Trump suggests Facebook's user base declined because people quit to get ready for his social-media platform

• Facebook reported a decline in user numbers for the first time on Thursday.
• Trump celebrated the news and suggested people were quitting to join his new social-media platform.

Former President Donald Trump suggested that Facebook was losing users because people quit to join Truth Social, his upcoming social-media platform.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced Thursday that the site lost about 1 million daily active users between Q3 and Q4 of 2021. It was the first time the company reported a decline in user numbers.

"This means people are tired of Fake News and abuse and especially tired of their political shenanigans," Trump said in a Friday statement shared by his spokeswoman Liz Harington.

"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!"

Trump announced he was launching Truth Social after companies like Facebook and Twitter suspended him last year, saying his posts incited the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Truth Social, which is set to launch on February 21, has been marketed as a free-speech site free of Big Tech, though Trump hired a tech firm that uses AI to moderate and automatically censor some posts.

Meta stock plummeted 22% in premarket trading following its Q4 earnings report.