This seems solely because of the recent fines: "Includes an additional $2.0 billion legal expense related to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) settlement and a $1.1 billion income tax expense due to the developments in Altera Corp. v. Commissioner, as discussed below. As the FTC expense is not expected to be tax-deductible, it had no effect on our provision for income taxes. Excluding these expenses, our operating margin would have been 12 percentage points higher, our effective tax rate would have been 30 percentage points lower and our diluted EPS would have been $1.08 higher."

Why is the legal expense $ 2.0 B? Is that only including lawyer fees and not the $ 5 B from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20515235 ?

They already expensed $3 B last quarter.

"Includes an additional $2.0 billion legal expense related to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) settlement and a $1.1 billion income tax expense due to the developments in Altera Corp. v. Commissioner, as discussed below. As the FTC expense is not expected to be tax-deductible, it had no effect on our provision for income taxes. Excluding these expenses, our operating margin would have been 12 percentage points higher, our effective tax rate would have been 30 percentage points lower and our diluted EPS would have been $1.08 higher."

This accounts for more than the difference YoY. In other words, without these, net income would have actually grown

This title is very editorializing, and ignores the fact that outside of legal expenses as others have pointed out, net income is actually up. In other words, on core business metrics, they are better year-over-year.

Increase in costs & expenses by $5 billion,while revenue from advertising is up by $3.6 Billions... My only question is where did those $5 billion gone to??

Maybe here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20515235 ?

I haven't been FB user for years,so don't follow news related to them,looks like the fine explains the numbers pretty well.

FTC fine?

Mostly due to their 2bil legal fees for their settlement with the FTC and Altera Corp. v. Commissioner. Actual revenue is up across the board.