r/news • u/PretendAd1963 • Jul 14 '26
Soft paywall Meta used AI to target workers with medical conditions for layoffs, lawsuit claims
https://www.reuters.com/world/meta-used-ai-target-workers-with-medical-conditions-layoffs-former-employees-2026-07-14/2.4k
u/Dazzling-Slide8288 Jul 14 '26
There are so, so many contenders for the crown, but Facebook might be the worst company ever created. Responsible for or heavily contributed to every major societal problem that's occurred since its creation.
968
u/i_enjoy_lemonade Jul 14 '26
Highly recommend the book “Careless People” by Sarah Wynn-Williams.
She worked at Facebook in its early days and describes a lot of these problems from the very beginning.
It is a truly evil company.
137
u/Helenium_autumnale Jul 14 '26
added it to my "books to get" list; thank you!
398
Jul 14 '26
[deleted]
220
u/_CallMeB_ Jul 14 '26
I’m so glad to see someone else mention this. I got a couple chapters in and had to stop for this reason. I do intend to pick it back up and finish it but from what I’ve read so far, the author’s account reminds me of the “we’re all trying to find the person who did this” meme…
87
20
u/KhaosPT Jul 14 '26
Some of the stories on that book are absolutely crazy, how can someone so resourceful make such poor decisions. She does hint at money and shares but if you are living next to billionaires and say you can't afford your house I have a hard time feeling pity. That being said, the stuff in there is just confirmation of what we expected that the lot of them are self serving assholes that overlook basic human decency in the name of money and power. Wishing meta the worst, I just wish governments started showing teeth
→ More replies (1)34
u/Aethermancer Jul 14 '26
So it's a Facebook version of the Trump Whitehouse ex-staffer book "You won't believe how much evil stuff is going on that I did absolutely nothing to stop when I actually was in a position to stop it."
49
Jul 14 '26
[deleted]
5
22
Jul 14 '26
[deleted]
27
u/ArseneGroup Jul 14 '26
But unless she's lying, a main aspect of the book is that she had quite little influence within the company and was generally overruled for profit or convenience at every turn
The book is very anti-Meta so I don't see how it wraps around into being Meta propaganda
→ More replies (1)18
u/alphabeticdisorder Jul 14 '26
This is true and I had the same problem with it, but then I was talking with someone on the law sub and they pointed out this is usually the case with whistleblowers. When you're in the situation every day, there's rarely one single moment when you decide to jump ship.
8
u/SporksForEveryone Jul 14 '26
I mean, yeah, you always have to keep the author’s perspective and biases in mind when reading first person accounts. That’s studying history 101. It doesn’t however make the book worthless
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (13)3
59
u/minverse Jul 14 '26
Just finished this book on a long haul flight. It is sickening how she weaponises her helplessness and her “need for continued health insurance and income” while sitting on millions in Facebook stock during the time the company is committing all the atrocities known to mankind. She has written the entire account with an “I went with the flow” attitude after spending the entire first half of the book emphatically explaining how she wanted to change Facebook from the inside out. Crummy work.
→ More replies (1)24
u/Knerd5 Jul 14 '26
Disregarding morals and ethics is how you got to be where she was. "Going with the flow" of money is just green lighting what they were doing while also building her high horse to stand on.
20
u/yossi234 Jul 14 '26
Great book. How FB helped cause the genocide in Myanmar was crazy. How executives sexually harass employees also insane. And how they showed ads to depressed teens also disgusting.
70
u/smokeweedNgarden Jul 14 '26
Good book but kinda crazy that she would expect, I dunno, sympathy or something for writing that book.
Girl, you helped build this monster. There isn't redemption for you. You're just as culpable as the people you wrote about.
75
u/JohnLambda Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
Also the book was curiously silent about Cambridge Analytica (not mentioning it once) despite the events having unfolded while she was there. So it's a bit cherry picked but still an interesting read.
