Former President Donald Trump on Friday issued a statement hitting Facebook after the company announced that its number of daily active users declined for the first time in the company's 18-year history.
"Facebook's number of daily users has plunged for the first time in Facebook history. This means people are tired of Fake News and abuse and especially tired of their political shenanigans," Trump said in a statement released by his political action committee, Save America. "It could also be that people are waiting for TRUTH—the highly sophisticated platform that we look forward to opening in the not too distant future. Time to straighten out what is happening in our Country!"
Facebook's parent company, Meta Platforms, announced on Thursday that the social media network lost about half a million global daily users in the first quarter of last year when compared to the quarter before.
Shares in Meta dropped by more than 20% following the news.
According to The Hill, much of the decline in users came from Africa and Latin America areas, where the company had hoped to expand as its user base in Europe and North America.
On an earnings call earlier this week, Meta Chief Financial Officer David Wehner attributed the drop in part to "competitive services," which he said, "are negatively impacting growth, particularly with younger audiences."
Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg later noted the competition from TikTok, which he said, "continues to grow at quite a fast rate off of a very large base." He added, "I think overall engagement will grow ... and that's why we're optimistic about the future. But there's a lot of work to do here."