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Mark Zuckerberg built Facebook in his Harvard dorm room in 2004.
The social network grew from a college project into a global platform with 3 billion users.
As CEO of Meta (formerly Facebook), Zuckerberg amassed significant wealth while facing intense scrutiny over privacy concerns, misinformation, and the platform's social impact.
Here’s some amazing facts on Mark Zuckerberg.
In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg, a 19-year-old Harvard sophomore, launched thefacebook.com from his dorm room.
He built the site with roommates Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes to connect Harvard students online.
The site's creation sparked legal conflict.
Three Harvard classmates—Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra—sued Zuckerberg, claiming he had stolen their idea and code from their proposed platform, HarvardConnection.
The lawsuit ended in 2008 with a $65 million settlement in cash and Facebook shares.
Despite these legal challenges, Zuckerberg continued developing Facebook.
The controversy later became source material for a Hollywood film, while Zuckerberg focused on expanding his social network's reach.
By 2007, at age 23, Zuckerberg became the youngest self-made billionaire in history, with Facebook rapidly spreading across college campuses nationwide.
Unlike previous business titans who inherited wealth or spent decades building companies, Zuckerberg created his billion-dollar enterprise as a college student coding a social network.
His swift ascent from psychology major to tech mogul drew intense public scrutiny, as he retained majority ownership of Facebook.
Mark Zuckerberg built Facebook into a global power, amassing unprecedented control over billions of users' personal data.
This influence brought scrutiny, particularly regarding privacy protection.
In 2018, Facebook admitted that Cambridge Analytica had extracted personal data from 87 million users without permission.
The company had concealed this breach for two years.
Facing congressional hearings, Zuckerberg struggled to justify Facebook's data security practices and delayed disclosure.
By 2010, Facebook connected 500 million users worldwide, yet its founder Mark Zuckerberg was just 26.
The Social Network, directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin, transformed this seemingly dry Silicon Valley story into gripping drama.
Jesse Eisenberg portrayed Zuckerberg as a brilliant but ruthless founder, navigating betrayals and lawsuits from former Harvard classmates.
The film earned critical praise for its sharp direction and performances, though Zuckerberg dismissed it as mostly fiction, claiming only 40% accuracy.
In 2015, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan pledged to give away 99% of their Facebook shares, worth $45 billion, through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI).
This commitment surpassed the Giving Pledge they had signed in 2010 alongside Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
CZI focuses on health, education, and scientific research.
The organization funds researchers at universities and nonprofits to tackle specific challenges: disease prevention, personalized learning, and social inequality.
In 2012, Facebook dominated social media with over 1 billion users.
Mark Zuckerberg then pursued an expansion strategy focused on buying rising competitors.
In 2013, he offered $3 billion to purchase Snapchat, a messaging app popular with teenagers for its disappearing photos.
Snapchat's leadership rejected the offer.
While Facebook successfully acquired Instagram, WhatsApp, and other platforms, Snapchat's refusal marked a turning point.
Government regulators began scrutinizing Facebook's market power, particularly its ability to control digital communication through acquisitions.
Zuckerberg maintained these purchases aimed to improve services for users.
However, critics warned about concentrating vast amounts of user data and advertising influence under one company's control.
By 2017, Facebook connected over 2 billion users globally, including 18 million in Myanmar—one-third of the country's population.
While Zuckerberg promoted this reach as community empowerment, the platform enabled deadly consequences in Myanmar.
UN investigators found that Facebook accelerated violence against Rohingya Muslims through unchecked hate speech.
Despite warnings from human rights groups, Facebook failed to hire enough Burmese-speaking moderators or implement effective content monitoring.
Meanwhile, posts calling for violence against Rohingyas spread rapidly as villages burned and families fled.
Zuckerberg initially downplayed Facebook's role, prioritizing market growth over safety.
Only after international criticism mounted did he apologize and promise more moderators and improved AI filtering.
Human rights activists called these measures inadequate and too late, as thousands had already died in what the UN termed genocide.
By 2022, Mark Zuckerberg had spent 18 years building Facebook from a college website into a trillion-dollar company.
When Zuckerberg started training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu that year, it marked an unexpected shift.
His coach revealed he had already trained for two years, drilling techniques between running one of the world's largest companies.
This athletic pursuit stood far from his familiar territory of coding and board meetings.
Now at 38, he spent hours practicing arm bars and choke holds.
Zuckerberg described BJJ as mentally and physically demanding in ways distinct from software engineering.
The sport forced him to solve problems with his body, not just his mind.
On the mat, his wealth and status meant nothing—only technique and dedication mattered.
In 2021, Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook as Meta and championed virtual reality, seeking distance from years of controversy over privacy breaches and misinformation on his platforms.
Internal documents leaked in 2022 revealed a deeper problem: Instagram's algorithms promoted content that harmed teenage users' mental health and body image.
Data showed increased rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts among young people using the app.
Instagram chief Adam Mosseri and company researchers proposed reducing emphasis on likes, follower counts, and appearance-focused content.
Zuckerberg rejected these safeguards, prioritizing user engagement metrics over mental health concerns.
This decision sparked fresh outrage among lawmakers and the public.
Meta's stock value dropped while user growth slowed.
Critics questioned whether Zuckerberg, once praised for understanding user needs, could balance profit motives with ethical leadership.
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