Meta is expected to cut or relocate its Instagram staff in London as the tidal wave of layoffs sweeping the tech sector continues.

The social media app's European headquarters near Covent Garden had become a centre of growth for the platform, owned by Facebook's parent company.

Its head Adam Mosseri moved to London last year but now plans to relocate to the US along with staff who are not laid off, according to Bloomberg.

Meta announced in March plans to cut 10,000 jobs as part of an efficiency campaign pushed by chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.

That was in addition to 11,000 job cuts announced in November, taking its total planned losses to 21,000.

The company began laying off staff in technical roles on Wednesday, according to CNBC

A memo the company sent on Tuesday said that Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Reality Labs, which houses the business's virtual reality efforts and Quest hardware, will be affected.

A further round of cuts is expected to follow in May.

Instagram's London office was its first international presence, opening in 2013. Today the app is understood to have about 100 employees there.

The tech sector is undergoing a period of mass job losses after overextending during the pandemic amid hopes that working from home would lead to greater demand in the long term.

Amazon is axing 19,000 jobs while Microsoft announced plans to cut 10,000 staff back in January.

Disney revealed it will lay off about 7,000 staff in February, while Accenture revealed in March that it plans to cut 19,000 jobs, or 2.5pc of its workforce.

Zoom announced a cut of 15pc of its staff, or 1,300 people, in February, while PayPal said in January it would cut 2,000 jobs.

Twitter has axed about half of its workforce since Elon Musk’s takeover of the social network in October last year.

Meta declined to comment.