Facebook

:You can find a RationalWiki page and a RationalWiki group on Facebook; see Fun:RationalWiki Facebook for a description of the latter
thumb|Facebook has horrible ads that claim your friends have a crush on you. How yuk is that?
Facebook (or Meta as it is known post-2021 to avoid negative feelings associated with the old name) is a social media platform and stalking tool for approximately everyone in the bloody world who has regular access to the internet. It started in 2004 as a special elite website for students at Harvard, where its founder Mark Zuckerberg was studying at the time. It gradually expanded to other educational establishments through 2005 before welcoming the uneducated masses in 2006.A brief history of Facebook, The Guardian, July 25, 2007
It reached peak popularity with the addition of online gaming, notably the 2009 launch of FarmVille, an espionage toolFacebook in Privacy Breach: Top-Ranked Applications Transmit Personal IDs, a Journal Investigation Finds by Emily Steel & Geoffrey A. Fowler (Updated Oct. 18, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET) The Wall Street Journal. that filled up everybody's feeds with stuff about wheat. FarmVille incurred the wrath of white nationalist Oscar Yeager, owner of the blog "Day of the Rope" (both names are references to books by William Luther Pierce), as eggs laid by black chickens are worth more points than those laid by white chickens. Or, as Yeager put it, eggs laid by "nigger chickens" are worth more than eggs laid by "Aryan chickens".http://fstdt.net/QuoteComment.aspx?QID=75302 But that was just the start of it.
Since all the yoof moved to Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok, Facebook is 90% occupied by elderlies posting antivax screeds interspersed with a ton of advertising for everything from your neighbor's old bicycle on Facebook Marketplace to right-wing political propaganda. The remaining 10% of Facebook is occupied by employees of eastern European and Russian goading the elderlies into yelling at each other by posting propaganda that sows racial and religious discord."Troll farms reached 140 million Americans a month on Facebook before 2020 election, internal report shows" by Karen Hao, MIT Technology Review, 2021 September 16
==Privacy==
Facebook often receives a shitstorm of attention regarding its "privacy" settings, which people are generally too stupid to use; they're actually quite powerful and useful, from being able to easily restrict what you share with certain friends to sending you a one-time password via text message if you're using an unsecured connection that you don't trust. The privacy controversy really developed in November 2007, when the staff launched Facebook Beacon, in which Facebook's partner e-commerce websites, including eBay and Travelocity, provided the site with news of all your purchases (the partner websites knowing you are on Facebook because you have cookies from the site stored on your browser disclosing your identity to these other websites). Incredibly, Facebook then broadcast news of every purchase you made off-site to all of your "friends", initially without even requiring the user to first opt-in to Beacon. Needless to say, a public outcry rapidly arose over this practice, and Beacon's "opt-out" status was quickly reversed. Facebook's integration with other websites has continued to be relentless, but it's mostly less creepy, and mostly used by social-media nerds.
Although Facebook is no longer the most popular site among young people, it's still a site where people of all ages can inadvertently publish their interests, foibles and deranged conspiracy theories, whether it's students adding their boss as a friend while they still have a profile picture of them being a drunken lunatic at a stag party, or elderly relatives revealing their fondness for antisemitic conspiracy theories. But in short, with Facebook privacy, if you don't want it public, don't fucking put it on the site in the first place; this includes the people who post their phone numbers to "public" groups.Evil Facebook makes it difficult to delete your account and data permanently, and even when it does get deleted, there's no guarantee it isn't still in the database somewhere.
Although it's possible to delete everything by request, it's easier and quicker to just post some random anti-religious screed, to engage in openly racist diatribe, or start posting porn in order to get banned by the administrators. To make it easier for people to come back, Facebook administrator-gnomes prefer "deactivation", which basically is the same as deletion, but it keeps your data on the server in case you want to come back (how nice!). The site also engages in a little emotional blackmail by telling you how many of your friends will "miss you" when you're gone.
