that social media users could continue posting, commenting, and even interacting with loved ones after death.

Matt Bergman, founding attorney of Social Media Victims Law Center, said the Meta CEO's testimony is "a moment that families across this country have been waiting for." "For the first time, a Meta CEO will have to sit before a jury, under oath, and explain why the company released a product its own safety teams warned were addictive and harmful to children," Bergman said in a statement Tuesday. It’s the first of a consolidated group of cases — from more than 1,600 plaintiffs, including over 350 families and over 250 school districts — scheduled to be argued before a jury...

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) remains Europe’s largest data enforcer by a wide margin, having issued €4.04 billion in fines since May 2018. The annual Data Breach Survey from law firm DLA Piper found that Ireland’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) fine total is almost four times more than second-placed France. The DPC issued the largest fine of 2025, a €530 million penalty against TikTok over the transfer of the personal data of European users to China. TikTok is currently appealing the ruling. The Data Breach Survey shows that European GDPR fines totaled approximately €1.2 billion in 2025, consistent...

Meta Platforms on Monday named former Trump administration official Dina Powell McCormick as its president and vice chairman, boosting the company’s lobbying efforts in the U.S. capital. President Donald Trump congratulated Powell McCormick in a post on his Truth Social account minutes after the company announced her promotion. “Congratulations to DINA POWELL MCCORMICK, WHO HAS JUST BEEN NAMED THE NEW PRESIDENT OF META. A great choice by Mark Z!!! She is a fantastic, and very talented, person, who served the Trump Administration with strength and distinction!” the president wrote. Her appointment is the latest in a series of changes Meta...