Facebook, Google and Twitter hit record first quarter earnings this week, despite pressure from Washington and Brussels to rein in their power.
Why it matters: Advertisers and users have largely shrugged off the scandals surrounding user privacy, consumer safety and election meddling. Meanwhile, the companies still face hearings and investigations, but it's unclear if significant regulation will follow.
Facebook and Twitter both saw significant jumps in their user bases, despite social media campaigns to abandon the services, include the viral #deletefacebook movement.
YouTube continued to post strong growth for the quarter, despite dealing with controversies around terrorism videos, child pornography and other inappropriate content. Individual content creators continued to do well, too. "Over the last year, (YouTube) channels earning six figures annually grew more than 40%," said CEO Sundar Pichai.
Privacy concerns have not appeared to put a dent in these companies' profits.
Yes, but: Despite meeting investor expectations on growth, all three companies have seen volatility in the stock market.
"Techlash" headlines have mostly taken hold in response to chatter about curbing the anti-competitive power of these companies.
What's next? Tech companies will face the consequences of Europe's sweeping data privacy law, GDPR, which goes into effect in late May. But many analysts suggest that GDPR may actually favor the bigger tech companies because they are better positioned than smaller rivals to afford compliance measures.
