Meta Platforms (META) Risk Factor Changes

The trading price of our Class A common stock has been, and is likely to continue to be, volatile.

From time to time, we receive notice from patent, copyright, and trademark holders and other parties alleging that certain of our products and services, trademarks, or user content, infringe their intellectual propert…

Companies in the internet, technology, and media industries own large numbers of patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets, and frequently enter into litigation based on allegations of infringement, misapprop…

maintained internally and/or by third parties (including public cloud providers, AI technologies and services, open source software, and the operating systems and browsers which users rely on to run our applications a…

Such incidents and activities include the use of user data or our systems in a manner inconsistent with our terms, contracts or policies, the existence of hacked, false or undesirable user accounts, election interfere…

In addition, some of our developers or other partners, such as those that help us measure the effectiveness of ads, may receive or store information provided by us or by our users through mobile or web applications in…

Our industry is prone to cyber-attacks by parties seeking unauthorized access to our data or users' data or to disrupt our ability to provide service or otherwise harm us.

governing gambling, banking, and lending.

Several of our products offer Payments functionality, including enabling our users to purchase tangible, virtual, and digital goods from merchants and developers that offer applications using our Payments infrastructu…

protected under local laws than we are in the United States.

We are engaged in ongoing privacy compliance and oversight efforts, including in connection with our modified consent order with the FTC, requirements of the GDPR and UK GDPR, and other current and anticipated regulat…

We receive formal and informal inquiries from government authorities and regulators regarding our compliance with laws and regulations, many of which are evolving and subject to interpretation.

in a number of jurisdictions could have similar effects.

We have been subject to other significant legislative and regulatory developments, which together with proposed or new legislation and regulations could significantly affect our business in the future.

We are also subject to evolving laws and regulations that dictate whether, how, and under what circumstances we can transfer, process or receive certain data that is critical to our operations, including data shared b…

In addition, we cannot guarantee we will continue to attract and retain the personnel we need to maintain our competitive position.

The tax effects of the accounting for share-based compensation have in the past impacted, and may in the future impact, our effective tax rate, sometimes significantly, from period to period.

In addition, ongoing volatility due to international trade may prompt foreign governments to expand regulatory authority or adopt new measures, increasing compliance risks, taxes, and operational complexities.

Over the last several years, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has been working on a Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project that, if implemented, would change various aspects of the ex…

The tax regimes we are subject to or operate under, including income and non-income taxes, are unsettled and may be subject to significant change.

Our tax obligations, including income and non-income taxes, are based in part on our corporate operating structure and intercompany arrangements, including the manner in which we operate our business, develop, value,…

We have had, and may in the future have, exposure to greater than anticipated tax liabilities.

As part of our business strategy, we have made and intend to continue to make acquisitions to add specialized employees and complementary companies, products, or technologies, and from time to time may enter into othe…

We are involved in numerous lawsuits, including stockholder derivative lawsuits and putative class action lawsuits, many of which claim statutory damages and/or seek significant changes to our business operations, and…

•burdens of complying with a variety of foreign laws, including laws related to taxation, content removal, content moderation, data localization, data protection, competition, e-commerce and payments, and regulatory o…

management processes and systems, manage our headcount and facilities, and effectively train and manage our personnel.

In addition, from time to time we provide, or rely on, certain other metrics and estimates, including those relating to the reach and effectiveness of our ads.

We regularly evaluate our Family metrics to estimate the percentage of our DAP consisting solely of "violating" accounts.

To calculate our estimates of DAP, we currently use a series of machine learning models that are developed based on internal reviews of limited samples of user accounts and calibrated against user survey data.

In addition, there may be issues related to this infrastructure that are not identified during the testing phases of design and implementation, which may only become evident after we have started to fully utilize the…

We have designed and built our own data centers and key portions of our technical infrastructure through which we serve our products, and we plan to continue to significantly expand the size of our infrastructure prim…

that could be harmful to our business.

We have made significant investments in AI initiatives, including investments in infrastructure and headcount, including specialized technical personnel, to support our efforts to enhance our products, features, and a…

We incur significant expenses in operating our business, and we expect our expenses to continue to increase in the future as we continue to invest in new and unproven technologies, including AI and machine learning, a…

•costs related to acquisitions or other strategic transactions, including costs associated with amortization and additional investments to develop acquired technologies;

We compete with companies providing connection, sharing, discovery, and communication products and services to users online, as well as companies that sell advertising to businesses looking to reach consumers and/or d…

We have made and are continuing to make investments to enable creators to contribute engaging third-party content to our platform and developers to build, grow, and monetize applications that integrate with our products.

