iWorld
Times Now, Twitter team up for exclusive election partnership
MUMBAI: The ongoing elections are unique in many ways. And joining this is Times Now and Twitter. The duo has announced a first of its kind partnership in India where the social media platform has associated itself to exclusive content offerings created by the news channel.
Times Now and Twitter have teamed up for the elections to create dual, interactive content for both viewers and followers to be a part of the conversation.
The partnership is a result of the success that the news channel has seen in the social media space in the last one year creating huge properties which have garnered not just audiences but shaped the Indian social media space. These range from creating the biggest non-sporting event on twitter in the form of Rahul Gandhi’s interview with Arnab Goswami which created more than 50 crore potential impressions, to using vines to promote a show for the first time in India to creating a simple hashtag which became synonymous with the state elections in 2013 – Times Now has constantly reinvented itself on twitter. In fact, the #rahulspeakstoarnab hashtag trended for more than 48 hours in India and first seven of the top 10 trending topics were related to the interview.
For the general elections, both Times Now and Twitter will introduce several innovative properties which will give a real time, updated picture of public opinion.
Times Now will leverage its substantial presence on the social network to provide the audience with exclusive content created specifically for the platform. This will be in the form of infographics and videos, giving the followers a ringside view of election results with updates throughout the counting day.
“We will also have a live sentiment analysis of twitter feeds – and participation of viewers in Times Now debate by inviting them to tweet video questions using the Vine app. This will be done by using the hashtag #IHaveAQuestion. This will give viewers an unprecedented opportunity to be a part of the political debate and add their voice to it,” said the channel through a statement.
The same will be boosted by access to exclusive real-time data from twitter which will be presented to both TV viewers and social media followers in interesting formats – adding an entirely new perspective to the election coverage.
The entire election coverage will use the hashtag #WhoWillFormGovt which will bring together opinion makers and influencers as well as common people on the platform.
“Apart from this, we are also trying to make information more accessible through a novel initiative called Tweet to SMS. Through this, people will be able to follow the Times Now twitter handle and more importantly, get election related updates via SMS, making it much easier to keep track of the news,” informed the channel.
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
