Facebook Could Lose $23 Billion After Revealing News Feed Change

Facebook's announcement that it would be making big changes to its newsfeed has already had a [...]

Facebook's announcement that it would be making big changes to its newsfeed has already had a negative impact on the social media giant.

According to Fortune, shares of Facebook fell 4% Friday after Mark Zuckerberg announced it would change the filter for hte news feed to prioritize what family and friends share, while reducing the amount of non-advertising content from both publishers and brands.

If the decline in shares remains, Facebook stands to lose nearly $23 billion from its market capitalization Friday because of the new decision.

Pivotal Research Group said its analysis of Nielsen's digital consumption rates showed that usage was already falling before Zuckerberg's announcement.

"We can speculate that the concerns reflected in Zuckerberg's post may very well have been driving these declines," wrote Pivotal's Brian Wieser.

The company has been under scrutiny for its algorithms that may have prioritized misinformation in user's new feeds, influencing the presidential election in 2016.

The shift will likely lead to a decrease in engagement in the short term, Facebook said, but may also impact major suppliers of news and other content.

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