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So much for the antique news media’s claims that the evil social-media giants face a growing consumer backlash and are at risk of losing momentum. Or so they hoped.

In the heat of the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the relentless political moves to cut Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other tech billionaires down to human scale, the owners and managers of mainstream news outlets last year enthusiastically entertained theories that Facebook, Google and other Silicon Valley twits could face consumer hostility, lost market power and sliding revenues. Legacy media owners cheered on more rules to restrain social media’s growth.

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Even the stock markets seemed to agree that the digital platforms faced daunting obstacles to future glory. In July last year investors put Facebook shares on a five-month 43-per-cent slide from US$217 to US$125.

The theories this week turned out to be mostly wishful. Facebook shares jumped back to as high as US$199 after the company reported a 26-per-cent increase in first-quarter revenue to US$15 billion, a sure sign that America’s tech companies have emerged triumphant from the fog of so much political firebombing.