Technology

Snap laying off more than 500 employees

Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, plans to lay off more than 500 employees, it revealed Monday in a regulatory filing.

The social media company will cut its global workforce by about 10 percent, it said in the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This translates to about 540 employees, based on Snap’s most recent headcount of 5,367 full-time workers.

“In order to best position our business to execute on our highest priorities, and to ensure we have the capacity to invest incrementally to support our growth over time, we have made the difficult decision to restructure our team,” Snap said in Monday’s filing.

Snap last made significant cuts in August 2022, when it announced plans to lay off 20 percent of its global workforce.

The layoffs are the latest for the industry, which has repeatedly made cuts throughout 2023 and into early 2024. Microsoft laid off about 1,900 workers in its gaming unit last month, and eBay cut more than 1,000 positions.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel was one of five tech CEOs hauled before Congress last week to testify about children’s safety on their platforms, where they faced a grilling from senators on both sides of the aisle.

While Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew faced the brunt of lawmakers’ ire at Wednesday’s hearing, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee slammed all five companies, with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) accusing them of having “blood on your hands.”