San Francisco, Jan 1 (IANS): While Facebook still maintains a double-digit growth in advertisement revenue in the US, the rate of that growth slowed down in the second and third quarters of 2018, according to data from a market research firm.

In the third quarter of 2018, Facebook's year-over-year ad-revenue growth rate was 16 per cent, compared to the 30 per cent in the second quarter and 35 per cent in the first quarter of that year, Forbes reported on Monday citing data from Standard Media Index (SMI).

Facebook, which has over two billion monthly active users globally, came under heavy criticism in 2018 for lapses in protecting user privacy and in removing misleading content from its platform.

"Facebook's growth from national marketers is slowing, indicating that major brands are concerned with recent events there and are focusing on brand-safe environments," SMI CEO James Fennessy was quoted in a statement.

According to a forecast by market research company eMarketer, Facebook will generate an estimated $23 billion in US ad revenue in 2018 (and $54.4 billion globally, an increase of 36.3 per cent from 2017), the Forbes report said.