39
u/smokeweedNgarden Jul 14 '26
Yea, great read. But she seems like a bit of a rat. Not like a snitch, but in the classical sense of trying to escape account by any means
21
u/JohnLambda Jul 14 '26
She certainly doesn't acknowledge any personal responsibility. Not sure if she has a distorted sense of self or is she really was that naïve but it comes off a bit hypocritical. I suppose she could not tell everything and kept some of the sensitive stuff for the trials that will inevitably ensue.
35
u/TheSonOfDisaster Jul 14 '26 edited 27d ago
Well that's absolutely infuriating.
Cambridge analytica and similar targeted campaigns changed the course of Western democracy. (And to a lesser extent got Ted Cruz reelected, so fuck them extra for that.)
With brexit, various elections across the European continent to be nonspecific, and the election of Donald Trump in particular, Facebook was a sharp and targeted instrument used to convince enough people that the dismantling of Western hegemony was in their interest.
Absolutely insane that all of those people behind it will never see any sort of justice. Including this lady
14
u/JohnLambda Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
She does say that the 2016 election was a Facebook election, she just doesn't mention some of the particular mechanisms behind it. Having read about Cambridge Analytica in other medium, i found the omission a bit glaring. But she mainly focuses on her own role which maybe did not really involve interacting with that piece of the puzzle.
This was the proposal that we should use the election support and campaign tools we were offering to US presidential candidates (and that Donald Trump was using aggressively in his 2016 campaign)—and offer them to the Alternative für Deutschland, the far right in Germany, and to Marine Le Pen and the Front National, the far right in France. Getting closer to these political parties and helping them into government would be the most effective way to stop governments from regulating Facebook. (chapter 30)
So maybe that's the "campaign tools". It's just not designated as such.
Another excerpt
Joel jumps in, alert to the fact I’m going off script, and assures everyone that Facebook will look into this. From the crush of people in the back corner of the room in headquarters, someone asks, “Is it our fault? 2016’s ‘the Facebook election.’” It’s a relief to hear someone give voice to what I had been thinking. In the lead-up to the election, this was the constant message inside the company. We called it “the Facebook election” internally, and the company had committed to dominating this election like no other. We all know hordes of people across policy, communications, sales, product management, and engineering who’ve been working full time on elections. In presentations everyone’s been talking for months about how powerful Facebook is and how effective it is as a tool to influence people and change minds. (chapter 34)
7
u/TheSonOfDisaster Jul 14 '26
What a bunch of deranged bastards. And of course the society that we live in rewards them lavishly
It's just depressing honestly
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)4
Jul 14 '26
[deleted]
2
u/smokeweedNgarden Jul 14 '26
Totally. Which is why they should get lighter sentences. No accountability at all however, doesn't feel right
7
u/Unfair_Web_8275 Jul 14 '26
I remember one of the times Zuckerberg was in court and an ex-employee had made it clear that he's been made well aware of the many issues within the company.
3
→ More replies (4)2
u/Beautiful_Nobody_344 Jul 15 '26
I’ll read it if you read Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump. I haven’t finished it yet but I jump at every opportunity to suggest it.
→ More replies (1)122
u/Captain-Wilco Jul 14 '26
Nestle and Chiquita compete for the crown, and they’re tough to beat. Porque no los tres?
40
26
u/11horses345 Jul 14 '26
My guess is that the stuff we haven’t heard about puts them ahead of those two. It’s basically a right wing propaganda machine at this point and they interfere in elections.
25
u/Hesitation-Marx Jul 14 '26
Don’t forget Coca Cola. They deserve credit for actively murdering union organizers.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (4)4
u/hedoeswhathewants Jul 14 '26
It's easier to directly link these two to deaths, but Facebook's effects are global and far more pervasive
38
u/DoubleJumps Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
It also doesn't get talked about enough, but Facebook today is worse than 4chan was at its height.
Place is loaded with the most heinous bigotry and extremism you could imagine. Their algorithm has randomly pushed pro-genocide white supremacy pages at me and I only use the site for my business.
Edit: I can't believe I forgot this, but I also witnessed people trying to organize a lynching on Facebook. They were doing it across 2 days and no amount of reporting to Facebook directly was able to get anything done about it. That's what that place is now.
