LONDON — The global pandemic and U.S. protests are forcing a pullback by advertisers on Twitter, but it's also led to an unprecedented surge of users.

Average daily user growth spiked 34 percent in the second quarter, the company said Thursday, the largest jump in users ever recorded by the company.

In an earnings call, CEO Jack Dorsey addressed an embarrassing hacking incident last week that compromised the accounts of high profile users, saying he felt “terrible” about it.

Shares of Twitter bounced 6 percent higher.

But the company took a huge tax hit to earnings, posting a net loss of $1.2 billion, or $1.56 per share, in the April-June period, compared with profit of $1.1 billion, or $1.43 per share, a year earlier.

Revenue fell by about a fifth to $683 million, far short of the $702 million Wall Street had expected, according to a survey of analysts by FactSet.

Twitter's advertising business was hit harder than its larger rivals, Google and Facebook, following the outbreak of Black Lives Matter protests in the U.S.

The coronavirus sapped $2.8 billion in revenue from AT&T in its most recent quarter, mostly in its WarnerMedia TV and film division. Its satellite TV business, DirecTV, continued to bleed customers.“I expect we're going to be dealing with some of these economic challenges in the COVID environment as we move forward here,” said AT&T CEO John Stankey said during a call with analysts Thursday.WarnerMedia revenue fell 23 percent to $6.8 billion due to a pullback by TV advertisers, particularly as there were no live sports, and movie theaters closed.Hollywood shut down production due to the pandemic, delaying movie releases and series for both traditional TV and streaming services. Stankey said the company hopes to resume film and TV production next month.