This March 28, 2018, file photo shows a Facebook logo at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. Facebook’s plan to create a digital currency used across the world is already raising concern with financial regulators and privacy experts. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
LONDON --
A senior Facebook executive says the social media site is in favor of regulation to address some of the dark problems of the internet.
Nick Clegg, the former leader of the U.K. Liberal Democrat party who now heads global affairs for Facebook, says it is not "for private companies" to decide how to balance free speech versus public harm.
Clegg told the BBC on Monday that companies like Facebook are not "shunning" government intervention but advocating a "sensible way" forward in addressing issues such as cyberbullying or fake news.
Lawmakers have been pushing tech companies to take down offensive content more quickly and to do more in general to halt internet harm. But Clegg says it is up to "democratic politicians in the democratic world" to set the rules.
Mark Zuckerberg talks about the Orion AR glasses during the Meta Connect conference on Sept. 25, 2024, in Menlo Park, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez, File)
Meta Platforms Inc. posted sharply higher profit and revenue for its fourth quarter on Wednesday, thanks to higher ad revenue on its social media properties, sending its shares up in after-hours trading even as it forecast increasing expenses on its artificial intelligence efforts.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he expects 2025 to "be the year when a highly intelligent and personalized AI assistant reaches more than 1 billion people, and I expect Meta AI to be that leading AI assistant."
The Menlo Park, California-based company earned $20.83 billion, or $8.02 per share, in the October-December quarter. That's up 49% from $14.02 billion, or $5.33 per share, in the same period a year earlier.
Revenue grew 21% to $48.39 billion from $40.11 billion.
Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $6.76 per share on revenue of $47 billion, according to a poll by FactSet.
"We continue to make good progress on AI, glasses, and the future of social media," Zuckerberg said in a statement.
For the current quarter, Meta said expects revenue of $39.5 billion to $41.8 billion. Analysts are expecting revenue at the high end of that range — $41.68 billion.
The company also said it expects expenses in the range of $114 billion to $119 billion, driven by infrastructure costs and employee compensation. Meta had 74,067 employees as of Dec. 31, up 10% from a year earlier.
"Meta's Q4 performance underscores the company's resilience in a still-uncertain digital ad market. By beating both earnings and revenue estimates, they've demonstrated that cost discipline and efficiency gains are paying dividends," said Jesse Cohen, an analyst with Investing.com. "However, the real headline is their commitment to aggressive capital expenditures.... Read More