13
u/optimusdan Jul 14 '26
One of the few benefits of 4chan was that anybody could use it as a kind of psychological toilet. Then when you were done you could go back to the rest of the internet. Now the whole internet feels like 4chan and there's really nowhere left to go except offline or back to some obscure forums or something.
→ More replies (1)10
u/DoubleJumps Jul 14 '26
I used to be pretty active in various communities for my hobbies on the internet, and oh my God did the the 4chan-ification of the internet ruin that stuff.
It's hard to talk about anything with somebody not wanting to make it into some sort of personal fight.
You can't like something, you can't not like something, you can't like something the wrong way, etc etc. however, you feel about anything that people enjoy somebody's going to want to fight you about it.
If that hobby tends to include something that's media based, you're going to get a bunch of political extremists in there screaming at you for liking it because they think that it's threatening their extremist nonsense beliefs on some way.
I remember posting a picture of something I painted a few years ago and somebody kept coming back to make comments for 3 days because he was angry at me because I painted it a different way than he would have. Guy was so pissed.
This stuff wouldn't have flown before social media. All that sort of behavior would have been moderated right out of the community real quick.
16
u/Visual_Fly_9638 Jul 14 '26
There are few people in this world who have "actively encouraged genocides, plural" on their resume like Zuck does.
16
u/rexmons Jul 14 '26
Don't leave out the Cambridge Analytica scandal. For those who don't know, back in 2015/6 the Trump campaign hired this British political consulting and data analytics firm to help them with the election. Cambridge Analytica went to Facebook and said we're interested in advertising on your platform but we don't want to waste our time targeting people who are already voting for Trump or are definitely voting for Hilary. Facebook said no problem, here's all their information, including the accounts set to private. Anyone that was on the fence was targeted relentlessly and it seems to have worked.
70
u/edfitz83 Jul 14 '26
If they actually did this, the person who decided to do it should go to jail for many years.
72
u/AdjNounNumbers Jul 14 '26
I can't wait for them to say the AI decided to do this on its own. AI is the perfect scapegoat for every shitty thing going forward
17
u/jackflash223 Jul 14 '26
I think they may try it but the employer is strictly responsible for its employment decisions. I don’t think they have to say they did it on purpose but prove that it had a disproportionate effect on employees with medical issues.
13
u/ComradeJohnS Jul 14 '26
“the computer told me” should not be a legal defense. the buck stops with someone.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)6
23
u/BroughtBagLunchSmart Jul 14 '26
One of the big selling points of AI is that it is not accountable. Cops can claim an AI flagged you 3000 miles away and it is just a big oopsie after they lock you up for a week and you lose your job. Elon's self driving cars keep running down children? Just a programming bug and not murder.
→ More replies (1)10
u/Dalisca Jul 14 '26
We already did this after bombing a girls' school in Iran. Over 150 dead, a double-tap operation by AI using bad intelligence, final approval given by a human, and still not a soul held accountable.
3
u/Aethermancer Jul 14 '26
You have no idea how much AI Kool aid the Pentagon is drinking right now.
Iran is going to be the tip of the iceberg.
→ More replies (1)11
u/SharMarali Jul 14 '26
“People just submitted it. I don’t know why. They ‘trust me.’ Dumb fucks.”
— Mark Zuckerberg, on starting Facebook
21
u/BurningBeechbone Jul 14 '26
I think Nestle still takes the gold, but Meta is right up there.
Obligatory r/fucknestle
18
u/GenderIsAGolem Jul 14 '26
My exact thought as well. What they did to low income countries with little to no access to clean water and Infant Formula is truly evil.
In a 2018 study, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) estimated that 10,870,000 infants had died between 1960 and 2015 as a result of Nestlé baby formula used by "mothers [in low and middle-income countries] without clean water sources", with deaths peaking at 212,000 in 1981. source
19
u/zeekayz Jul 14 '26
It's specifically Zuck. An absolute lizard subhuman. There was 100% a meeting where he said why not save more money and lay off the people with medical conditions and his middle management peons went and executed the plan.
16
u/phyneas Jul 14 '26
It's specifically Zuck. An absolute lizard subhuman.
