Meta faces suit over AI-driven layoff scoring

Meta is facing a federal lawsuit from 26 current and former employees who say the company’s AI-assisted layoff process disproportionately targeted workers with disabilities or those who had taken medical leave. The complaint, filed Monday in Oakland, California, challenges the systems Meta allegedly used when it began cutting roughly 8,000 jobs on May 20.

According to the 71-page complaint, Meta relied on productivity metrics and AI token usage data to score and rank employees, effectively disadvantaging people who had fewer work records because they were away on protected leave. The plaintiffs say this may be the first lawsuit against a major US tech company over the use of AI in layoffs.

The suit names several internal systems, including Metamate, Meta’s large language model assistant, as well as employee-trained “second brain” agents, keystroke and activity monitoring data, AI token usage dashboards, and algorithmically assisted performance rankings. All 26 plaintiffs filed anonymously and say they share one key fact: each had taken, requested, or been approved for protected leave within the past 24 months.

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They are based in California, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Washington, and the District of Columbia. Their claims include alleged violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, and state leave protections.

The lawsuit also alleges that Meta introduced a monitoring program earlier in 2026 that collected keystrokes, screen content, mouse activity, browser history, messages, emails, and location data from company-issued devices. The complaint says the program was disclosed through a low-visibility internal post by an engineer rather than a senior leader, and that at least some teams saw no consent prompt. It further alleges that this data was used to build AI tools, including by a new engineering organization employees were required to join.

The plaintiffs are asking for a preliminary injunction to stop their terminations, which are scheduled to take effect on July 22, while they pursue individual claims in arbitration. They also argue that Meta failed to test its AI systems for bias under recently adopted California and New York City rules governing AI in employment decisions.

A Meta spokesperson said the claims “lack merit,” adding that workforce management and organizational decisions “were and are made by people, not AI.” The case has been assigned to Judge William Orrick in the Northern District of California.