WASHINGTON – Mark Zuckerberg has lost USD 3.3 billion from his personal networth after Facebook shares dipped as it announced to prioritise posts fromfriends and family rather than businesses and brands.

According to a report on The Independentlink>,the share price of Facebook dropped by 4.4 percent after the change whicheventually wiped off USD 3.3 billion from the personal fortune of thechairman and chief executive.

The 33-year-old billionaire founder of Facebook owns a 17 per stake in hiscompany after it was made public in 2012.——————————

Facebook s move to highlight posts from friends and family over those frombrands and publications follows months of turmoil for the social networkand will result in lower advertising revenue — at least in the short-term,analysts said.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the shift in the configuration ofthe News Feed on Thursday, saying it would reduce engagement by users atfirst but would lead to their improved “well-being.”

While Zuckerberg described the move as being designed to bring peoplecloser together and foster more “meaningful social interactions,” analystsnoted that it comes amid criticism of the world s leading social network onvarious fronts.

Facebook has been under fire for months for the proliferation ofRussian-created “fake news” on the platform that may have impacted the 2016presidential election.

Zuckerberg initially scoffed at the suggestion Facebook had been used as aRussian propaganda tool, before acknowledging that mistakes had been madeand promising to do better in 2018.

Facebook revealed in September that “inauthentic” accounts created inRussia had purchased advertising on the site designed to increase tensionsduring the election campaign.

A USA Today/Suffolk University poll published in October found thatAmericans believed by a two-to-one margin that Facebook should have donemore to identify and reveal the Russian ads.

In September, in another blow for the social network, ProPublica reportedthat Facebook s ad-buying platform could be used to deliver ads to userswho identify as anti-Semites.

Facebook said it quickly shut that capability down.

The company also took a number of steps to eliminate graphic or violentcontent on the site following several incidents, including thelive-streamed murder of a young girl in Thailand.

A USA Today/Suffolk University poll published in October found thatAmericans believed by a two-to-one margin that Facebook should have donemore to identify and reveal the Russian ads.——————————

Despite some turbulence, Facebook appears to have weathered the storms sofar.

A study published in August by NetBase found that Facebook is still thepreferred brand of Internet users.

In September, the latest month for which figures are available, Facebook stotal number of users was up 16 percent over a year earlier to 2.07 billion.

And while Facebook suffered on the stock market on Friday — its shareslost 4.47 percent — analysts said they did not expect it to last.

“We believe these changes will be beneficial to Facebook in the medium andlong term,” said Brian Weiser of the Pivotal Research Group. “In our view,making the feed more relevant should boost user and engagement growth overtime.

“Facebook is making the service more social and less media, and that slikely a positive for the vast majority of users,” Weiser said.

RBC Capital Markets said lower user engagement with the site may provide a”headwind to growth in the near-term,” but the changes will be “helpful forthe long-term health of the business.”

While analysts were sanguine, some users, particularly publishers, wereworried.

Susann Hoffman, co-founder of the German website Edition F, said she wasupset that the move had been done without any consultation.

“I am personally quite unhappy with the fact that Facebook decides for itsusers what is relevant to them and what not,” Hoffman said.

She argued for more personalization — giving users a greater ability todecide for themselves which content they would like to see.