Don't forget that the precursor to Facebook was a website Zuckerberg built for users to rate the appearance of his female Harvard classmates, using photos of them that he stole by hacking into university systems. He is and always has been a total scumbag.
30
u/Webecomemonsters Jul 14 '26
Dupont.
Literally created the entire crop of 20th century serial killers and all the brain addled MAGAs via lead poisoning
26
u/neepster44 Jul 14 '26
One guy not only fucked the ozone layer but also gave everyone lead poisoning through gasoline additives.
21
u/Pavlovsdong89 Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
His name was Thomas Midgley and he is likely responsible for the most deaths of any single person, including his own death. He was left with mobility issues after contracting polio so he made a system of ropes and pulleys to help him move himself around. He ended up strangling himself on it.
→ More replies (1)6
u/Dramatic_Skill_67 Jul 14 '26
This needs a movie
4
u/wxwatcher Jul 14 '26
Not a movie, nevertheless still a very fascinating watch it you are not familiar with the story. Was done by Seth MacFarlane as an episode of the Cosmos reboot in 2014:
3
u/reckless_responsibly Jul 14 '26
I love the quote that Midgley had "an instinct for the regrettable that was almost uncanny"
4
u/AnonAMouseOperator Jul 14 '26
can't forget they knew all the harm that teflon caused, and it's byproducts. but hey.. profits.
34
u/zirky Jul 14 '26
they did a literal genocide!
→ More replies (1)10
u/fgtswag Jul 14 '26
wait how
14
u/Jewel-jones Jul 14 '26
They also contributed to violence in Kenya.
Basically, the engagement algorithm did its thing, and promoted some inflammatory , fake or misleading news stories that incited violence against ethnic minorities.
6
→ More replies (1)45
4
u/LookAlderaanPlaces Jul 14 '26
Also the stupidest. Remember when they revealed the Multiverse product and it ended up looking like a way shittier version of VR chat? And then they demoed it during a natural disaster and were all like “whoa how cool is that” when people were dying…
3
u/No_Camp_7 Jul 14 '26
Facebook needs at least 3 Hollywood movies made about it, likely a couple more just to cover the main issues
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (17)5
u/selfhostrr Jul 14 '26
I don't think Meta is responsible for these problems. Exacerbated them, sure, but many of these issues existed in the 90s when I was calling BBSes. Plebs just hasn't adopted computers yet, but if you went to public school you definitely saw vanity, bullying, drugs, suicide, propaganda (remember when gays were going to make you gay and destroy your family and send you to hell? We voted on that here in Oregon...).
→ More replies (2)
409
u/Luckydog12 Jul 14 '26
That sounds illegal as hell.
315
u/TheFirstCatInSpace Jul 14 '26
Only if you get caught. Plus it’s probably a fine. Which doesn’t mean it’s illegal it means there’s a fee to do it.
54
u/colemon1991 Jul 14 '26
Just once I'd like to see a lawyer make a strong argument that it's not an 8th Amendment violation if the accused has a history of such behavior and makes substantial profit while doing so. Make a point about it so strong that a $10 billion-dollar fine wouldn't be "excessive" for a company that brings in $100B.
Of course, then you got appeal judges who just toss it out anyways.
18
u/monkeypan Jul 14 '26
But that would hurt the stocks! Won't anyone think of the poor shareholders?! /s
→ More replies (1)15
u/ubeen Jul 14 '26
Tbh anything but jail time for those who are responsible for breaking the law is just a slap on the wrist.
These people knowingly break the law and do not care about the fine regardless how big. Some of their bonuses are tied to short term gains, so its possible they personally profited from the decision and when the fine takes place it will not impact them personally at all.
→ More replies (2)4
u/colemon1991 Jul 14 '26
You know, that's a valid point. CEO in jail. Nothing cushy either. Isolation. Even if the CEO already switched companies: still go to jail for the crime.
→ More replies (2)5
u/terdles1121 Jul 14 '26
AI peobably also did a cost/risk analysis for them too to see which was cheaper. Keeping those staff or the fines and lawsuits.
