Facebook's Decision To Hire Thousands Of Employees Doesn't Concern Analysts At BMO

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Facebook said it will hire 3,000 people across the world who will be tasked with monitoring videos for violent and criminal acts. The company faced backlash after a murder and suicide were shown live on its platform for essentially anyone and everyone to see.

"If we're going to build a safe community, we need to respond quickly," Bloomberg quoted Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg as saying in a Facebook post. "We're working to make these videos easier to report so we can take the right action sooner — whether that's responding quickly when someone needs help or taking a post down."

BMO: Not Concerned

BMO Capital Markets' Daniel Salmon commented in a research report that Facebook's move to add 3,000 people to its Community Operations (on top of its already existing 4,500 headcount) should "help address concerns" over not only inappropriate content but fake news as well. Related Links: 8 Of The Most Popular 'Fake News' Websites What We Know About 'The Facebook Journalism Project'

Salmon noted Facebook will be able to use artificial intelligence capabilities to help workers.

Aside from Facebook's commitment to making its platform safer, the analyst sees the "primary opportunity" at Instagram as the picture and video-sharing app could be opened to the more than 5 million advertisers that are already active on Facebook's core platform.

Facebook also boasts new revenue streams from Messenger, WhatsApp, initiatives in commerce, subscriptions and other new ideas, although none of these "appear likely" in the short term.

Bottom line, the analyst highlighted management's commentary on margins decline which he believes is already "baked into investor expectations." As such, the analyst is becoming "more intrigued" by the stock as new catalysts emerge.

Shares of Facebook remain Market Perform rated with an unchanged $150.