United Kingdom, July 16 -- Meta is facing a lawsuit from dozens of current employees who claim the company used artificial intelligence tools to identify workers for layoffs, unfairly targeting people who had taken maternity leave, medical leave or disability accommodations.

The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, centres on Meta's workforce reduction earlier this year, which affected around 8,000 employees across the company behind Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

According to the 71-page complaint, Meta relied on "a constellation of internal artificial intelligence systems" that analysed employee performance ratings, productivity metrics and activity-monitoring data, including keystrokes, ...