Facebook’s Zuckerberg Says Security Costs Will Hurt Profits

Facebook Chief Says Protecting Community is More Important Than Maximizing Profits

Social media giant Facebook said on Wednesday that significant investments by the company to secure its platform will impact its profitability. 

The company announced its financial results for Q3 2017 after the bell on Wednesday, noting that capital expenditures for quarter were $1.76 billion. The company reported more than $10.3 billion in revenue during the quarter, and a profit of $4.7 billion. 

“Our community continues to grow and our business is doing well,” Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO, said in a statement. “But none of that matters if our services are used in ways that don’t bring people closer together. We’re serious about preventing abuse on our platforms. We’re investing so much in security that it will impact our profitability. Protecting our community is more important than maximizing our profits.”

33 year-old Zuckerberg did not detail any planned security investments or estimated costs.

The company has been under scrutiny over Russia-linked buyers who placed thousands of ads on the site in attempt to influence the U.S. presidential election. It has been reported that Facebook plans to hire 1,000 additional workers for its team that reviews and removes Facebook ads.

Facebook’s security group is led by Chief Security Officer (CSO) Alex Stamos, who took the role in June 2015 after serving as CISO at Yahoo. Stamos replaced former CSO Joe Sullivan who left the social media giant in April to take the role of CSO at Uber.

In June, Facebook announced the roll-out of a redesigned security settings page, designed to make it easier for users to understand the options provided to them.

In October 2016, the company said that it had paid out a total of more than $5 million (at the time) to researchers who have helped the company find and patch vulnerabilities in its systems and products.

The company had an employee headcount of more than 23,000 as of September 30, 2017, an increase of 47% year-over-year.