Facebook profits soared in the third quarter as it brought in more than $10bn from advertising.<\/p>\n
The firm said profits were $4.7bn (\u00a33.5bn) in the three months to the end of September, up 80% year-on-year.<\/p>\n
Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg told investors the firm’s investments in security would “impact” profitability.<\/p>\n
US lawmakers are examining the possible use of the platform for Russian propaganda activities during the 2016 US presidential election.<\/p>\n
“We’re serious about preventing abuse on our platforms,” Mr Zuckerberg said. “Protecting our community is more important than maximising our profits.”<\/p>\n
Washington hearings<\/strong><\/p>\n Mr Zuckerberg last year said the idea that fake news on Facebook influenced the election was “pretty crazy”.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, the firm said almost 150 million people may have seen Russian propaganda efforts.<\/p>\n Facebook shared the figure during two days of tense questioning in Washington.<\/p>\n Lawmakers, who are eyeing increased regulation of internet companies, pressed for increased disclosure around political ads, as well as information about how the firm polices false content.<\/p>\n Mr Zuckerberg did not attend the hearing, but he discussed the matter on a conference call with financial analysts.<\/p>\n “What [Russia] did is wrong and we are not going to stand for it,” he said.<\/p>\n “People do not want false news or hate speech or bullying… To the extent that we can eradicate that from the platform, we will create a better product.”<\/p>\n The firm’s general counsel told lawmakers the company was focused on protecting the “authenticity” of activity. But he conceded that it would be a tough task.<\/p>\n Facebook had 2.07bn monthly active users at the end of September, up 16% year-on-year.<\/p>\n Duplicate accounts represent about 10% of those – higher than previous estimates, executives said.<\/p>\n It also had more than six million active advertisers, chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said on a call with investors.<\/p>\n Looking forward<\/strong><\/p>\n Those advertisers, many of them small and medium-sized businesses, helped lift total Facebook revenue 47% year-on-year to $10.3bn. That included $10.1bn from ads.<\/p>\n The firm said it expected ad prices to increase, driving future growth. But it warned that the pace of expansion had been slowing.<\/p>\n The firm also said it expected expenses to increase between 45% and 60% in 2018.<\/p>\n Facebook said it was investing in security initiatives, new technology and video.<\/p>\n In the Washington hearings, Facebook said 10,000 people were working on the platform’s safety and security and it expected that number to double by the end of 2018.<\/p>\n Many of those people work for “partners”, the firm told analysts. Facebook employed about 23,165 people at the end of September.<\/p>\n The firm said it was also tightening it standards for ads, including those focused on charged political issues.<\/p>\n “We believe that ads are important to free expression… but we will also do our part to elevate the quality of that discourse,” Ms Sandberg said,<\/p>\n Shares in the firm fell about 1.5% in after-hours trade.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Facebook profits soared in the third quarter as it brought in more than $10bn from advertising. The firm said profits were $4.7bn (\u00a33.5bn) in the three months to the end of September, up 80% year-on-year. Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg told investors the firm’s investments in security would “impact” profitability. US lawmakers are examining the possible […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[339,1983],"class_list":["post-367757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-facebook","tag-mark-zukerberg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=367757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367757\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=367757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=367757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=367757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}