==Users...terrible, terrible users==
Since Facebook replaced MySpace as most people's social networking site of choice, some long-term users have noted a trend towards puerile harping and frivolity. Basically, all the people from MySpace came over to Facebook because they were sick of how crap MySpace was, turned Facebook into MySpace, and are now getting sick of how crap Facebook is now that they've turned it into MySpace. To get an idea of the average IQ of a Facebook user, just check out the complaints every time they make a change; with the "news feed", for example. Following a change from a feed that featured selected highlights of what your friends have done (which could be controlled via an options panel), they switched to a "live feed", which just threw everything at you as it happened. There were many complaints and groups demanding for it to be switched back. A later change altered this "live feed" into a news feed (nearly identical to the first "news feed" incarnation) and people still complained, although in fairness, many of them were directed at the absence of any form of notification. If you ever needed proof that people are just plain scared of change that they don't understand, check Facebook.
Facebook has also become an intellectual cesspool for religious glurge-pushers,As in, those who create those annoying performative posts saying "pLeEz lIeK iF u LuV jEeZoOs/uR mOm aNd iGnOr iF u hAtE tHeM aNd wUv sAy-TaN" for likes, or who share pareidolic images of Jesus or of Mother Mary followed by "CHECKMATE AYTEEISTZ!!1".Glurge- TV Tropes as well as a rather vicious, manager-bullying, toilet paper-hoarding, woo-pushing, vaccine and mask-denying species that forces all of these views onto her poor "little angels" (around whom she thinks the world revolves): the dreaded Karenii antimaskus. This rather annoying type of white boomer mom will often whine about how oppressed they are by radical liberal communist BLM vaccine mask deep-state antifas, and how "anti-Karen is code for anti-white".
Jesus himself endorses Facebook,Jesus's Facebook profile. and according to The Onion, so does the CIA."CIA's 'Facebook' Program Dramatically Cut Agency's Cost" However, the Daily Mail has a long-running hate-on for Facebook,BBC dot.Rory — Facebook v Daily Mail as its editorial staff thinks it may cause cancer. To see the best, or perhaps worst, of the site, visit lamebook.lamebook.com
==Oh, what a tangled web we weave==
===Destroying democracy in the name of profit===
Zuckerberg has indicated that he has a desire for total monopoly of service, something that is anathema to democracy. When informed by future Nobel Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa that 97% of Filipino internet users used Facebook, Zuckerberg responded, "What are the other 3 percent doing, Maria?"Memo from a 'Facebook nation' to Mark Zuckerberg: You moved fast and broke our country. Maria Ressa, the journalist who co-founded Rappler in the Philippines, warns that her country is a "cautionary tale" for the United States. by Eric Johnson (Dec 11, 2018, 11:38am EST) Vox. Facebook's near-monopolistic penetration of the Philippines and feeble monitoring-practices enabled Rodrigo Duterte's troll armies to use "violent, threatening, often sexualized online vitriol" to falsely discredit legitimate journalists.Why the Nobel Peace Prize award is a huge blow to Facebook by Nina Jankowicz (October 9, 2021) The Washington Post.
Russia has also endorsed Facebook for its ability to destroy democracy. Despite then-President Obama warning about Russian dissemination of fake news on the site during the 2016 election, Facebook ignored him.Obama tried to give Zuckerberg a wake-up call over fake news on Facebook by Adam Entous et al. (September 24, 2017) The Washington Post. By 2017, Zuckerberg began to own up to Facebook's culpability in Russian interference, admitting that Russia had purchased over 3,000 ads to influence the election and to sow racial and religious discord.Russian operatives used Facebook ads to exploit America’s racial and religious divisions by Adam Entous et al. (September 25, 2017) The Washington Post. The Russians used Facebook's "Custom Audiences" tool to target specific messages to specific audiences.Russians took a page from corporate America by using Facebook tool to ID and influence voters by Elizabeth Dwoskin et al. (October 2, 2017 at 8:00 PM) The Washington Post. (In March 2022 a Russian court declared Facebook "extremist" and banned Meta,
so expect no more problems from that quarter.)
