Meta’s Applied AI unit faces internal revolt as 6,500-engineer reorg forces data-labeling work

Meta’s Applied AI organization has been hit by an internal backlash after engineers were reassigned to data-labeling and other low-autonomy tasks, triggering protests and disputes over workplace monitoring and “tokenmaxxing.” The turmoil followed a 30 May Instagram security incident involving takeovers of high-profile accounts and was compounded by the departure of Meta’s chief information security officer. Even senior leaders have publicly criticized the reorganization, as Meta reports $56.3bn in first-quarter revenue but its stock is down around 18% over the past year.