Embattled Facebook’s quarterly profit climbs to over $9 billion

Amid fallout from the Facebook Papers documents supporting claims that the social network has valued financial success over user safety, Facebook on Monday reported higher profit for the latest quarter.

The company’s latest show of financial strength follows both an avalanche of reports on the Facebook Papers — a vast trove of redacted internal documents obtained by a consortium of news organisations that included The Associated Press — but also of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen’s testimony to British lawmakers.

Facebook said its net income grew 17 per cent in the July-September period to $9.19 billion, or $3.22 per share, buoyed by strong advertising revenue.