Meta shares jumped by 1.4 per cent after a false report that Mark Zuckerberg was planning to step down as CEO next year.

This comes after a year of turmoil for the company, with stock down more than 67 per cent, declining profits, and the recent layoffs of 11,000 workers, equally roughly 13 per cent of Meta’s entire workforce.

The false report, published last night by The Leak, said Zuckerberg had “decided to step down” following the recent decline in profits.

“This is false,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone tweeted in response to the report.

Zuckerberg has taken public responsibility for the company’s fall from grace, and apologised for the actions that lead to the company’s massive staff cull, the first in its 18-year history.

Calling the sackings “some of the most difficult changes we’ve made in Meta’s history”, Zuckerberg also cut discretionary spending and extended the hiring freeze into the first quarter of 2023.

“I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here. I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted,” he wrote.

Zuckerberg said he misinterpreted outsized revenue growth during the pandemic, which he assumed would roll on forever.

“Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended. I did too, so I made the decision to significantly increase our investments.

“Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected. Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected. I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.”