Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (/ˈzʌkərbɜːrɡ/; born May 14, 1984) is an American businessman who co-founded the social media serviceFacebook and its parent companyMeta Platforms, of which he is the chairman, chief executive officer, and controlling shareholder. Zuckerberg has been the subject of multiple lawsuits regarding the creation and ownership of the website as well as issues such as user privacy.
Zuckerberg has used his funds to organize multiple large donations, including the establishment of theChan Zuckerberg Initiative. A film depicting Zuckerberg's early career, legal troubles and initial success with Facebook,The Social Network, was released in 2010 and won multipleAcademy Awards. His prominence and fast rise in the technology industry has prompted political and legal attention.
Zuckerberg learned computer programming in his childhood. At about the age of eleven, he created "ZuckNet", a program that allowed computers at the family home and his father's dental office to communicate with each other.[10] During Zuckerberg's high-school years, he worked to build a music player called the Synapse Media Player. The device usedmachine learning to learn the user's listening habits, which was posted toSlashdot[11] and received a rating of 3 out of 5 fromPC Magazine.[12]The New Yorker once said of Zuckerberg, "some kids played computer games. Mark created them."[6] While still in high school, he attendedMercy College taking a graduate computer course on Thursday evenings.[6]
College years
The New Yorker noted that by the time Zuckerberg began classes atHarvard in 2002, he had already achieved a "reputation as a programming prodigy".[6] He studiedpsychology andcomputer science,[13] resided inKirkland House,[14] and belonged toAlpha Epsilon Pi.[6] In his second year, he wrote a program that he called CourseMatch, which allowed users to make class selection decisions based on the choices of other students and help them form study groups.[15] Later, he created a different program he initially calledFacemash that let students select the best-looking person from a choice of photos. Arie Hasit, Zuckerberg's roommate at the time, explained:
We had books called "Face Books", which included the names and pictures of everyone who lived in the student dorms. At first, he built a site and placed two pictures, or pictures of two males and two females. Visitors to the site had to choose who was "hotter" and according to the votes there would be a ranking.[16]
The site went up over a weekend, but by Monday morning, the college shut it down, because its popularity had overwhelmed one of Harvard'snetwork switches, preventing students from accessing the Internet.[17] In addition, many students complained that their photos were being used without permission. Zuckerberg apologized publicly, and the student paper ran articles stating that his site was "completely improper".[16]
In January 2004, Zuckerberg began writing code for a new website.[19] On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched "Thefacebook", originally located at thefacebook.com, in partnership with his roommatesEduardo Saverin,Andrew McCollum,Dustin Moskovitz, andChris Hughes.[20][21] An earlier inspiration for Facebook may have come fromPhillips Exeter Academy, the prep school from which Zuckerberg graduated in 2002. It published its own student directory, "The Photo Address Book", which students referred to as "The Facebook". Such photo directories were an important part of the student social experience at many private schools. With them, students were able to list attributes such as their class years, their friends, and their telephone numbers.[21]
Zuckerberg in 2005
Six days after the site launched, three Harvard seniors,Cameron Winklevoss,Tyler Winklevoss, andDivya Narendra, accused Zuckerberg of intentionally misleading them into believing that he would help them build a social network calledHarvardConnection.com, when he was using their ideas to build a competing product.[22] The three complained toThe Harvard Crimson, and the newspaper began an investigation in response. While Zuckerberg tried to convince the editors not to run the story,[23] he also broke into two of the editors' email accounts—for which he made use of their private login data logs from TheFacebook.[24][25]
Following the official launch of the Facebook social media platform, the three filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg that resulted in a settlement.[26] The agreed settlement was for 1.2 million Facebook shares and $20 million in cash.[27]
Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard in his sophomore year in order to complete the project.[30] Zuckerberg, Moskovitz and the other co-founders moved toPalo Alto, California, where they leased a small house that served as an office. Over the summer, Zuckerberg metPeter Thiel, who invested in his company. They got their first office in mid-2004. According to Zuckerberg, the group planned to return to Harvard, but eventually decided to remain in California, where Zuckerberg appreciated the "mythical place" ofSilicon Valley, the center of computer technology in California.[31][32] They had already turned down offers by major corporations to buy the company. In an interview in 2007, Zuckerberg explained his reasoning: "It's not because of the amount of money. For me and my colleagues, the most important thing is that we create an open information flow for people. Having media corporations owned byconglomerates is just not an attractive idea to me."[33] The same year, speaking atY Combinator'sStartup School course atStanford University, Zuckerberg made acontroversial assertion that "young people are just smarter" and that other entrepreneurs should bias towards hiring young people.[34]
Zuckerberg restated these goals toWired magazine in 2010, "The thing I really care about is the mission, making the world open."[35] Earlier, in April 2009, Zuckerberg had sought the advice of formerNetscape CFOPeter Currie regarding financing strategies for Facebook.[36] On July 21, 2010, Zuckerberg reported that Facebook had reached the 500-million-user mark.[37] When asked whether Facebook could earn more income from advertising as a result of its phenomenal growth, he explained:
I guess we could ... If you look at how much of our page is taken up with ads compared to the averagesearch query. The average for us is a little less than 10 percent of the pages and the average for search is about 20 percent taken up with ads ... That's the simplest thing we could do. But we aren't like that. We make enough money. Right, I mean, we are keeping things running; we are growing at the rate we want to.[35]
In 2010,Steven Levy, who wrote the 1984 bookHackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, wrote that Zuckerberg "clearly thinks of himself as ahacker". Zuckerberg said that "it's OK to break things" "to make them better".[38][39] Facebook instituted "hackathons" held every six to eight weeks where participants would have one night to conceive of and complete a project.[38] The company provided music, food, and beer at the hackathons, and many Facebook staff members, including Zuckerberg, regularly attended.[39] "The idea is that you can build something really good in a night", Zuckerberg told Levy. "And that's part of the personality of Facebook now ... It's definitely very core to my personality."[38]
In 2007, Zuckerberg was added toMIT Technology Review'sTR35 list as one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35.[40]Vanity Fair magazine named Zuckerberg number 1 on its 2010 list of the Top 100 "most influential people of theInformation Age".[41] Zuckerberg ranked number 23 on theVanity Fair 100 list in 2009.[42] In 2010, Zuckerberg was chosen as number 16 inNew Statesman's annual survey of the world's 50 most influential figures.[43]
In a 2011 interview withPBS shortly after the death ofSteve Jobs, Zuckerberg said that Jobs had advised him on how to create a management team at Facebook that was "focused on building as high quality and good things as you are".[44]
Zuckerberg and Russian Prime MinisterDmitry Medvedev during their meeting at the Russian leader's residence outside Moscow, October 1, 2012
On October 1, 2012, Zuckerberg met with then Russian Prime MinisterDmitry Medvedev in Moscow to stimulate social media innovation in Russia and to boost Facebook's position in the Russian market.[45][46] Russia's communications minister tweeted that Medvedev persuaded Zuckerberg to open a research center in Moscow instead of trying to lure away Russian programmers. In 2012, Facebook had roughly 9 million users in Russia, while domestic cloneVK had around 34 million.[47][48] Rebecca Van Dyck, Facebook's head of consumer marketing, said that 85 million American Facebook users were exposed to the first day of the Home promotional campaign on April 6, 2013.[49]
On August 19, 2013,The Washington Post reported that Zuckerberg's Facebook profile was hacked by an unemployed web developer.[50]
At the 2013TechCrunch Disrupt conference, held in September, Zuckerberg stated that he was working towards registering the 5 billion people who were not connected to the Internet as of the conference on Facebook. Zuckerberg then explained that this is intertwined with the aim of theInternet.org project, whereby Facebook, with the support of other technology companies, seeks to increase the number of people connected to the internet.[51][52]
Zuckerberg was the keynote speaker at the 2014Mobile World Congress (MWC), held inBarcelona, Spain, in March 2014, which was attended by 75,000 delegates. Various media sources highlighted the connection between Facebook's focus on mobile technology and Zuckerberg's speech, stating that mobile represents the future of the company.[53] Zuckerberg's speech expands upon the goal that he raised at theTechCrunch conference in September 2013, whereby he is working towards expanding Internet coverage into developing countries.[54]
