Facebook-parent Meta’s third party contractor announces over 2,000 job cuts in Spain

Meta’s third-party contractor, Canadian tech firm Telus International, is set to cut over 2,000 jobs in Barcelona, Spain. A Spanish union reportedly announced the latest layoffs by the company that was tasked by the social media giant to moderate content on Facebook and Instagram since 2018. The move follows Meta's decision to cut its third-party fact-checking in the US and change its content moderation policies, the report claims.
The Spanish union named CCOO said that Telus, which was operating locally as Barcelona Digital Services, confirmed that it had terminated the contracts of all workers performing content moderation tasks for Meta during a recent morning meeting. The union even noted that the layoffs that have affected 2,059 people were decided after Meta cancelled its contract with Telus. The union also added that it had already signed a preliminary agreement for "the highest possible legal compensation" for the affected workers.

In a statement to the news agency AFP, a Telus spokesperson refused to disclose the exact number of jobs that were affected, saying “the priority remains to support the team members affected” by offering them “full assistance, including relocation opportunities for as many people as possible.”
Meta has scaled back its extensive global network of paid content moderators and third-party fact-checkers, opting instead for a “community notes” system akin to X’s model. The company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, announced this change just weeks before US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, arguing that “fact checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created, especially in the US.”
Under the new policy, Meta will no longer proactively scan for hate speech or other violations—instead, it will review only user-reported content. This shift addresses long-standing conservative criticism that fact-checking amounts to censorship, a charge professional fact-checkers deny.