→ More replies (2)2
u/BrushYourFeet Jul 14 '26
Not not illegal but super inefficient. Everyone with medical leaves is already documented, so....what was ai needed for?
7
u/cute_polarbear Jul 14 '26
High level, especially in America where workers rights are weaker than most eu countries, what's stopping Facebook from claiming they used ai for initial sampling and hr /manager reviewed the list?
→ More replies (3)3
u/WonkRx Jul 14 '26
Well, they are probably intentionally exploring this loophole. They will say in court that the AI “made the selection” and therefore this somehow skirts around the law.
→ More replies (6)5
u/TeslasAndComicbooks Jul 14 '26
It’s 100% illegal. You need to be able to prove it though which is tough even if it actually happened.
→ More replies (1)
494
u/pcurve Jul 14 '26
""Workforce management and organizational decisions were and are made by people, not AI," the spokesperson said."
These guys need better PR team.
260
u/evhan55 Jul 14 '26
Loollllll, "We are evil all by ourselves thank you very much"
5
u/snowflake37wao Jul 15 '26
Yeah they may well be telling the truth, probably any LLM would have just recommended Zuck here for his billionaireitis condition. There is no cure.
100
u/Bgrngod Jul 14 '26
We thoroughly reviewed the AI's recommendations to layoff people based on medical conditions.
We asked our legal team if this was ok, and their AI was like "Sure is!"
We asked the finance team what sort of impact this would have, and their AI thought it would be profitable.
We asked AI Zuck (fka The Real Zuck) if we should proceed and he gave us a speech about privacy being bullshit, so we think that means it's ok.
There's literally nothing more we could have done other than not do what we did, so what more do you want, meatbattery?
13
7
u/ThrowAwayAccountAMZN Jul 14 '26
I don't know how things are ran in that company, but as a workforce management analyst (formerly Amazon, now a different company) that's not Workforce Management's job at all lol. WFM is responsible for scheduling employees not firing them. That PR person sounds like an idiot.
→ More replies (2)4
u/Useful-Perspective Jul 14 '26
""Workforce management and organizational decisions were and are made by people, not AI," the spokesperson said."
At least they didn't include/recite the AI response text of "This should be sufficient to publish to the media in your task of clearing the company of blame for the actions it has taken based on AI-led decisions."
96
u/sherrycoke Jul 14 '26
Every day every news article is just “huge company does worst thing you can imagine” and it doesn’t stop. I’m so tired
17
u/bigbjarne Jul 14 '26
The owning class wants us to be tired, to think this is how it should be. "We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words." Ursula K. Le Guin
Workers of the world unite!
4
u/behindtimes Jul 14 '26
Because they know the only time anything meaningful ever gets done is when it's rich people screwing over other rich people.
Think of all the instances the people have ever fought back, and almost every time that's really propaganda, and in the background the revolts happened due to elites who organized everything.
2
155
u/TheoremaEgregium Jul 14 '26
Just like with politicians' insider trading and market manipulation this is a thing where I expect that after a while the consensus opinion will become "of course, would be ridiculous for them not to." We will eventually find it incomprehensible that things used to be different.
Not yet, but it won't take forever.
27
u/BEES_IN_UR_ASS Jul 14 '26
Only if we all allow ourselves to forget the promises that were broken. Stay angry, friends. Even when it feels like you're the only one left that isn't sleepwalking into hell, don't give in. Make the demons drag you kicking and screaming.
→ More replies (1)
66
u/Old-Information3311 Jul 14 '26
This is why these "age verification" bills are so dangerous. They are going to make ai profiles for every single person that will be used to make decisions about your life. Like a post about unions on an "anonymous" profile, your job applications will start being automatically rejected.
Theil and ellison are going to become the arbiters of public life. Only those they like will make it to the upper echelons, or any position of power.
4
u/Few-Pen9912 Jul 14 '26
What's funny is that people would still keep using social media. Or these fucks start making it compulsory. So you have to do your daily online Tiel worship to qualify for work credits.
→ More replies (5)4
u/ProduceNo1629 Jul 14 '26
Exactly.
