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Facebook’s A+ Q1

What Cambridge Analytica scandal?

While Washington lawmakers and some Facebook users made noise following the social network’s misused-data scandal, advertisers continued to fork over the cash in the first quarter, the company said.

Founder Mark Zuckerberg’s advertising juggernaut reported revenue soared 49 percent from the year-earlier period, to $11.97 billion, handily beating Wall Street estimates.

Investors pushed shares up 7.6 percent in after-hours trading — to north of $171.

The stock, however, is still down about 3 percent on the year thanks to the 26 percent mid-March selloff in the wake of the Cambridge scandal.

Profits also topped expectations, coming in at $1.69 a share. Wall Street had forecast $1.35.

The platform’s user base was in line with expectations, with 1.45 billion users visiting the social network daily and 2.2 billion flocking to the site each month — both numbers were up 13 percent year-over-year.

The company also reported its mobile app was more important than ever, with mobile ad revenue now representing 91 percent of the total.

The numbers appeared to give Wall Street some peace of mind following a tumultuous quarter that saw Zucker- berg hauled in front of Congress to answer for Facebook’s handling of private user information.

Facebook has faced intense scrutiny since it was revealed last month that it leaked the private information of nearly 90 million users without their permission to Cambridge Analytica, a political research firm affiliated with Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

In a statement to investors, Zuckerberg said Facebook was off to a strong start in 2018 “despite facing important challenges.”

“We are taking a broader view of our responsibility and investing to make sure our services are used for good,” the 33-year-old chief executive said. “But we also need to keep building new tools to help people connect, strengthen our communities and bring the world closer together.”

Zuckerberg said on a conference call that Facebook is investing “heavily” in its workforce and tools to keep its community “safe and secure,” especially ahead of the midterm elections.

Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg was defiant when asked about the company’s business model, insisting that Facebook’s reliance on ads to make money will not be an issue moving forward.

“Advertising and protecting people’s information are not at odds,” she said. “We do both.”