1. Mark Elliot Zuckerberg is an American businessman who co-founded the social media service Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms, of which he is the chairman, chief executive officer, and controlling shareholder.
77 Facts About Mark Zuckerberg
1. 2.
Mark Zuckerberg briefly attended Harvard College, where he launched Facebook in February 2004 with his roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.
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Mark Zuckerberg took the company public in May 2012 with majority shares.
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Mark Zuckerberg became the world's youngest self-made billionaire in 2008, at age 23, and has consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest individuals.
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Mark Zuckerberg has used his funds to organize multiple large donations, including the establishment of the Chan Mark Zuckerberg Initiative.
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Mark Elliot Zuckerberg was born on May 14,1984, in White Plains, New York, to psychiatrist Karen and dentist Edward Zuckerberg.
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Mark Zuckerberg initially attended Ardsley High School before transferring to Phillips Exeter Academy.
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The New Yorker noted that by the time Mark Zuckerberg began classes at Harvard in 2002, he had already achieved a "reputation as a programming prodigy".
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Mark Zuckerberg studied psychology and computer science, resided in Kirkland House, and belonged to Alpha Epsilon Pi.
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Mark Zuckerberg apologized publicly, and the student paper ran articles stating that his site was "completely improper".
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In January 2004, Mark Zuckerberg began writing code for a new website.
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On February 4,2004, Mark Zuckerberg launched "Thefacebook", originally located at thefacebook.
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An earlier inspiration for Facebook may have come from Phillips Exeter Academy, the prep school from which Mark Zuckerberg graduated in 2002.
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Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook started off as just a "Harvard thing" until he decided to spread it to other schools, enlisting the help of roommate and co-founder Dustin Moskovitz.
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Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard in his sophomore year in order to complete the project.
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On July 21,2010, Zuckerberg reported that Facebook had reached the 500-million-user mark.
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In 2010, Steven Levy, who wrote the 1984 book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, wrote that Mark Zuckerberg "clearly thinks of himself as a hacker".
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Mark Zuckerberg said that "it's OK to break things" "to make them better".
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Mark Zuckerberg provided music, food, and beer at the hackathons, and many Facebook staff members, including Zuckerberg, regularly attended.
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In 2007, Mark Zuckerberg was added to MIT Technology Review's TR35 list as one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35.
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Mark Zuckerberg ranked number 23 on the Vanity Fair 100 list in 2009.
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In 2010, Mark Zuckerberg was chosen as number 16 in New Statesmans annual survey of the world's 50 most influential figures.
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On October 1,2012, Zuckerberg met with then Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow to stimulate social media innovation in Russia and to boost Facebook's position in the Russian market.
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Mark Zuckerberg then explained that this is intertwined with the aim of the Internet.
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Mark Zuckerberg was the keynote speaker at the 2014 Mobile World Congress, held in Barcelona, Spain, in March 2014, which was attended by 75,000 delegates.
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Various media sources highlighted the connection between Facebook's focus on mobile technology and Mark Zuckerberg's speech, stating that mobile represents the future of the company.
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Alongside other American technology figures such as Jeff Bezos and Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg hosted visiting Chinese politician Lu Wei, known as the "Internet czar" for his influence in the enforcement of China's online policy, at Facebook's headquarters on December 8,2014.
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On May 25,2017, at Harvard's 366th commencement day, Mark Zuckerberg, after giving a commencement speech, received an honorary degree from Harvard.
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In January 2019, Mark Zuckerberg laid plans to integrate an end-to-end encrypted system for three major social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
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The project faced significant opposition in India, where activists said its limited internet ran counter to the principle of net neutrality; Mark Zuckerberg responded by saying that a limited internet was better than no internet.
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Mark Zuckerberg is a board member of the solar sail spacecraft development project Breakthrough Starshot, which he co-founded with Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking in 2016.
32.
In June 2010, Paul Ceglia, the owner of a wood pellet fuel company in Allegany County, upstate New York, filed suit against Mark Zuckerberg, claiming 84 percent ownership of Facebook and seeking monetary damages.
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Mark Zuckerberg was developing other projects at the time, among which was Facemash, the predecessor to Facebook, but did not register the domain name thefacebook.
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Ceglia is accused of fabricating emails to make it appear that he and Mark Zuckerberg discussed details about an early version of Facebook, although after examining their emails, investigators found there was no mention of Facebook in them.
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In January 2017, Mark Zuckerberg filed eight "quiet title and partition" lawsuits against hundreds of native Hawaiians to claim small tracts of land that they owned within his acreage.
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Mark Zuckerberg responded to criticisms in a Facebook post, stating that the lawsuits were a good faith effort to pay the partial owners of the land their "fair share".
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Mark Zuckerberg stated that he regretted not taking the time to understand the process and its history before moving ahead.
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Mark Zuckerberg called the whole affair a breach of trust between Aleksandr Kogan, Cambridge Analytica, and Facebook.
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Mark Zuckerberg refused requests to appear to give evidence on the matter to a Parliamentary committee in the United Kingdom.
