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Facebook Growth Continues Despite Rising Costs

Facebook posted an annual revenue on privacy”. He said the company was privacy that’s as strong as our reputation
uplift of 25 per cent in Q4 2019 as its committed to building privacy controls as around building good, stable services,” he
advertising business continued to thrive, part of a $5 billion settlement with the US said. Facebook also confirmed it agreed
however the social media giant’s privacy Federal Trade Commission, and had 1,000 to pay $550 million to settle a lawsuit in
issues contributed to a rise in expenses engineers working on privacy-related Illinois over the use of photos for its facial
during the period. Revenue of $21 billion projects. “I want us to build a reputation for recognition technology.
was up from $16.9 billion in Q4 2018, the
bulk coming from advertising. Net income
rose 7 per cent to $7.3 billion. Daily active
users on Facebook increased 9 per cent to
1.7 billion. Across Facebook, Instagram,
WhatsApp and Messenger, it booked an
11 per cent increase to 2.3 billion. Despite
the positive results, a rise in expenses
stood out, as it continues to grapple with
privacy concerns across its platforms. The
company reported a 34 per cent rise in total
costs and expenses to $12.2 billion for
Q4, with the full year figure up 51 per cent
to $46.7 billion. On an earnings call, CEO
Mark Zuckerberg (pictured) said 2020 was
going to be “a big year for our greater focus

Facebook Chief Seeks Middle Ground in Online Safety

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg argued calls for a unified approach to internet newspapers and the telecoms industries
regulation of online content should blend safety, Reuters reported. During a question each have different approaches to
current rules covering the media and and answer session at the Munich regulating content, noting one industry
telecoms industries, as he stepped up Security Conference, the executive noted would not be held accountable for breaches
by the other. For social media companies,
the rules should fall “somewhere in
between”, Reuters reported the executive
as saying. He noted Facebook had
improved efforts to combat interference in
elections, and the company now had 35,000
employees working on reviewing online
content and applying security measures.
Zuckerberg stated more than 1 million fake
accounts were suspended from Facebook
on a daily basis but, while expressing pride
at the results of its efforts to date, warned
the group must “stay vigilant”, Reuters
wrote. In January, Facebook announced
plans to hire 1,000 people in the UK this
year, in an aim to boost efforts to remove
harmful online content from its platforms.

42 FEBRUARY 2020