Facebook has been facing criticism over the years for its content policies that failed to safeguard private data and also on its rules for advertisers. But, only this year did it feel the blow.

Its new data laws in the Europe and privacy issue scandals have reduced the number of daily visitors to the website.

The results of the company's second-quarter sales showed how its growth has been hampered. Its sales and user growth for the quarter have declined. On Wednesday evening (New York time), Facebook reported a 42 percent drop in its revenue to $13.2 billion and according to its Chief Financial Officer David Wehner's statement to the Wall Street, the company's revenue would further decline in the third and fourth quarters this year (source: Bloomberg).

Following the release of the quarterly results and the statement made by the CFO, the share price of Facebook plunged by 24 percent on the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange).

The fall in share price means Mark Zuckerberg lost $16.8 billion in wealth at Wednesday's market close in the New York and if this continues on Thursday, he could lose his position as the third richest man in the world and fall to the sixth position in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with less than $70 billion. The loss is about one-fifth of Mark Zuckerberg's wealth.