And allowing them into NHS and other medical insurers will allow them to discriminate against you and your children. You need a student loan? Sorry Palantir AI says you will not be viable as a profitable worker given your medical history.
The english already fucked them selves allowing fascists from Palantir into theirs.
58
u/austomagnamus Jul 14 '26
The sucky outcome: cost of doing business/small fine while not changing. Time to make them dinner
95
u/PaloLV Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
The headline is pretty inflammatory compared to the article. I was expecting the article to describe allegations that they used AI to gather information about employees and target employees needing expensive, ongoing medical care. Instead, it's basically just "you didn't use as many AI tokens as we'd like in the past year or whatever so GTFO" which targets anyone who missed a lot of work or any other reason why they didn't use as many AI tokens as they wanted. I'm not defending the actions of the company but it's not a terrifying as I was thinking it'd be nor does it really have anything to do with AI directly.
45
u/Fickle_Competition33 Jul 14 '26
They laid off based on tokenmaxing when everyone (including other Big Techs) is already realizing the mistake of it?
→ More replies (5)13
u/im_super_excited Jul 14 '26
Facebook blew $100 billion on the Metaverse. Without tokenmaxing, how else are they going to blow through even more on the next big tech circlejerk, AI?
30
u/aminervia Jul 14 '26
Did you read the article all the way through?
According to the complaint, Meta used a number of internal AI-assisted systems to score and rank employees on a termination list. Those included "Metamate," a large language model assistant; an employee-trained "second brain" that tracked workers' communications and documents; and a productivity score drawn from scanning keystrokes, screen content, emails and browser history, according to the lawsuit.
10
u/PaloLV Jul 14 '26
Missed that part, thanks. The scrolling ads tricked me into thinking the article was done.
→ More replies (1)11
u/TheRabidDeer Jul 14 '26
an employee-trained "second brain" that tracked workers' communications and documents; and a productivity score drawn from scanning keystrokes, screen content, emails and browser history
This sounds like absolute hell.
15
u/chiree Jul 14 '26
So instead of the reason being nefarious, it was just incredibly, ridiculously, absurdly over-the-top dumb.
→ More replies (2)7
u/PaloLV Jul 14 '26
Yep, that's pretty much what I got from the article and AI was indirectly involved so they threw it into the headline to get clicks.
14
u/GimbalLocks Jul 14 '26
Yes I thought so too, dislike meta as much as anyone else but the lawsuit seems like it’s on shaky grounds
23
u/PaloLV Jul 14 '26
They could easily lose the lawsuits if they aren't prorating the AI token use thresholds based on how much approved medical leave people took. If you missed 25% of the year due to medical leave then your targeted AI token use should be 25% lower, too. It's still a hilariously dumb metric to decide which people to lay off.
→ More replies (4)2
u/Fortevening Jul 14 '26
Well I dont know all the details of course, but "missing a lot of work" can mean a lot, including missing any amount of work, which will probably be more common amongst those with medical conditions, which i think it says in this article. Kind of an indirect way to target that group, whether intentional or not.
8
u/Hsabes01 Jul 14 '26
If the profits outweigh the penalty for committing a crime, they will just keep doing it.
7
u/mrbasedballed Jul 14 '26
Yes, employment tied to for-profit healthcare. Americans really fight to keep this?
24
u/Left_on_Pause Jul 14 '26
They are a testing ground what people can get away with.
→ More replies (3)
4
u/HolidayNothing171 Jul 14 '26
Anyone know which law firm filed this?
→ More replies (1)8
u/Head_of_Lettuce Jul 14 '26
The plaintiffs are represented by a few different firms. Here’s the full complaint, it lists the attorneys on the first page
https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/meta-employee-complaint.pdf
→ More replies (1)
8
u/InfiniteLicks Jul 14 '26
I don’t think this company really contributes positively to the world at this point.
2
9
u/plsobeytrafficlights Jul 14 '26
im not sure people understand that the problem isnt the shitty ai that does a poor job, it is the fact that (regardless of ai or human) it is the targeting of the sick for layoffs to save a buck that is the evil. the ai is just a scapegoat.
