Mark Zuckerberg

About

Mark Zuckerberg is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur who co-founded the social networking site Facebook.^[1]

Online History

As of August 2014, Zuckerberg’s Facebook^[2] page has over 94.4 million followers on Facebook and 2.8 million followers on Instagram.^[3]

Facebook

Zuckerberg launched Facebook^[1] at Harvard on February 4, 2004 with the help of his college roommates and other Harvard students. Facebook first spread to other large University campuses and quickly expanded to 1 billion users in 2012. Zuckerberg currently acts as the Facebook’s chairman and chief executive officer.

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Internet.org

August 2013, Zuckerberg founded the Internet.org, a project that aims to provide Internet access to 5 billion people who do not have access. The project implements a three-tier strategy which will create new jobs and open up new markets.

Reputation

In the early years of Facebook, Zuckerberg received a lot of hate and criticism due to the legal battles he experienced with the other co-founders of Facebook over its shares. The film The Social Network^[4], did little to improve his reputation and did not entirely portray him in a positive light. Recently, Zuckerberg has been receiving a more favorable reputation among the public with the help of his philanthropic projects.

Net Worth

As of August 2017, Zuckerberg has a net worth of 72.7 billion.^[5]

Presidential Campaign Rumors

Rumors of Zuckerberg’s potential campaign for presidency began December 2016 when he began a year long tour of each state in the nation. Although Zuckerberg has denied plans to run for presidency twice, his decision to hire multiple political strategists has sparked more speculation of his potential campaign.^[6]

Criticisms

In 2015, Zuckerberg as received criticism after announcing he planned to give away 99% of his Facebook shares during his lifetime through his LLC, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Many criticized the use of an LLC, also known as a limited liability company, saying Zuckerberg would still have control over the LLC’s money.^[7]

Holocaust Denier Comments

On July 18th, 2018, Recode interviewed Mark Zuckerberg for the "Recode Decode" podcast.^[9] During the conversation, in which they discussed moderation of fake news, misinformation and conspiracy theories, Zuckerberg explained the difficulties of limiting the spread of such material without limiting free speech and the goals of the platform. As an example of how to handle the situation, Zuckerberg brought up users who deny that the Holocaust, the systematic genocide of more than 6 million Jews and millions of non-Jewish civilians at the hands of the Nazis in World War II, happened. They said:

Zuckerberg: I also think that going to someone who is a victim of Sandy Hook and telling them, “Hey, no, you’re a liar” -- that is harassment, and we actually will take that down. But overall, let’s take this whole closer to home…

I’m Jewish, and there’s a set of people who deny that the Holocaust happened.

I find that deeply offensive. But at the end of the day, I don’t believe that our platform should take that down because I think there are things that different people get wrong. I don’t think that they’re intentionally getting it wrong, but I think-

Recode: In the case of the Holocaust deniers, they might be, but go ahead.

Zuckerberg: It’s hard to impugn intent and to understand the intent. I just think, as abhorrent as some of those examples are, I think the reality is also that I get things wrong when I speak publicly. I’m sure you do. I’m sure a lot of leaders and public figures we respect do too, and I just don’t think that it is the right thing to say, “We’re going to take someone off the platform if they get things wrong, even multiple times.” (Update: Mark has clarified these remarks here: “I personally find Holocaust denial deeply offensive, and I absolutely didn’t intend to defend the intent of people who deny that.”)

What we will do is we’ll say, “Okay, you have your page, and if you’re not trying to organize harm against someone, or attacking someone, then you can put up that content on your page, even if people might disagree with it or find it offensive.” But that doesn’t mean that we have a responsibility to make it widely distributed in News Feed. I think we, actually, to the contrary-

On Twitter, people mocked Zuckerberg's comments, criticizing him for creating a platform that allows for the spread of conspiracy theories, particularly ones that are based in anti-Semitism, as is the case with Holocaust deniers (examples below).

Following the interview, Zuckerberg clarified his comments, writing to Recode:

I enjoyed our conversation yesterday, but there’s one thing I want to clear up. I personally find Holocaust denial deeply offensive, and I absolutely didn’t intend to defend the intent of people who deny that.

Our goal with fake news is not to prevent anyone from saying something untrue -- but to stop fake news and misinformation spreading across our services. If something is spreading and is rated false by fact checkers, it would lose the vast majority of its distribution in News Feed. And of course if a post crossed line into advocating for violence or hate against a particular group, it would be removed. These issues are very challenging but I believe that often the best way to fight offensive bad speech is with good speech.

I look forward to catching up again soon.

Mark

The following day, Randi Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO's sister, responded to the comments.^[10] She said that while her brother could have "chosen his words differently," she praised his ability in "navigating this incredibly difficult new world where the notion of free speech is constantly changing."

She continued:

Banning Holocaust deniers from social media will not make them go away. Those bent on lying, sowing misunderstanding, and breeding hate will never be truly silenced. Let this remind us why we need our Jewish institutions more now than ever

[…]

I don't want to live in a world where Holocaust deniers are given a voice and I think we absolutely need to be having a debate at a national level on whether they deserve a place on any platform at all. At the same time, I also don't want to live in a world where tech companies get to decide who has the right to speech and get to police content in a way that is different from what our legal system dictates.

Profile Hack

On September 26th, 2018, a "white hat" hacker from Taiwan posted on Facebook that he would be taking down Mark Zuckerberg's profil and broadcast it live on Sunday, September 30th. The announcement of the post received more than 1,200 reactions, 370 comment and 295 shares in two days (shown below).^[11]

However, two days later, he announced that he would be canceling the boardcast. he wrote, "I am canceling my live feed, I have reported the bug to Facebook and I will show proof when I get bounty from Facebook."^[12]

Related Memes

Harvard Commencement Speech

Mark Zuckerberg’s Harvard Commencement Speech refers to a speech Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg gave to the graduating class of 2017 at Harvard University, his alma mater. Online, the event was notable for jokes made about pictures of Zuckerberg’s speech and for a hack of Harvard’s paper, The Crimson, which was briefly filled with puns and photoshopped images of Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg's VR Photo

Zuckerberg’s VR Photo is a photograph of Mark Zuckerberg walking past a mass seated audience using VR Technology completely unaware of his presence. The photo is often photoshopped to emphasize existentialism and was first tweeted by by user @Ndebock.^[8] with the caption "is this picture an allegory of our future ? the people in a virtual reality with our leaders walking by us.”

Zucked

Zucked is a slang word that essentially means "to be screwed over by Mark Zuckerberg." It has been popularly used in several different contexts since Facebook's conception in 2007.

Marck Zuckerberg Group Selfie

The Mark Zuckerberg Group Selfie was uploaded to Instagram^[13] by Zuckerberg on April 25th, 2022, being him with multiple employees at Meta's first store, opening in Burlingame, California. The post received roughly 347,700 likes over the course of two weeks (shown below, left). Many edits of the photo came into existence going into May 2022.^[14]

Personal Life

Zuckerberg was born in White Plains, New York, on May 14th, 1984. He began attending Harvard University in 2002, but dropped out in 2004. Zuckerberg began dating his future wife Priscilla Chan his sophomore year at Harvard in 2003. The couple married in 2012 and welcomed their daughter Maxima Chan Zuckerberg on November 30th, 2015. In March 2017, Zuckerberg announced his wife’s pregnancy with their second daughter.

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Search Interest

External References References