Year-over-year growth in ad spending on Facebook moderated to between 19 and 24 per cent in the first quarter, according to research firm OTR Global, versus growth as high as 30 per cent in the preceding three months. OTR, which cut its rating on Facebook shares to mixed from positive on Wednesday, said ad revenue on the platform fell 10 per cent in March due to data harvesting concerns. Risks for Facebook on the regulatory front, meanwhile, stem largely from the U.S., where policy makers are considering reforms to a hodge-podge of data protection and privacy statutes, and the European Union, which says it will enforce new data privacy laws following the Cambridge Analytica scandal. There are also investor calls for Zuckerberg to step aside as Facebook chair. “Let the dopamine withdrawal begin,” northern Saskatchewan’s Christine Freethy, founder of the Facebook group Save Saskatchewan Libraries who deleted her account in April posted on Twitter this week.

Source: thestar April 20, 2018 14:37 UTC