We may not be able to continue to successfully maintain or grow engaging third-party content on our platform or usage of and engagement with applications that integrate with our products.

We believe that our brands have significantly contributed to the success of our business.

We believe the metaverse, an embodied internet where people have immersive experiences beyond two-dimensional screens, is the next evolution in social technology.

We frequently make product and investment decisions that may not prioritize short-term financial results if we believe that the decisions are consistent with our mission and benefit the aggregate user experience and w…

It is not possible to predict all of the risks related to the use of AI and changes in laws, rules, directives, and regulations or other regulatory developments regarding the use of AI, including restrictions around t…

Further, we face significant competition from other companies that are developing their own AI features and technologies, including competition from AI features and technologies that may be similar or superior to our…

There are significant risks involved in developing and deploying AI and there can be no assurance that the usage of AI will enhance our products or services or be beneficial to our business, including our efficiency o…

We have made significant investments in AI initiatives, including generative AI and superintelligence, to, among other things, recommend relevant content across our products, enhance our advertising tools, develop new…

systems and mobile browsers.

The substantial majority of our revenue is generated from advertising on mobile devices.

Our ad targeting and measurement tools rely on data signals from user activity on websites and services that we do not control, as well as signals generated within our products, in order to deliver relevant and effect…

•the impact of macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions, whether in the advertising industry in general, or among specific types of marketers or within particular geographies, which in turn can have broader effects i…

•there is decreased engagement with our products, decreased efficiency of our advertising products, or failure to accept our terms of service, as part of changes that we have implemented or may implement in the future…

The size of our active user base and our users' level of engagement across our products are critical to our success.

From time to time, we receive notice from patent, copyright, and trademark holders and other parties alleging that certain of our products and services, trademarks, or user content, infringe their intellectual propert…

Our products and internal systems rely on software and hardware, including software and hardware developed or maintained internally and/or by third parties (including open source software and the operating systems and…

In addition, some of our developers or other partners, such as those that help us measure the effectiveness of ads, may receive or store information provided by us or by our users through mobile or web applications in…

Similarly, there are a number of legislative proposals or recently enacted laws in the European Union, the United States, at both the federal and state level, as well as other jurisdictions that could impose new oblig…

number of our most significant products and services, including Facebook and Instagram, in Europe, which would materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

On March 25, 2022, the European Union and United States announced that they had reached an agreement in principle on a new EU-U.S.

no assurance that we will realize expected synergies and potential monetization opportunities for our acquisitions or a favorable return on investment for our strategic investments.

content moderation, data localization, data protection, competition, e-commerce and payments, and regulatory oversight;

inaccuracies in our metrics or estimates, we may be subject to liability, our reputation may be harmed, and marketers and developers may be less willing to allocate their budgets or resources to our products that deli…

significantly from our estimates, potentially beyond our estimated error margins.

We have designed and built our own data centers and key portions of our technical infrastructure through which we serve our products, and we plan to continue to significantly expand the size of our infrastructure prim…

We compete with companies providing connection, sharing, discovery, and communication products and services to users online, as well as companies that sell advertising to businesses looking to reach consumers and/or d…

We believe that our brands have significantly contributed to the success of our business.

We frequently make product and investment decisions that may not prioritize short-term financial results if we believe that the decisions are consistent with our mission and benefit the aggregate user experience and w…

which could increase our exposure to intellectual property claims from competitors, non-practicing entities, and other rights holders.

Our products and internal systems rely on software and hardware, including software and hardware developed or

efforts will be successful.

Similarly, there are a number of legislative proposals or recently enacted laws in the European Union, the United States, at both the federal and state level, as well as other jurisdictions that could impose new oblig…

Any one of the foregoing factors may adversely affect our operating results.

Our employee headcount and the scale and complexity of our business have increased significantly over time.

browser or mobile platforms, regulatory or legislative requirements, or other factors, also may impact the stability or accuracy of our reported Family metrics, as well as our ability to report these metrics at all.

outside the United States, and action by a foreign government, or our response to such government action, has resulted, and may result in the future, in the impairment of a portion of our technical infrastructure, whi…

Our reputation and ability to attract, retain, and serve our users is dependent upon the reliable performance of our products and services and our underlying technical infrastructure.

Our ability to support these investments is dependent on generating sufficient profits from other areas of our business.

example, from time to time, we have taken actions to reduce the volume of communications from these developers to users on our products with the objective of enhancing the user experience, and such actions have reduce…

As a result of these or other factors, our Reality Labs strategy and investments may not be successful in the foreseeable future, or at all, which could adversely affect our business, reputation, or financial results.

data, may adversely affect our ability to develop and use AI or subject us to legal liability.