Alongside other American technology figures such as Jeff Bezos andTim Cook, Zuckerberg hosted visiting Chinese politicianLu 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. The meeting occurred after Zuckerberg participated in a Q&A session atTsinghua University in Beijing, China, on October 23, 2014, where he conversed inMandarin Chinese; although Facebook is banned in China, Zuckerberg is highly regarded among the people and was at the university to help fuel the nation's burgeoning entrepreneur sector.[55]
Zuckerberg fielded questions during a live Q&A session at the company's headquarters inMenlo Park on December 11, 2014. The founder and CEO explained that he does not believe Facebook is a waste of time, because it facilitates social engagement, and participating in a public session was so that he could "learn how to better serve the community".[56][57]
Zuckerberg receives aone-dollar salary as CEO of Facebook.[58] In June 2016,Business Insider named Zuckerberg one of the "Top 10 Business Visionaries Creating Value for the World" along with Elon Musk andSal Khan, due to the fact that he and his wife "pledged to give away 99% of their wealth-then estimated at $55.0 billion".[59]
On May 25, 2017, at Harvard's 366th commencement day, Zuckerberg, after giving acommencement speech,[60] received an honorary degree from Harvard.[61][62]
In January 2019, Zuckerberg laid plans to integrate anend-to-end encrypted system for three major social media platforms, including Facebook,Instagram andWhatsApp.[63] On August 14, 2020, Facebook integrated the chat systems for Instagram and Messenger on both iOS and Android devices. The update encouraged cross-communication between Instagram and Facebook users.[64]
A month after Zuckerberg launched Facebook in February 2004,i2hub, another campus-only service, created byWayne Chang and focusing onpeer-to-peer file sharing, was launched. At the time, both i2hub and Facebook were gaining the attention of the press and growing rapidly in users and publicity. In August 2004, Zuckerberg, Andrew McCollum,Adam D'Angelo, andSean Parker launched a competing peer-to-peer file sharing service calledWirehog, a precursor toFacebook Platform applications, which was launched in 2007.[65][66][67]
In 2013, Zuckerberg launchedInternet.org, which he described as an initiative to provide Internet access to the five billion people without it as of the launch date. The project faced significant opposition in India, where activists said its limited internet ran counter to the principle ofnet neutrality; Zuckerberg responded by saying that a limited internet was better than no internet. Internet.org was shut down in India in February 2016, although Zuckerberg later met with Indian Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to discuss further possibilities.[68][69]
Harvard studentsCameron Winklevoss,Tyler Winklevoss, andDivya Narendra accused Zuckerberg of intentionally making them believe he would help them build a social network called HarvardConnection.com (later calledConnectU).[22] They filed a lawsuit in 2004; it was dismissed on a technicality on March 28, 2007. It was refiled soon thereafter in afederal court inBoston. Facebook countersued in regards to Social Butterfly, a project put out byThe Winklevoss Chang Group, an alleged partnership between ConnectU andi2hub. On June 25, 2008, the case settled and Facebook agreed to transfer over 1.2 million common shares and pay $20 million in cash.[71]
In November 2007, confidential court documents were posted on the website of02138, a magazine that catered to Harvard alumni. They included Zuckerberg's Social Security number, his parents' home address, and his girlfriend's address. Although Facebook filed to have the documents removed, the judge ruled in favor of02138.[72]
In 2005, Facebook co-founderEduardo Saverin filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg and Facebook, alleging that Zuckerberg had illegally spent Saverin's money on personal expenses. The lawsuit was settled out of court and, although terms of the settlement were sealed, the company affirmed Saverin's title as co-founder of Facebook, and Saverin agreed to stop talking to the press.[73][74]
Pakistan criminal investigation
In June 2010, then Pakistani Deputy Attorney General Muhammad Azhar Sidiqque launched a criminal investigation into Zuckerberg and Facebook co-foundersDustin Moskovitz andChris Hughes after a "Draw Muhammad" contest was hosted on Facebook. The investigation also named the anonymous German woman who created the contest. Sidiqque asked the country's police to contactInterpol to have Zuckerberg and the three others arrested forblasphemy. On May 19, 2010, Facebook's website was temporarily blocked in Pakistan until Facebook removed the contest from its website at the end of May. Sidiqque also asked its UN representative to raise the issue with theUnited Nations General Assembly.[75][76]