In 2018, it emerged that Cambridge Analytica illegally obtained data from Facebook, which it used to sway voters in the 2016 election towards Donald Trump. Facebook was directly responsible for the data breach, but due to shortcomings in the British legal system, the maximum fine was a puny £500,000 - an amount which the site makes every five-and-a-half minutes.Facebook fined for data breaches in Cambridge Analytica scandal: Firm fined £500,000 for lack of transparency and failing to protect users’ information
Facebook has proven to be an extremely useful tool to autocrats around the world by allowing state-hired online trolls that support authoritarian governments to use the site to harass opposition and human-rights organizations, sow division, and undermine opposition and independent media. In a memo obtained by , one former Facebook data scientist claimed that she "found multiple blatant attempts by foreign national governments to abuse our platform on vast scales to mislead their own citizenry, and caused international news on multiple occasions", but the site "simply didn't care enough to stop them"."I Have Blood on My Hands": A Whistleblower Says Facebook Ignored Global Political Manipulation" by Craig Silverman, Ryan Mac, and Pranav Dixit, Buzzfeed News, 2020 September 14
Facebook was also used to help incite the 2021 U.S. Capitol riot, even though the company had restrictions on "stop-the-steal" content. With simple keyword changes, would-be insurrectionists were able to evade the mediocre protections Facebook had in place and use its "groups" feature to coordinate plans. Once the protections were evaded, Facebook's response to pro-insurrection posts was to display advertisements promoting body-armor, firearm accessories and other tactical products."'Stop the steal' groups hide in plain sight on Facebook" by Brian Fung and Donie O'Sullivan, CNN, 2021 January 15 The issue of groups being used in this manner was known within the company long before the riot happened. The Wall Street Journal obtained an internal Facebook document which data scientists created in August 2020. According to the document, "70% of the top 100 most active US Civic Groups are considered non-recommendable for issues such as hate, misinfo, bullying and harassment." One of the top groups in terms of engagement "[aggregated] the most inflammatory news stories of the day and [fed] them to a vile crowd that immediately and repeatedly called for violence". According to company sources who spoke with the Wall Street Journal, Facebook management responded to this report with a shrug.
"Facebook knew it had a huge problem with hateful groups 5 months ahead of the Capitol riot, internal docs show" by Isobel Asher Hamilton, Business Insider, 2021 February 1.
===Supporting hate in the name of profit===
Facing increased criticism for its facilitation of fake news and its influence upon the 2016 election, Facebook hired the Republican opposition-research firm or the PAC to… generate more fake news! This time it included anti-George Soros fake news, which generally comes off as thinly-veiled antisemitism.Delay, Deny and Deflect: How Facebook's Leaders Fought Through Crisis by Sheera Frenkel (Nov. 14, 2018) The New York Times: "Facebook also used Definers to take on bigger opponents, such as Mr. Soros, a longtime boogeyman to mainstream conservatives and the target of intense anti-Semitic smears on the far right." This is bizarre to say the least, because Zuckerberg has controlling interest in Facebook and is himself ethnically Jewish.
Brenton Harrison Tarrant, the Australian behind the 2019 Christchurch terrorist attacks in New Zealand, used Facebook to livestream part of the shooting that killed 50 and injured 50 more at Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre.
Facebook's notorious permissiveness regarding fake news, as well as a lax, tolerant attitude towards hate speech (including the increasingly inflammatory, appallingly racist rhetoric of Donald Trump), caused several problems for the company in 2020. Before then, conservative social media (playing the victim, as they usually do) loved to decry that Facebook was "censoring" racist "conservative" posts."Facebook, where it's all fun and conservative-censoring games" by Cheryl K. Chumley, Washington Times, 2020 June 23"Republican-led report finds Facebook has ‘significant work’ to earn conservatives’ trust" by Lauren Feiner, CNBC, 2019 Aug 20 By 2019, however, compared to its competitors, the social media giant was taking a more "hands-off" stance concerning posts displaying key elements of modern "conservatism" (e.g. racism, hate speech, far-right murder plots"How boogaloo members allegedly used Facebook to plot a murder" by Dara Kerr, CNet, 2020 June 19 and the like). Bullshit media sources such as Breitbart and the Daily Caller were given prominent exposure in news feeds. Unlike their competitors, Facebook refused to prohibit politicians from using micro-targeting (which can easily be used to spread disinformation)."How conservatives learned to wield power inside Facebook" by Craig Timberg, Washington Post, 2020 Feb 20 Key players in the company, such as board member Peter Thiel"Facebook Is a Right-Wing Company, Part One Million" by Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 2019 December 18 and vice president of global policy "Facebook Employees Stage Virtual Walkout to Protest Trump Posts" by Sheera Frenkel, Mike Isaac, Cecilia Kang and Gabriel J.X. Dance, New York Times, 2020 June 1 (who threw a celebratory party for Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh after his confirmation),"How key Republicans inside Facebook are shifting its politics to the right" by David Smith, Guardian, 2019 Nov 3 are said to be more aligned with Trump's ideology, and are thus responsible for this shift in direction. However, it's had consequences for the company. 
