Meta reported a 20 million decline in daily active users last quarter, which the company attributed to internet disruptions in Iran and WhatsApp restrictions in Russia — though the bundled reporting obscures which platforms were most affected. Despite losing users, Meta is raising its 2026 AI spending forecast to $125-145 billion and posted record revenue growth of 33 percent, signaling the company is doubling down on infrastructure investment even as it faces potential user base erosion. The company's Reality Labs division continues hemorrhaging money with a $4 billion quarterly loss, and stock fell 7 percent after the earnings release. Missing from this headline is context that major tech firms attribute similar user declines to geopolitical disruptions rather than product problems, and that the Iran conflict has broadly impacted internet connectivity across the region since late February 2026.