In June 2010, Paul Ceglia, the owner of a woodpellet fuel company inAllegany County, upstate New York, filed suit against Zuckerberg, claiming 84 percent ownership of Facebook and seeking monetary damages. According to Ceglia, he and Zuckerberg signed a contract on April 28, 2003, that an initial fee of $1,000 entitled Ceglia to 50% of the website's revenue, as well as an additional 1% interest in the business per day after January 1, 2004, until website completion. Zuckerberg was developing other projects at the time, among which wasFacemash, the predecessor to Facebook, but did not register the domain namethefacebook.com until January 1, 2004. The Facebook management dismissed the lawsuit as "completely frivolous". Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt told a reporter that Ceglia's counsel had unsuccessfully sought an out-of-court settlement.[77][78]
On October 26, 2012, federal authorities arrested Ceglia, charging him with mail and wire fraud and of "tampering with, destroying and fabricating evidence in a scheme to defraud the Facebook founder of billions of dollars". Ceglia is accused of fabricating emails to make it appear that he and Zuckerberg discussed details about an early version of Facebook, although after examining their emails, investigators found there was no mention of Facebook in them.[79] Some law firms withdrew from the case before it was initiated and others after Ceglia's arrest.[80][81]
Hawaiian land ownership
In 2014, Zuckerberg purchased 700 acres of land on the Hawaiian island ofKauaʻi. In January 2017, Zuckerberg filed eight "quiet title andpartition" lawsuits against hundreds ofnative Hawaiians to claim small tracts of land that they owned within his acreage.[82] Zuckerberg responded to criticisms in aFacebook post, stating that the lawsuits were a good faith effort to pay the partial owners of the land their "fair share".[82] When he learned that Hawaiianland ownership law differs from that of the other 49 states, he dropped the lawsuits. Zuckerberg stated that he regretted not taking the time to understand the process and its history before moving ahead.[83][84]
On March 25, 2021, Zuckerberg testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee regarding Facebook's role in the spread of misinformation and hate speech on the platform. During the hearing, he was questioned about Facebook's handling of user data, its role in theJanuary 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol Building, and its efforts to combat misinformation and hate speech. 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. The hearing was part of a broader effort by Congress to hold tech companies accountable for their role in shaping public discourse and protecting user privacy.[90]
In a January 2024Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on child safety and social media platforms, Zuckerberg, along with other tech CEOs, were questioned about their companies' practices. During the hearing, he apologized to the families of children who were victims of online abuse and harm.[91][92]
Meta's proposal
Court documents allege that Zuckerberg personally rejected Meta's proposals to improve teenagers' mental health. He consistently opposed efforts to enhance well-being on Facebook and Instagram, overriding senior executives such as Instagram headAdam Mosseri and Global Affairs PresidentNick Clegg, as revealed in an ongoing lawsuit. Internal communications disclosed in the Massachusetts-initiated legal action depict Zuckerberg's resistance to better protect over 30 million teens on Instagram in the U.S., highlighting his substantial influence on Meta's decisions impacting billions of users. These documents also shed light on occasional tensions between Zuckerberg and other Meta officials advocating for improved user well-being.[93]
A movie based on Zuckerberg and the founding years of Facebook,The Social Network, was released on October 1, 2010, starringJesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg. After Zuckerberg was told about the film, he responded, "I just wished that nobody made a movie of me while I was still alive."[94] Also, after the film's script was leaked on the Internet and it was apparent that the film would not portray Zuckerberg in a wholly positive light, he stated that he wanted to establish himself as a "good guy".[95] The film is based on the bookThe Accidental Billionaires byBen Mezrich, which the book's publicist once described as "big juicy fun" rather than "reportage".[96] The film's screenwriterAaron Sorkin toldNew York magazine, "I don't want my fidelity to be the truth; I want it to be storytelling", adding, "What is the big deal about accuracy purely for accuracy's sake, and can we not have the true be the enemy of the good?".[97]
Upon winning theGolden Globe Award for Best Picture on January 16, 2011, producerScott Rudin thanked Facebook and Zuckerberg "for his willingness to allow us to use his life and work as ametaphor through which to tell a story about communication and the way we relate to each other".[98] Sorkin, who won for Best Screenplay, retracted some of the impressions given in his script:[99]
I wanted to say to Mark Zuckerberg tonight, if you're watching,Rooney Mara's character makes a prediction at the beginning of the movie. She was wrong. You turned out to be a great entrepreneur, a visionary, and an incredible altruist.
