Google parent Alphabet in fresh job cuts laid off workers in Google News, Alphabet’s healthcare subsidiary Verily and self-driving car unit Waymo, a report from The Information said.
The move comes as the company is determined to cut costs despite having laid off 12,000 workers, or about 6% of its workforce earlier this year. The layoffs followed similar announcements by Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook parent Meta and other tech companies.
The layoffs in Google News reportedly impacts 40-45 workers, and comes at a time when tech companies have come under scrutiny for being unable to stop the spread of misinformation over the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The conflict, currently in its second week, has claimed the lives of thousands, has led to visuals from older conflicts, video games footage and altered documents being shared online.
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Earlier this week, U.S. Senator Michael Bennet sought information on how tech giants Meta, X, TikTok and Google were trying to stop the spread of false and misleading content about the Israel-Hamas conflict on their platforms.
Elon Musk’s X is also facing an investigation under EU’s news tech rules for not doing enough to tackle the spread of disinformation on the platform.