Shortly after the in May 2020, Trump went on Twitter and tweeted a violence-glorifying and inciting phrase infamously first uttered by Miami police chief Walter Headley during riots in 1967."The police chief who inspired Trump’s tweet glorifying violence" by Julio Capó Jr., Washington Post, 2020 June 1 Trump then posted the same phrase on Facebook. Twitter correctly flagged the tweet for glorifying violence, but Facebook did nothing, as Zuckerberg believed that the phrase had "no history of being read as a dog whistle" for violence by vigilantes."Zuckerberg, Trump and the protests: Facebook’s muddled makeover" by Hannah Murphy, Financial Times, 2020 June 8
As a result of this inaction, on June 1, 2020, hundreds of Facebook employees (many working remotely due to COVID-19) staged a "virtual walkout" over the inflammatory posts of Trump and Zuckerberg's reluctance to do anything about it.
In June 2020, several prominent social advocacy organizations (including the ADL, the NAACP and others) likewise were fed up with the bullshit on Facebook, and started the campaign Stop Hate for Profit.Stop Hate for Profit home page This campaign advocated that corporations advertising on Facebook should boycott the company due to their lax stance on hate speech, racism, harassment, voter suppression, and even climate science denialism."An Open Letter to the Companies that Advertise on Facebook" by Jonathan A. Greenblatt, CEO of ADL, 2020 June 25 By July 1, over 500 companies had joined the boycott."Target, Best Buy Join Over 500 Companies In Growing Facebook Boycott" by Jemima McEvoy, Forbes, 2020 June 30 
Unfortunately, since the site is largely funded not by major company advertisements but by small businesses,"This new Facebook ad targets the only people left who actually like the brand" by Jeff Beer, FastCompany.com, 2021 February 27 and a significant chunk of advertising revenue comes from scams and disinformation,"Here's How Shopping Scams on Facebook Are Ripping Off Thousands of Customers, With the Money Flowing Overseas" by Andrew R. Chow, Time, 2020 December 18"Facebook Gets Paid" by Craig Silverman, Buzzfeed News, 2020 December 10 Facebook's response to this boycott was to not change a damn thing."Why a Real Facebook Ad Boycott Is Doomed" by Shoshana Wodinsky, Gizmodo, 2021 September 21
In December 2022, Facebook cracked down on a number of Socialist and otherwise left-wing accounts due to their promotion of anti-fascism, while simultaneously permitting an ever-increasing far-right extremist presence on the site."Facebook and Twitter don't censor conservatives. They hire and promote them." by Angelo Carusone, NBC, 2020 October 29"Facebook's Censorship strikes again", IDC, 2022 December 18
===Promoting genocide in the name of profit===
In Myanmar, military personnel posed as normal people just like you, average citizen, while "exposing" the nefarious deeds of the evil Muslims and their plans of conquering the world.Myanmar’s Military Said to Be Behind Facebook Campaign That Fueled Genocide by Paul Mozur (October 2018) The New York Times. The main targets of these lies were the Rohingya, one of the country's Muslim minorities and one that has been marginalized for decades, who were falsely accused of a variety of crimes, including massacres of other populations. Of course, the military played both sides into a state of fear that only they could solve. The tally is over 200 villages burned, an unknown amount of deaths and rapes which may be in the thousands, and over 800,000 Rohingya that fled the country, the majority going to neighboring Bangladesh.