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On March 25,2021, Mark Zuckerberg testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee regarding Facebook's role in the spread of misinformation and hate speech on the platform.
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Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that Facebook had a responsibility to address these issues and outlined the steps that the company is taking to improve its policies and practices.
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Court documents allege that Mark Zuckerberg personally rejected Meta's proposals to improve teenagers' mental health.
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Mark Zuckerberg consistently opposed efforts to enhance well-being on Facebook and Instagram, overriding senior executives such as Instagram head Adam Mosseri and Global Affairs President Nick Clegg, as revealed in an ongoing lawsuit.
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In January 2011, Mark Zuckerberg made a surprise guest appearance on Saturday Night Live, which was hosted by Jesse Eisenberg.
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Eisenberg asked Mark Zuckerberg, who had been critical of his portrayal by the film, what he thought of the movie.
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Mark Zuckerberg likewise dismissed the film's assertion that he "would deliberately betray a friend".
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Mark Zuckerberg voiced himself on an episode of The Simpsons titled "Loan-a Lisa", which first aired on October 3,2010.
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Mark Zuckerberg tells Lisa that she does not need to graduate from college to be wildly successful, referencing Bill Gates and Richard Branson as examples.
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Mark Zuckerberg appeared in the climax of 2013 documentary film Terms and Conditions May Apply.
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In 2002, Mark Zuckerberg registered to vote in Westchester County, New York, where he grew up, but did not cast a ballot until November 2008.
51.
Mark Zuckerberg has never revealed his own political affiliation or voting history.
52.
In February 2013, Mark Zuckerberg hosted his first ever fundraising event for then New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
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Later that year, Mark Zuckerberg hosted a campaign fundraiser for then Newark mayor Cory Booker, who was running in the 2013 New Jersey special Senate election.
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In December 2012, Mark Zuckerberg donated 18 million shares to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a community organization that includes education in its list of grant-making areas.
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In June 2013, Mark Zuckerberg joined Facebook employees in a company float as part of the annual San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Celebration.
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Mark Zuckerberg first participated in the event in 2011, with 70 employees, and this number increased to 700 for the 2013 march.
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When questioned about the mid-2013 PRISM scandal at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in September 2013, Mark Zuckerberg stated that the US government "blew it".
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Mark Zuckerberg further explained that the government performed poorly in regard to the protection of the freedoms of its citizens, the economy, and companies.
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Mark Zuckerberg placed a statement on his Facebook wall on December 9,2015, which said that he wants "to add my voice in support of Muslims in our community and around the world" in response to the aftermath of the November 2015 Paris attacks and the 2015 San Bernardino attack.
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On February 24,2016, Mark Zuckerberg sent out a company-wide internal memo to employees formally rebuking employees who had crossed out handwritten "Black Lives Matter" phrases on the company walls and had written "All Lives Matter" in their place.
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Mark Zuckerberg said in the memo that he would be launching investigations into the incidents.
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In January 2017, Mark Zuckerberg criticized Donald Trump's executive order to severely limit immigrants and refugees from some countries.
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Mark Zuckerberg funded a state-level ballot initiative for the 2020 general election that would raise taxes by altering California's Proposition 13 to require the tax assessment of commercial and industrial properties in the state at market rate.
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Especially in his twenties, Mark Zuckerberg had financially supported various progressive causes such as immigration reform and social justice.
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Mark Zuckerberg noted he no longer intends to donate towards election infrastructure; Republicans had seen those contributions as non-neutral, labeling them "Zuckerbucks".
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Mark Zuckerberg met fellow Harvard student Priscilla Chan at a frat party during his sophomore year.
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Mark Zuckerberg revealed in July 2015 that they were expecting a baby girl and that Chan had previously experienced three miscarriages.
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Mark Zuckerberg commissioned the visual artist Daniel Arsham to build a 7-foot-tall sculpture of his wife, which was unveiled in 2024.
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Mark Zuckerberg was named the Time Person of the Year in 2010, the same year when Facebook eclipsed more than half a billion users.
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Mark Zuckerberg was included in the Time 100 AI list in 2024.
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In December 2016, Mark Zuckerberg was ranked tenth on the Forbes list of the World's Most Powerful People.
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In 2017, Mark Zuckerberg called for action to stop global warming in a commencement speech at Harvard University.
73.
Originally known wearing the same gray shirt and jeans in most public appearances, Mark Zuckerberg started wearing gold chains and trendier streetwear.
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Mark Zuckerberg met with farmers and business owners, and spoke at Mother Emanuel, where a shooting took place in 2015.
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In 2022, Mark Zuckerberg took up training in both mixed martial arts and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and has been open about his love for the two sports.
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Mark Zuckerberg competed in a BJJ tournament on May 6,2023, and won both a silver and gold medal in gi and no gi, competing at white belt.
77.
Four months later, Mark Zuckerberg announced that he was preparing to make his MMA debut but had suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury in training that required surgery and had delayed this.