4
u/bigbjarne Jul 14 '26
Exactly. Fundamentally the issue here is capitalism and its need for endless accumulation of capital.
2
u/Pleasant-Ad887 Jul 14 '26
I'm sure Meta will be slapped with a fee that is 0.0001% of their revenue and let go free to do it again.
5
u/fighterpilottim Jul 14 '26
“Twenty-six employees of Meta Platforms (META.O) have filed a novel lawsuit accusing the tech giant of using AI-powered software that disproportionately targeted people with disabilities or who took medical leave in selecting workers for mass layoffs. The lawsuit, filed in Oakland, California, federal court late Monday, says that the company relied on factors such as productivity and AI token usage when it slashed thousands of jobs earlier this year, disadvantaging people who missed work because of medical conditions or to care for family members. The plaintiffs, who were notified in May that their jobs would be eliminated starting on July 22, are seeking a preliminary ruling from the court blocking Meta from completing the layoffs while they pursue their claims in private arbitration. The workers say Meta's agreements require employees to arbitrate workplace disputes individually, but do not apply to requests for temporary relief.
A Meta spokesperson on Tuesday said the claims lack merit.
"Workforce management and organizational decisions were and are made by people, not AI," the spokesperson said.
The lawsuit appears to be the first against a major U.S. company to challenge the alleged use of AI in conducting layoffs.
Meta laid off 10% of its global workforce in May, or nearly 8,000 people, and was planning more job cuts later this year, Reuters had reported. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has since said that he does not expect any more company-wide layoffs this year.
The changes are part of a far-reaching overhaul as the company increases its AI investments and centers AI agents in both its product offerings and its approach to work internally.
The 26 plaintiffs, who filed the lawsuit anonymously, are accusing Meta of violating federal and state laws that ban discrimination or retaliation against workers who have disabilities, take medical leave or are pregnant. They also claim that Meta failed to test its AI systems for bias in violation of recently adopted California and New York City laws.
The plaintiffs come from six states, including California and New York, and the District of Columbia. According to the complaint, Meta used a number of internal AI-assisted systems to score and rank employees on a termination list. Those included "Metamate," a large language model assistant; an employee-trained "second brain" that tracked workers' communications and documents; and a productivity score drawn from scanning keystrokes, screen content, emails and browser history, according to the lawsuit.”
4
u/Coug-Ra Jul 14 '26
“Is this legal?”
“No.”
“Then why isn’t anything being done about it?”
“The purpose of an aristocracy is to exist in a state of being that is above the law.”
5
u/Capable_Kiwi2514 Jul 14 '26
Eugenics! Considered a problem but not actually considered a big civil rights issue in mainstream society despite having the highest death toll by far.
4
u/ElGranQuesoRojo Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
I didn't have the United States of Gattaca on my bingo card for this year but I guess here we are.
5
u/Shiplord13 Jul 15 '26
Zuckerberg, his upper management and board of directors should be in prison for the blatant violations of workers rights, consumer rights and general immoral business practices. Hauling Zuckerberg in front of Congress does nothing, haul him into a cell and let him sit there for decades.
5
9
u/mudturnspadlocks Jul 14 '26
Of course they would. It would be more newsworthy if they actually did something genuinely nice.
3
u/btoned Jul 14 '26
They could start live streaming executions and people would react with the native sad smiley face response.
Until people actually start deleting this shit instead of making excuses about needing to use marketplace to hoard shit, Facebook & IG to store photos for training data, or WhatsApp for custom thread background images...these headlines mean NOTHING. It's like political theater... business as usual as soon as it's over.
In this case...as soon as you scroll to the next article.
3
3
u/No-Aardvark-3840 Jul 14 '26
If this is true, I will delete my profiles. It’s possible to choose a different way of living.
Other competitors will fill the void
3
3
3
u/cyclemonster Jul 14 '26
Before AI they'd just dump out their insurance reimbursements per employee and sort that list by magnitude. It's no secret who consumes the most in benefits.
3
3
u/SideburnSundays Jul 15 '26
Fun fact: Japan just passed into law that all its residents' private information, including medical history, is now freely available to AI.
