Tom Giles

And Seth, I'm hearing the term AI washing.

Is it actually that AI is to blame for these job cuts or is it it's a nice excuse, but actually they overhired in COVID and this is a good way of announcing job cuts?

There is data we can reflect on.

I think that New York State is the first state that said, when you make big layoffs, you've got to say whether it's AI or automation related.

We're seeing in the Challenger Gray and Christmas numbers, 31,000 jobs were sort of AI sacrificed.

in just October alone.

That was Trump 1.0.

The social media landscape has changed drastically since then.

And that was really the reasoning behind his ruling.

The FTC had argued that MeWe and Snap were its only competitors.

And you and I have spoken plenty of times about what TikTok is doing to Meta's market share.

That's what Judge Boasberg said as well.

And then Meta gets up and says, see, we have got so much competition, it's fierce out there and we continue to tackle it.

It's an interesting sort of argument to have to make to your investor base, your employees, that you are under threat in some way.

That's such an important point, Caroline, because really this win is also a warning.

Looking forward, Meta is going to have to grapple with Judge Boasberg's comments, which are that it is not differentiated from its competitors and that TikTok is eroding its market share.

Really, this means that Meta doesn't have to spin off Instagram or WhatsApp.

That was the overhanging threat.

But a big win, one that was really priced in.

Analysts had expected Meta to take the W here.