Facebook was confronted with its to remove hate speech that was targeted at Rohingya as early as November 2013 by documentary filmmaker Aela Callan in 2013 when she met with Elliott Schrage, vice president of communications and public policy.Why Facebook is losing the war on hate speech in Myanmar by Steve Stecklow (Aug. 15, 2018, 3 p.m. GMT) Reuters. The meeting did not results in any action by Facebook. In December 2014, Matt Schissler, a doctoral student in anthropology at the University of Michigan, communicated with Facebook about the problem between March 2014 and March 2015, but little action by Facebook seemed to have resulted in the communications. David Madden, a tech entrepreneur who owned Phandeeyar in Myanmar, gave a talk in May 2015 at Facebook to an audience of a dozen to sound the alarm about the problem of hate speech against Royhinghas on the platform. The Rohingya genocide began in 2016. In 2018, Zuckerberg testified before the US Senate and falsely claimed that Facebook was "able to proactively remove tens of thousands of accounts that — before they — they could contribute significant harm."Transcript of Mark Zuckerberg’s Senate hearing (April 10, 2018) The Washington Post. Shortly before the testimony, Phandeeyar and five other Myanmar groups blasted Zuckerberg for making a similar claim, stating "We believe your system, in this case, was us.
Once Facebook was forced to publicly acknowledge what it had allowed to happen, it finally took measures of banning a number of accounts and pages involved with the spread of fake news, pretending that the worst was over. By 2020, the company was accused of purposefully obstructing the investigation of its role in the genocide, saying the investigation was being "too broad" and that it would be too difficult for them to get the requested data.Facebook Wanted to Be a Force for Good in Myanmar. Now It Is Rejecting a Request to Help With a Genocide Investigation by Matthew Smith (Aug 18 2020) Time. This kind of hate building isn't something that happens overnight, it takes years, and the military once had over 700 people working on the project at its peak.
===Putting a price on your child's head===
Despite simultaneously knowing and denying that social media is harmful to childrenMeta says it will restrict content for teens, as complaints mount about harmful effects on youth by Jonathan Vanian (Jan 9 2024; 9:00 AM EST) CNBC. and despite denying that they put a price on childrens' heads,Facebook safety director testifies to Senate hearing on Instagram's affect on young users (Sep 30, 2021) Reuters via YouTube. internal emails revealed that Meta did indeed put a value on children that went into the calculus of how much to spend to protect them:
The lawsuit by multiple states' Attorneys General argues that Meta deliberately targets and manipulates teens to maximize profits:
===Promoting pseudoscience in the name of profit===
Facebook allows advertisers peddling pseudoscience and quackery easy access to suckers customers who might be receptive to such things. Its bullshit detector will handily find all users who have expressed interest in various forms of bullshit, and will happily allow companies to exploit said users for profit. In April 2020, an investigation by (a non-profit organization focused on ethics in data-driven journalism) found that Facebook had allowed advertisers to specifically target users who expressed interest in "pseudoscience"."Want to Find a Misinformed Public? Facebook’s Already Done It" by Aaron Sankin, The Markup, 2020 April 23 In 2019, it was possible for Facebook advertisers to target people who believed in "vaccine controversies"."Revealed: Facebook enables ads to target users interested in 'vaccine controversies'" by Julia Carrie Wong, The Guardian, 2019 15 Feb In 2017, it was possible to target "Jew haters" with a Facebook ad."acebook Enabled Advertisers to Reach ‘Jew Haters’" by Julia Angwin, Madeleine Varner and Ariana Tobin, ProPublica, 2017 Sep 14 After each investigative report, the specific offending category was removed from the advertising target selection list."Facebook gets rid of 'pseudoscience' ad-targeting category" by Elizabeth Culliford, Reuters, 2020 April 23 Despite this, in July 2020, the New York Times reported that merely posting that you have breast cancer on your Facebook feed will cause your timeline to be flooded with ads for quackery cures for cancer (such as colloidal silver, seeds and questionable "alternative medicine" clinics)."I Have Cancer. Now My Facebook Feed Is Full of ‘Alternative Care’ Ads." by Anne Borden King, New York Times, 2020 July 10
