Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp is planning to cut about 5% of its 'lowest performing' staff globally, according to an internal memo sent to staff.
It is not yet known what impact the move will have on the company's Irish operation which employs around 2,000 people.
Meta currently has around 72,000 employees globally so a 5% cut would equate to approximately 3,600 lay offs.
It is understood that the staff that are made redundant will be replaced by new hires meaning there will be no overall reduction in headcount.
Employees affected by the cuts will be notified by 10 February.
The lay offs were first reported by Bloomberg News.
"I've decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low-performers faster," Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said in the memo to staff.
"We typically manage out people who aren't meeting expectations over the course of a year, but now we're going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle," the memo stated.
"This means we are aiming to exit approximately another 5% of our current employees who have been with the company long enough to receive a performance rating," it added.
Mr Zuckerberg also noted that the company would "provide generous severance."
In recent years, Meta has cut around 840 jobs in Ireland with redundancies in November 2022 and again in May 2023.
Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Peter Burke said his primary concern is for the staff and their families who are now coming to terms with the impact of the announcement.
"Officials at my department and IDA Ireland are actively engaged with the company in relation to possible impact for its Irish operations," Mr Burke said.
He added that Meta is a long-standing and key employer in Ireland, having first established operations here in 2008, and that it has generated several thousand jobs directly and through contracted employment.
