Facebook’s financial facade develops cracks

Reality may finally be intruding on the company’s ability to mint money, writes Shira Ovide

Facebook said the ruling goes beyond a process it already follows to “restrict content if and when it violates local laws".

Facebook couldn’t do anything right – except when it came to making money, where it could do nothing wrong.

That changed last week, when the company posted disappointing growth in revenue, profits and the number of visitors to its digital hangouts.

The results are still stellar by the standards of most companies, but investors in fast-growing technology companies react badly when their high hopes aren’t met, as Netflix recently found out. Facebook hit ...