Political controversies overshadow Facebook's strong financial report

• Company reports revenues increased 29% year-over-year to $17.7bn and profits grew 19% to $6.1bn
• Twitter to ban all political advertising, raising pressure on Facebook

Facebook's myriad political controversies overshadowed a strong financial quarter on Wednesday as the chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, delivered an impassioned defense of his company on a conference call with investors.

The company reported strong revenue and profit growth for the third quarter of 2019, beating analyst expectations and prompting the share price to jump as much as 4% in after-hours trading. Revenues grew 29% year-over-year to $17.7bn, and profits grew 19% to $6.1bn.