In January 2011, Zuckerberg made a surprise guest appearance onSaturday Night Live, which was hosted by Jesse Eisenberg. They both said it was the first time they had met.[100] Eisenberg asked Zuckerberg, who had been critical of his portrayal by the film, what he thought of the movie. Zuckerberg replied, "It was interesting."[101] In a subsequent interview about their meeting, Eisenberg explained that he was "nervous to meet him, because I had spent now, a year and a half thinking about him ...". He added, "Mark has been so gracious about something that's really so uncomfortable ... The fact that he would doSNL and make fun of the situation is so sweet and so generous. It's the best possible way to handle something that, I think, could otherwise be very uncomfortable."[102][103]
Disputed accuracy
According toDavid Kirkpatrick, former technology editor atFortune magazine and author ofThe Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company that is Connecting the World (2011),[104] "the film is only 40% true ... he is not snide and sarcastic in a cruel way, the way Zuckerberg is played in the movie." He says that "a lot of the factual incidents are accurate, but many are distorted and the overall impression is false", and concludes that primarily "his motivations were to try and come up with a new way to share information on the Internet".[105]
Although the film portrayed Zuckerberg's creation of Facebook in order to elevate his stature after not getting into any of the elitefinal clubs at Harvard, Zuckerberg stated that he had no interest in joining the clubs.[6] Kirkpatrick agreed that the impression implied by the film is "false". Karel Baloun, a former senior engineer at Facebook, noted that the "image of Zuckerberg as a socially inept nerd is overstated ... It is fiction ...". He likewise dismissed the film's assertion that he "would deliberately betray a friend".[105]
Other depictions
Zuckerberg voiced himself on an episode ofThe Simpsons titled "Loan-a Lisa", which first aired on October 3, 2010. In the episode,Lisa Simpson and her friend Nelson encounter Zuckerberg at an entrepreneurs' convention. Zuckerberg tells Lisa that she does not need to graduate from college to be wildly successful, referencingBill Gates andRichard Branson as examples.[106] On October 9, 2010,Saturday Night Live lampooned Zuckerberg and Facebook.[107]Andy Samberg portrayed the role of Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg himself was reported to have been amused, "I thought this was funny."[108]
Zuckerberg founded theStartup:Education foundation.[114] It was reported in September 2010 that he had donated $100 million toNewark Public Schools, the public school system ofNewark, New Jersey.[115][116] Critics noted the timing of the donation as being close to the release ofThe Social Network, which painted a somewhat negative portrait of Zuckerberg.[117] Zuckerberg responded to the criticism, saying, "The thing that I was most sensitive about with the movie timing was, I didn't want the press aboutThe Social Network movie to get conflated with the Newark project. I was thinking about doing this anonymously just so that the two things could be kept separate."[118] Newark MayorCory Booker stated that he and New Jersey GovernorChris Christie had to convince Zuckerberg's team not to make the donation anonymously.[118] The money was largely wasted, according to journalist Dale Russakoff.[119][120]
In 2010, Zuckerberg,Bill Gates, and investorWarren Buffett signedThe Giving Pledge, in which they said they would donate to charity at least half of their wealth over the course of time, and invited others among the wealthy to donate 50 percent or more of their wealth to charity.[121] In December 2012, Zuckerberg and his wifePriscilla Chan said that over the course of their lives they would give the majority of their wealth to "advancing human potential and promoting equality" in the spirit of The Giving Pledge.[122][123]
In December 2013, Zuckerberg announced a donation of 18 million Facebook shares to theSilicon Valley Community Foundation, to be executed by the end of the month—based on Facebook's valuation as of then, the shares totaled $990 million in value. Later that month, the donation was recognized as the largest charitable gift on public record for that year.[124]The Chronicle of Philanthropy placed Zuckerberg and his wife at the top of the magazine's annual list of 50 most generous Americans for 2013, having donated roughly $1 billion to charity.[125]
