Facebook

The firm said sales growth could be just 3 percent in the first three months of 2022, far below its historic pace.

Profits have already been hit as the firm ploughs money into projects focused on virtual reality.

The update sent shares down 20 percent in after-hours trade.

The sell-off spread to similar companies, like Snap, which also saw its shares plunge.

Analysts had been expecting Meta to report strong numbers, after Google-owner Alphabet shared its results yesterday.

Meta - as Facebook's parent company is now called - said messaging encryption on the apps would now come in 2023.

The process means only the sender and receiver can read messages, but law enforcement or Meta cannot.

However, child protection groups and politicians have warned that it could hamper police investigating child abuse.

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), has claimed that private messaging "is the front line of child sexual abuse".

The social network has been under intense scrutiny in recent years for how its algorithms promote content.

Now, it says it is testing controls to "adjust people's ranking preferences" and customise the feed.

That includes, for example, increasing the number of posts from friends and family, and decreasing those from groups and pages.

It will also make controls that already exist "easier to access", it said - such as the favourites and snooze features, which largely live inside a settings sub-menu.

Facebook will delete the “faceprints” of more than a billion people after announcing that it is shutting down its facial recognition system due to the “many concerns” about using the technology.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the social media giant will change the name of its holding company to Meta, in a rebrand that comes as the company faces a series of public relations crises.

Zuckerberg revealed the new name at Facebook’s annual AR/VR conference on Thursday, where he outlined the company’s virtual-reality vision for the future.

The social media giant made $9bn (£6.5bn) of profit in the three months to September, up from $7.8bn last year.

However, it was hit by a new privacy update to Apple's iOS 14 operating system, which made it harder for brands to target ads at specific users.

It comes amid fresh claims of unethical behaviour made by a former employee.

Frances Haugen has released a cache of internal documents to the public, alleging that Facebook put profit before user safety.

The case related to Facebook's 2020 acquisition of Gif-sharing service Giphy, which is under investigation.

The CMA said Facebook had not provided information, ignored many warnings, and committed a "major breach". The firm denies deliberately breaking rules.

There are also reports that its parent company might change its name.

Tech news site The Verge revealed the news about the firm - which owns the Facebook service itself, as well as WhatsApp, Instagram, Oculus VR, and other brands.

A metaverse is an online world where people can game, work and communicate in a virtual environment, often using VR headsets.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been a leading voice on the concept.

The announcement comes as Facebook deals with the fallout of a damaging scandal and faces increased calls for regulation to curb its influence.

"The metaverse has the potential to help unlock access to new creative, social, and economic opportunities. And Europeans will be shaping it right from the start," Facebook said in a blog post.

The company said that a "configuration change" had impacted users globally.

It added that the incident was not related to the outage that saw its products taken offline for over six hours earlier this week.

Its Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Workplace products had been affected, it said.

"We're so sorry if you weren't able to access our products during the last couple of hours," the company said it a statement on Friday evening. "We know how much you depend on us to communicate with one another. We fixed the issue - thanks again for your patience this week."

Frances Haugen, a 37-year-old former product manager turned whistleblower, heavily criticised the company at a hearing on Capitol Hill.

Facebook however said Ms Haugen spoke about areas she has no knowledge of.

It comes amid growing scrutiny of the social media giant and increasing calls for its regulation.

Facebook is the world's most popular social media site. The company says it has 2.7 billion monthly active users. Hundreds of millions of people also use the company's other products, including WhatsApp and Instagram.