Pinterest has fired multiple engineers who created an internal tool to track layoffs at the company, escalating tensions following a restructuring that will see less than 15% of staff lose their jobs this year.
The firings were confirmed after CEO Bill Ready addressed the incident during a companywide meeting last week. In remarks obtained by CNBC, Ready said internal debate was welcome but drew a sharp line at actions he believed undermined leadership decisions.
“Healthy debate and dissent are expected, that’s how we make our decisions,” Ready told employees. “But there’s a clear line between constructive debate and behaviour that’s obstructionist.”
Pinterest announced on January 27 that it would cut under 15% of its workforce and reduce office space as part of a broader restructuring aimed at redirecting resources towards artificial intelligence initiatives. The company said the layoffs are expected to conclude by the end of September.
Following the announcement, questions surfaced internally about which teams were affected and whether further cuts were coming. According to people familiar with the matter, several engineers attempted to quantify the layoffs by creating an internal tool that surfaced information about impacted employees.
Pinterest terminated the engineers on Friday, though the company has not disclosed how many were fired. Ready defended the decision at a subsequent all-hands meeting, describing the moment as critical for the company’s future. He added that employees who fundamentally disagreed with Pinterest’s direction should consider seeking work elsewhere.
Pinterest said it chose not to share detailed layoff information broadly due to privacy concerns. A company spokesperson stated that the engineers had violated internal policy by accessing and sharing confidential employee data.
“After being clearly informed that Pinterest would not broadly share information identifying impacted employees, two engineers wrote custom scripts improperly accessing confidential company information,” the spokesperson said.
However, several Pinterest employees later disputed that account, telling CNBC that no custom software was created. Instead, they claimed the engineers shared instructions on how to prompt an existing internal staff directory, which is accessible to employees across the company, to display layoff information.
The dispute comes as Pinterest doubles down on AI investments to boost user engagement and advertising performance. The company has rolled out new automated tools for marketers and expanded AI-driven content recommendations in an effort to compete more aggressively with Meta and Google.
Investor concerns have grown around whether consumer chatbots and AI-powered shopping agents could divert users and advertising spend away from discovery platforms like Pinterest. Wedbush analysts recently warned that AI agents could “compress” the discovery and purchase funnel, limiting Pinterest’s role in commerce.
Pinterest shares are down 20% so far this year, following an 11% decline in 2025. Advertising growth has also softened as some US retailers grapple with the effects of President Donald Trump’s tariff policies.
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