In October 2014, Zuckerberg and his wife donated $25 million to combat theEbola virus disease, specifically theWest African Ebola virus epidemic.[126][127] The couple endowed the foundation of theSan Francisco General Hospital in February 2015 with $75 million, which was the biggest individual donation to a U.S. public hospital. The hospital honored them by renaming itself as The Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center. Later in 2020, theSan Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a near-unanimous, non-binding measure condemning the renaming, citing concerns that a public hospital should not be named after an individual whose social media platform is accused of "endangering public health, spreading misinformation, and violating privacy".[128] On December 1, 2015, the couple pledged to transfer 99% of their Facebook shares, then valued at $45 billion, to theChan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI).[129] The funds would not be transferred immediately, but over the course of their lives.[130] Instead of forming a charitable corporation to donate the value of the stock to, asBill Gates,Warren Buffett,Larry Page,Sergey Brin and other billionaires have done, Zuckerberg and Chan chose to use the structure of alimited liability company (LLC). Some journalists and academics have said the CZI conductsphilanthrocapitalism.[131][132][133]
In 2016, CZI gave $600 million to create the tax-exempt charityChan Zuckerberg Biohub, a collaborative research space in San Francisco'sMission Bay district near theUniversity of California, San Francisco, with the intent to foster interaction and collaboration between scientists at UCSF,University of California, Berkeley, andStanford University. Intellectual property generated would be jointly owned by Biohub and the discoverer's home institution. Unlike foundations such as theBill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which open up all research funded to unrestricted access and reuse by the public, Biohub retained the right to commercialize any research it funds. Inventors will have the option of making their discoveries open-source, with permission from Biohub.[134][135][136] To increase access to scientific research and promote open science, CZ Biohub requires its investigators and staff scientists to publish submitted manuscripts and related data onpreprints servers such asbioRxiv.[137][138] Amidst theCOVID-19 pandemic, Zuckerberg announced $25 million in grants to support local journalism that was impacted by the pandemic and $75 million in advertisement purchases in local newspapers byFacebook, Inc., where Facebook would market itself.[139]
Politics
WithBarack Obama before a private meeting between Obama and technology business leaders in February 2011
In 2002, Zuckerberg registered to vote inWestchester County, New York, where he grew up, but did not cast a ballot until November 2008. ThenSanta Clara County Registrar of Voters Spokeswoman, Elma Rosas, told Bloomberg that Zuckerberg is listed as "no preference" on voter rolls, and he voted in at least two of the past three general elections, in2008 and2012.[140][141]
Zuckerberg has never revealed his own political affiliation or voting history. In February 2013, Zuckerberg hosted his first ever fundraising event for then New Jersey GovernorChris Christie. His particular interest on this occasion was education reform, and Christie's education reform work focused on teachers unions and the expansion of charter schools.[142][143] Later that year, Zuckerberg hosted a campaign fundraiser for then Newark mayorCory Booker, who was running in the2013 New Jersey special Senate election.[144] In September 2010, with the support of Governor Chris Christie, Booker obtained a US$100 million pledge from Zuckerberg toNewark Public Schools.[145] In December 2012, Zuckerberg donated 18 million shares to theSilicon Valley Community Foundation, a community organization that includes education in its list of grant-making areas.[146][147]
On April 11, 2013, Zuckerberg led the launch of a501(c)(4) lobbying group calledFWD.us. The founders and contributors to the group were primarily Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and investors, and its president wasJoe Green, a close friend of Zuckerberg.[148][149] The goals of the group includeimmigration reform, improving the state of education in the United States, and enabling more technological breakthroughs that benefit the public,[150][151] yet it has also been criticized for financing ads advocating a variety of oil and gas development initiatives, including drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Keystone XL pipeline.[152] In 2013, numerous liberal and progressive groups, such asThe League of Conservation Voters,MoveOn.org, theSierra Club,Democracy for America, CREDO,Daily Kos,350.org, and Presente and Progressives United agreed to either not buy or pull their Facebook ads for at least two weeks, in protest of ads funded by FWD.us that were in support of oil drilling and theKeystone XL pipeline, and in opposition toObamacare among Republican United States senators who back immigration reform.[153]
A media report on June 20, 2013, revealed that Zuckerberg actively engaged with Facebook users on his own profile page after the online publication of a FWD.us video. In response to a claim that the FWD.us organization is "just about tech wanting to hire more people", the Internet entrepreneur replied, "The bigger problem we're trying to address is ensuring the 11 million undocumented folks living in this country now and similar folks in the future are treated fairly."[154]
