Meta Faces Internal Uprising as 6,500 Applied AI Employees Protest; Zuckerberg Admits Mistakes This Week

According to Reuters and internal communications, Meta experienced a significant employee uprising this week as thousands of staff protested against the company's AI restructuring. During an internal livestream meeting, an employee emotionally interrupted executives, directing profanities at an AI manager, making public the frustration accumulated across the Applied AI department, which now comprises approximately 6,500 engineers and product managers.

Meta established the Applied AI division in March to support its artificial intelligence research initiative, but most employees were forcibly reassigned without warning. In May, the company laid off about 8,000 employees and transferred roughly 7,000 others to AI-related projects. Additionally, a surveillance program tracking U.S. employees' mouse clicks and keyboard inputs to collect training data for AI agents triggered a petition signed by over 1,600 staff demanding its cancellation.

In response, Instagram's Chief Product Officer Chris Cox acknowledged that recent months have been "difficult" and "brutal" for employees. CEO Mark Zuckerberg issued an internal memo stating, "Given the complexity of these adjustments, we made mistakes," promising stability measures and a July hackathon event. According to Reuters, Zuckerberg also indicated no company-wide layoffs are planned for the remainder of 2026.