Facebook’s profits grow, adds new users in q4 despite challenges
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Facebook had a strong fourth quarter, making more money on advertising and adding more users despite challenges around regulation, privacy and efforts to fight election interference. Its
profit and revenue both handily surpassed Wall Street's expectations. The company also said it settled a lawsuit filed in 2015 over its facial recognition practices and will pay $550
million as a result. The suit alleged Facebook violated Illinois privacy regulations with a feature that suggested to users other people to tag in their photos. Facebook replaced the tag
suggestion tool with a broader facial recognition setting last year. It also pointed out about 2.89 billion people use at least one of its services — Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram or
Messenger — each month. About 2.26 billion people use at least one every day. and its main service had 2.5 billion monthly users at the end of the year, up 8 percent from a year earlier.