Mark Zuckerberg halts Facebook stock sale as value PLUMMETS over privacy scandals (2024)

BILLIONAIRE Mark Zuckerberg has halted the sale of his Facebook stock after the company's value collapsed last year.

The controversial 34-year-old has seen his company fall from grace, and failed to sell a single share in the last three months of 2018.

Back in September 2017, Zuck promised to flog between 35million and 75million of his Facebook shares over 18 months.

It was part of a promise to give away most of his fortune, which requires converting stocks to hard cash.

Since then, he's sold about 30.4million shares worth roughly $5.6billion (£4.4billion).

But Bloomberg says that the Facebook CEO has stopped selling shares after 2018 saw Facebook's worth plummet.

In just a few days in December, Facebook's stock price slumped by nearly $10billion (£7.4billion) after sealed court documents about the firm were released to the public.

The secret files – which contain emails from billionaire boss Mark Zuckerberg – revealed the inner workings of Facebook, and the company's blatant disregard for user privacy.

And between July and December, Facebook lost around £172billion, as the year saw Zuck's social network become the world's most notorious tech firm.

At the time, it was equivalent to losing the combined value ofNetflix (£94.2billion), Twitter (£20.5billion), Snapchat (£5.78billion) and Sony (£49.6billion).

Facebook has also lost £92billion in value since the beginning of 2018.

The Harvard dropout came under fire after a New York Times exposé revealed that Facebook secretly let Netflix and Spotify read your private messages.

The private partnerships were exposed through leaked Facebook files that highlight the company's ongoing failure to protect user's privacy.

This leak also revealed that Facebook had given user data to Yandex – Russia's equivalent to Google – despite the company's alleged "direct line" to Kremlin spies.

A separate report from Gizmodo found that Facebook was still tracking your exact location, even if users told it not to.

The sinister tactic sees Facebook skirt your settings to serve you location-based advertising, helping Zuckerberg make even more money.

And late last year, Facebook admitted a major cybersecurity blunder: it had given app makers access to private photos from your smartphone's camera roll.

These were photos that had never been posted to Facebook, but were sent to app makers without user permission.

Facebook believes that around 6.8million users were exposed by the gaffe.

Facebook's streak of bad luck largely began in March, when the company was forced to admit it had given away user info without their consent.

It led to Mark Zuckerberg being confronted by useless lawmakers at the US Congress, followed by an equally confused hearing at the EU.

Matters were made worse when Facebook admitted in September that it had given hackers complete access to 30million user accounts – due to three different coding co*ck-ups on its website.

Some spectators have suggested Mark Zuckerberg has "lost control" of Facebook, including Belgian and EU politicianGuy Verhofstadt.

The situation is now so bad at Facebook that workers are turning on their dodgy boss.

Reports suggest Facebook staff have resorted to buying burnerphones to allow them to badmouth their superiors without fear of being recorded.

Former employees described a "toxic and hostile" work environment at the social media giant, which has been hit by a wave of data leaks and fake news scandals over a torrid few years.

One former senior staff member told Buzzfeed News that workers were eyeing up a change of leadership.

"People are hoping for a Sundar or Dara moment," the worker said, referring toGoogle chief Sundar Pichai and Uber's new boss Dara Khosrowshahi.

Another said paranoia among employees meant they were using secondary phones to gossip about colleagues.

The source revealed: "People now have burner phones to talk s**t about the company - not even to reporters, just to other employees."

They added that seething bosses are "spouting full-blown anti-media rhetoric, saying that the press is ganging up on Facebook".

"It's the bunker mentality. These people have been under siege for 600 days now. They're getting tired, getting cranky - the only survival strategy is to quit or fully buy in."

Facebook has suffered major losses in terms of execs, too.

WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum left the company in April this year, and was followed by Instagram founders Kevin System and Mike Kreiger in September.

Mark Zuckerberg is now under pressure from some investors to stand down from the company's chief exec position.

Facebook declined to comment on this story.

Follow our guide on how to delete Facebook permanently.

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