Facebook advertisers shrug off its privacy scandal

San Francisco, Ca — Facebook’s troubles with Russian election meddlers, “fake news ” and misused data have dominated headlines globally.

But they don’t seem to be affecting Facebook’s bottom line, so far, as advertisers continue to flock to the service in droves.

Facebook’s revenue, which largely derives from ads, soared 49 percent to $12 billion in the first three months of the year, the company announced on Wednesday.

Profit jumped 63 percent to $5 billion.

And despite a buzzy “DeleteFacebook” online campaign, both daily and monthly user numbers increased.

More than 1.45 billion people check Facebook at least once a day, a 13 percent increase from a year earlier. Facebook is the second largest digital publisher in the world, behind Google.

It raked in $39.94 billion in 2017 — about 17 percent of total online ad spending, according to data firm eMarketer.