When questioned about the mid-2013PRISM scandal at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in September 2013, Zuckerberg stated that the U.S. government "blew it". He further explained that the government performed poorly in regard to the protection of the freedoms of its citizens, the economy, and companies.[51]
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 theaftermath of theNovember 2015 Paris attacks and the2015 San Bernardino attack.[157][158][159][160] The statement also said that Muslims are "always welcome" on Facebook, and that his position was a result of the fact that, "as a Jew, my parents taught me that we must stand up against attacks on all communities."[161][162]
On February 24, 2016, 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. Facebook allows employees to free-write thoughts and phrases on company walls. The memo was then leaked by several employees. As Zuckerberg had previously condemned this practice at previous company meetings, and other similar requests had been issued by other leaders at Facebook, Zuckerberg wrote in the memo that he would now consider this overwriting practice not only disrespectful, but "malicious as well". According to Zuckerberg's memo, "Black Lives Matter doesn't mean other lives don't – it's simply asking that the black community also achieves the justice they deserve." The memo also noted that the act of crossing something out in itself "means silencing speech, or that one person's speech is more important than another's". Zuckerberg also said in the memo that he would be launching investigations into the incidents.[163][164][165] TheNew York Daily News interviewed Facebook employees who commented anonymously that, "Zuckerberg was genuinely angry about the incident and it really encouraged staff that Zuckerberg showed a clear understanding of why the phrase 'Black Lives Matter' must exist, as well as why writing through it is a form of harassment and erasure."[163]
In January 2017, Zuckerberg criticizedDonald Trump'sexecutive order to severely limit immigrants and refugees from some countries.[166] He also funded a state-level ballot initiative for the2020 general election that would raise taxes by altering California'sProposition 13 to require the tax assessment of commercial and industrial properties in the state at market rate.[167]
Especially in his twenties, Zuckerberg had financially supported various progressive causes such as immigration reform and social justice. At least among Republicans, he was generally seen as pro-liberal. In an August 2024 letter to theHouse Judiciary Committee however, Zuckerberg stated he regretted not doing more to resist pressure from the Biden administration to censor content related toCOVID-19. He also noted he no longer intends to donate towards election infrastructure; Republicans had seen those contributions as non-neutral, labeling them "Zuckerbucks". By 2024, Zuckerberg was discouraging employee activism at Facebook, and according toThe New York Times, had privately described his politics as leaning towardslibertarianism orclassical liberalism.[168][169][170][171]
With then PresidentDonald Trump at the White House in September 2019
In Donald Trump's bookSave America, published in September 2024, Trump described Zuckerberg's visits to the White House and wrote "We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison — as will others who cheat in the2024 Presidential Election."[172] Two months later, they dined at theMar-a-Lago resort, with Zuckerberg aiming to mend his and his firm's relationship with Trump after the latter won the election.[173] Around the same time, Meta reportedly donated $1 million to a Trump-related fund.[174] In January 2025, he said: "We now have a U.S. administration that is proud of our leading companies, prioritizes American technology winning and that will defend our values and interests abroad."[175] Zuckerberg was one of a handful of technology leaders positioned prominently at Trump's inauguration. In March 2025, Zuckerberg attempted to leverage his relationship with the Trump administration to get a favorable settlement in anantitrust case where theFederal Trade Commission (FTC) was asking for $30 billion.[176]
