Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg took a $ 7.2 billion hit after multiple companies withdrew their Facebook ads, citing the company’s failure by police to hate speech and disinformation on its site.
The company’s shares fell 8.3 percent on Friday, the most in three months after Unilever, one of the world’s largest advertisers said it would stop selling its products on Facebook, Bloomberg reported. The company teamed up with other big companies like Verizon Communications, Hershey Co. and Honda to withdraw its ads from the social media giant. Coca Cola said it would suspend its advertising on all social media platforms for at least a month.
The drop in stock price removed $ 56 billion from Facebook’s market value and reduced Zuckerberg’s net worth to $ 82.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The move left Facebook’s chief executive officer fourth on the list, surpassed by LVMH chief Moet Hennessy, Bernard Arnault, who is now third behind billionaires Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
In response to the advertising boycotts, Zuckerberg said the company would tag all voting-related posts with a link that encourages users to check out its new election information center. The company also announced that it would ban “claims that people of a specific race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, caste, sexual orientation, gender identity, or immigration status are a threat to physical safety, health, or survival. of others”.
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