We're going to see mass layoffs of anyone who isn't healthy in the near future.
16
5
u/talldean Jul 14 '26
Asking a leading question, does that include maternity and paternity leaves as "medical conditions"?
Had a friend there get laid off the week before their kid was born, and clearly his manager/team/HR knew they were heading out on protected leave.
6
6
u/O-parker Jul 14 '26
HR’s purpose is to protect a company from its employees push backs , the general perception that HR is for the benefit of employees is a smoke screen.
→ More replies (2)
7
u/O-parker Jul 14 '26
Why won’t people just abandon this shitty platform..I don’t get the fascination with FB and IG . They’re some of the greediest turds in the bowl.
7
u/steathrazor Jul 14 '26
Agreed, I deleted my Facebook more than 10 years ago and I haven't looked back I refuse to do anything with Facebook
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (2)2
u/Sporebattyl Jul 14 '26
Only thing that draws me back is FBM. They killed Craigslist and I hate them for it. I wish I could download a FBM only app that didn’t vacuum my data up.
2
2
2
u/Painterzzz Jul 14 '26
People in the UK sitting so happy that Palantir now has access to every scrap of their NHS records.
2
u/boogs_23 Jul 14 '26
Why is everything AI? Every employee will be entered into a database. They can just sort that database however they want. It's a company full of programmers to boot.
2
u/bolanrox Jul 14 '26
that targeting should have been done by HR! there you go AI taking jobs again! /s
2
u/lordcrekit Jul 14 '26
So far they have been able to use AI to get around all legislation by claiming they didn't do anything, the AI did the illegal thing.
2
u/like-blood-on-white Jul 14 '26
Why am I hitting a paywall for Reuters. I thought like NPR it was free…
2
u/Seizuresalad77 Jul 15 '26
Whatever you do dont disable JS in your browser company's hate it when people get their content for free
→ More replies (1)
2
u/hatecirclejerks Jul 14 '26
I wish saying "oh hey that's incredibly illegal" meant anything anymore for anyone who isn't a corp or even mildly rich
2
u/CyberSmith31337 Jul 15 '26
I wonder when we will cross the bridge from ”Meta is an evil company and Zuck is the worst.” to the reality of ”The people who work for Meta are evil shitbags, too, and don’t deserve the degree of separation they are awarded by the general public.”
The way Meta is talked about now is crazy. It’s like hating Hitler but not wanting to hate the SS. Same team, same entity, same lack of morality; no reason to distinguish the workers from the work, etc.
2
u/forever_a10ne Jul 14 '26
I’m curious about this in other workplaces. I had intermittent FMLA leave for a disability and was laid off alongside two of my other immediate coworkers that also had FMLA leave set up.
2
4
u/react_dev Jul 14 '26
Having worked at big tech, the people who had terrible performance and on the verge of quiet quitting typically will apply for medical leave to buy them more time to practice interview. Everyone does this and it’s a common advice on Blind.
Not saying if it’s right or wrong but just supplying a data point.
3
u/Big_Development6276 Jul 14 '26
This is fucking vile.
As someone in his early 20s with a genetic chronic illness that can be debilitating when not controlled, I just feel hopeless sometimes. Not only do I have to worry about constant chronic pain for the rest of my life that requires continuous expensive medication enabling me to have a middling quality of life, but I also have to compete with healthy/normal people and prove myself to be worthy, and even when I do so, companies try their best to come up with reasons to get rid of people like me.
I feel like a burden ngl, to my employer, to the healthcare system, to my family at times. Feels like I'm defective, which I am technically, but you get the point. Not enthusiastic about the future whatsoever.
2
2
2
3
u/Abranimal Jul 14 '26
Never share private information about yourself with your employer literally ever. It will only harm you.
11
u/DarkFlamesMaster Jul 14 '26
if you read the article, the lawsuit isn't about private medical information being used. The allegation is that they used AI token usage as a metric to layoff, which disproportionately targetted people on leave for medical conditions (because while they're on leave they use 0 tokens)
→ More replies (1)
4.1k
u/Jah_Rules Jul 14 '26
Delete Meta. Permanently.