In a tumultuous turn of events, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced a substantial setback as several of the company’s flagship social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, experienced a worldwide outage. The outage, lasting approximately an hour, led to a significant financial hit for Zuckerberg, resulting in a loss of nearly $3 billion in net worth.
According to reports from India Today, Zuckerberg’s net worth plummeted by $2.79 billion during the outage, bringing his total wealth down to $176 billion in just a single day. Despite this setback, Zuckerberg remains among the world’s wealthiest individuals, retaining his position as the fourth richest person on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The outage triggered a 1.6% decline in Meta shares, further contributing to the erosion of Zuckerberg’s net worth. Meta shares closed the overnight trading session on Wall Street at $490.22 per share, reflecting the impact of the disruption on investor confidence.
Users of Facebook, Instagram, and Meta Quest encountered difficulties accessing their accounts during the outage, while YouTube users also reported errors on the platform. Instagram and Facebook users were met with “failure to load” error pages, with some still able to view older content, while others found themselves automatically logged out of their accounts.
As frustrated users turned to alternative platforms to voice their concerns, Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, saw an influx of posts complaining about the outage. Seizing the opportunity to poke fun at his rival, Musk took to social media once again to mock Meta in the wake of the disruption.
The outage serves as a reminder of the central role that social media platforms play in the lives of billions of users worldwide and underscores the significant financial implications that technical disruptions can have on tech titans like Mark Zuckerberg and their companies.
