Meta is firing about 20 employees for leaking

Meta has fired “roughly 20” employees who leaked “confidential information outside the company,” according to a spokesperson. “We tell employees when they join the company, and we offer periodic reminders, that it is against our policies to leak internal information, no matter the intent,” Meta spokesperson Dave Arnold tells The Verge exclusively. “We recently conducted an investigation that resulted in roughly 20 employees being terminated for sharing confidential information outside the company, and we expect there will be more. We take this seriously, and will continue to take action when we identify leaks.” Meta has ramped up its efforts to find leakers due to a recent influx of stories detailing unannounced product plans and internal meetings, including a recent all-hands led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg. After we and other outlets reported on what Zuckerberg said during that meeting, employees were warned not to leak. In comments that were subsequently leaked, CTO Andrew Bosworth then told them that the company was “making progress on catching people.” Morale inside Meta has suffered since Zuckerberg announced drastic changes to content moderation policies, ended company DEI programs, and said recent layoffs targeted “low-performers.” Thursday’s public announcement about firing employees doesn’t provide any information about what material they leaked, who the employees are, or who they leaked to. “There’s a funny thing that’s happening with these leaks,” Bosworth said during an internal meeting in early Febuary. “When things leak, I think a lot of times people think, ‘Ah, okay, this is leaked, therefore it’ll put pressure on us to change things.’ The opposite is more likely.”