Facebook beat Wall Street revenue projections with user numbers on target despite data privacy scandal

Facebook beat Wall Street revenue projections and announced that its user numbers were in line with estimates in the wake of a user data privacy scandal. Up to 87m users saw their data end up in the possession of political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, which worked for Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Facebook has since been scrambling to mollify angry politicians and reassure users that it will safeguard their personal information. Amid that turmoil, observers were keenly watching the company's user figures to assess the potential damage and see if the scandal would suppress Facebook's long-term growth. Its North American user numbers were already flagging at the end of 2017, and since then a number of users have vowed to quit the platform, among them some prominent technology executives, as the #DeleteFacebook movement gained steam.