Zuckerberg met fellowHarvard studentPriscilla Chan at a frat party during his sophomore year. They began dating in 2003.[177] In September 2010, Chan, who was a medical student at theUniversity of California, San Francisco at the time,[178] moved into his rented house inPalo Alto, California.[179][180] They married on May 19, 2012, in the grounds of his mansion in an event that also celebrated her graduation from medical school.[181][182] Zuckerberg revealed in July 2015 that they were expecting a baby girl and that Chan had previously experienced three miscarriages.[183] Their first daughter was born in December 2015.[184] They announced in aChinese New Year video that their daughter's Chinese name is Chen Mingyu (Chinese:陈明宇).[185] Their second daughter was born in August 2017.[186] Zuckerberg and his wife welcomed their third daughter in March 2023 and announced the news across his social media pages.[187] The couple also have aPuli dog named Beast,[188] who has over two million followers on Facebook.[189] Zuckerberg commissioned the visual artistDaniel Arsham to build a 7-foot-tall sculpture of his wife, which was unveiled in 2024.[190]
Recognition and public image
Time named Zuckerbergone of the most influential people in the world in 2008, 2011, 2016, 2019 and 2025, and nominated him as a finalist several other times. He was named theTime Person of the Year in 2010, the same year when Facebook eclipsed more than half a billion users.[191] He was also included in theTime 100 AI list in 2024.[192] In December 2016, Zuckerberg was ranked tenth on theForbes list of the World's Most Powerful People.[193] In theForbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans in 2023, he was ranked eighth with a personal wealth of $106 billion.[194] In October 2024, he became the second richest person in the world.[195][196] As of December 2024[update], Zuckerberg's net worth was estimated at $219 billion byForbes, making him the fourth richest person in the world.[197]
In 2017, Zuckerberg called for action to stopglobal warming in a commencement speech atHarvard University.[198] Seven years later, he purchased the mega-yachtLaunchpad (formerlyProject 1010) for $300 million.[199] That same year, he put the yacht into operation; it emits 40 tons ofcarbon dioxide per hour.[200][198]
Zuckerberg shifted his style in 2024.[201][202] Originally known wearing the same gray shirt and jeans in most public appearances, Zuckerberg started wearing gold chains and trendier streetwear.[203][204][205] Writing forVanity Fair, Kase Wickman described Zuckerberg's "new look" as a "MAGA rebrand", claiming that his change in fashion parallels Meta's efforts to appease the Trump administration.[206] Zuckerberg denied hiring a stylist.[207]
Religious beliefs and other interests
Born and raised in a Reform Jewish household, Zuckerberg later identified himself as an atheist. However, he said in 2016 that, "I went through a period where I questioned things, but now I believe religion is very important."[8][208][209] In 2017, he and his wife began a nationwide tour "to visit every state in the union and learn more about a sliver of the nearly two billion people who regularly use the social network". He met with farmers and business owners, and spoke atMother Emanuel, wherea shooting took place in 2015.[210][211]
In 2022, Zuckerberg took up training in bothmixed martial arts (MMA) andBrazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ), and has been open about his love for the two sports.[212] He competed in a BJJ tournament on May 6, 2023, and won both a silver and gold medal ingi and no gi, competing at white belt.[213] In July 2023, he was promoted toblue belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu by Dave Camarillo.[214] Four months later, Zuckerberg announced that he was preparing to make his MMA debut but had suffered ananterior cruciate ligament injury in training that required surgery and had delayed this.[215]
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^Dreier, Troy (February 8, 2005)."Synapse Media Player Review".PC Magazine.Archived from the original on September 16, 2010. RetrievedSeptember 3, 2010.
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^MacMillan, Robert (April 1, 2009)."Yu, Zuckerberg and the Facebook fallout". Reuters. Archived fromthe original on April 3, 2009. RetrievedMarch 26, 2013.In a back-to-the-future move, former Netscape CFO Peter Currie will be the key adviser to Facebook about financial matters, until a new search for a CFO is found, sources said.
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^"Facebook, Inc. Proxy Statement". United States Security and Exchange Commission. April 26, 2013. p. 31.Archived from the original on June 23, 2014. RetrievedMarch 30, 2014.On January 1, 2013, Mr. Zuckerberg's annual base salary was reduced to $1 and he will no longer receive annual bonus compensation under our Bonus Plan.
^Kell, John (February 8, 2016)."Mark Zuckerberg Reveals Daughter's Chinese Name".Fortune.Archived from the original on March 6, 2021. RetrievedFebruary 29, 2016.In a pretty adorable video shared by the tech executive over the weekend, Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan said their daughter Max's Chinese name is Chen Mingyu.
^Bachstein, Andrea (July 13, 2024)."Käpt'n Zuckerberg und seine Gigajacht" [Captain Zuckerberg and his Gigayacht].Tages-Anzeiger (in German). RetrievedNovember 5, 2024.
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