Facebook shares lose $119 billion in value

After Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s admission that the company’s second-quarter growth was slower than expected, its shares plummeted 19 percent on Thursday. That vaporized $119 billion of value in one of the biggest single-day losses in stock market history. The decline roughly equals the value of McDonald’s or Nike. Zuckerberg’s shares alone lost about $16 billion.

But the decline merely returned the company’s share price to its level in early May. Facebook is still worth about $511 billion, more than the annual gross domestic product of countries like Poland and Belgium. The company has struggled with concerns about privacy, how new European rules will hamper its business, and how it deals with hate speech and “fake news.” The selloff suggests that even the stock of technology giants cannot skyrocket indefinitely. Twitter stocks fell 17 percent on Friday morning after reporting a decline in monthly users. Analysts suggested the company’s crackdown on abuse and trolls hurt it with investors.