===Promoting conspiracy theories in the name of profit===
In another sign that Facebook is happy to take money from any group that wants to advertise on its platform no matter how questionable, an internal investigation by NBC News discovered 185 advertisements praising, supporting or representing QAnon (a conspiracy theory designated as a potential domestic terrorist threat by the FBI in 2019). The advertisements generated $12,000 for Facebook within 30 days, and had four million impressions. Some analysts believe that private Facebook groups have played a key role in the growth of QAnon over the last few years."QAnon groups have millions of members on Facebook, documents show" By Ari Sen and Brandy Zadrozny, NBC News, 2020 August 10
===Promoting fake news in the name of profit===
In March 2021, the research group Cybersecurity for Democracy, a part of the ,CyberSecurity for Democracy: About page published an analysis of 8.6 million posts and used likes, comments and other interactions on various sources, to determine what type of news and media was most engaging, from both a political and accuracy perspective. Far-right news sources classified as "misinformation" received considerably more interactions per thousand followers than any other category."Far-right news sources on Facebook more engaging" by Laura Edelson, Minh-Kha Nguyen, Ian Goldstein, Oana Goga, Tobias Lauinger, and Damon McCoy, Cybersecurity for Democracy, 2021 March 3 Facebook's initial response to this study (which helped add to a considerable body of evidence that the site's algorithm favors misinformation no matter how harmful it is to society) was to state that internal data showed a vastly different picture than what Cybersecurity for Democracy found. (But of course, independent researchers aren't allowed access to this internal data... data transparency is not allowed at Facebook!)"Fake news got more engagement than real news on Facebook in 2020, study says" by Nathan Place, Independent, 2021 September 5 Later in August, Facebook decided that the best way to prevent those meddling researchers from creating unflattering reports was to disable the Cybersecurity for Democracy's accounts on the site."We Research Misinformation on Facebook. It Just Disabled Our Accounts." by Laura Edelson and Damon McCoy, New York Times, 2021 August 10
===Co-opting Snopes===
Facebook entered into a cooperative agreement with the fact-checking site Snopes between 2016 and 2019.Snopes quits fact-checking partnership with Facebook by Salvador Rodriguez (FEB 1 20192:35 PM EST; UPDATED FRI, FEB 1 20193:03 PM EST) CNBC. Facebook paid as much as $100,000 to Snopes in 2017 alone — small change for Facebook, which was making $220,000 per minute in 2021.Facebook's massive outage costs the company an estimated $60 million in revenue: The social network is losing ad dollars every second its platforms remain offline. by Queenie Wong (Oct. 4, 2021 3:51 p.m. PT) CNET. The idea of Facebook entering into a cooperation agreement with a fact-checking site sounds like a good idea, except Snopes was being used for "crisis PR" according former Snopes managing editor Brooke Binkowski, which was confirmed by past and present Facebook employees.'They don't care': Facebook factchecking in disarray as journalists push to cut ties by Sam Levin (13 Dec 2018 03.00 EST) The Guardian. Just imagine — Facebook bought Snopes' reputation for well under the average wage of a single Facebook employeeFacebook Salaries Comparably (archived from March 15, 2021). to do something about the torrent of lies that Facebook produces.
===Piracy===
In 2025, Meta was accused of massive piracy in a lawsuit in which Zuckerberg was also accused of authorizing the piracy.Richard Kadrey et al. v. Meta Plaforms, Inc.: Reply In Support Of Plaintiffs’ Motion For Leave To File Third Amended Consolidated Complaint (01/08/25) United States District Court, Northern District Of California, San Francisco Division. Case No. 3:23-cv-03417-VC.Zuckerberg approved Meta’s use of ‘pirated’ books to train AI models, authors claim: Sarah Silverman and others file court case claiming CEO approved use of dataset despite warnings by Dan Milmo (10 Jan 2025 08.09 EST) The Guardian. The allegation is based on the claim that Meta trained its AI model on The Library Genesis (LibGen), a massive catalog of online pirated books that had initially been compiled in Russia. The plaintiffs alleged based on internal Meta memos and other evidence presented in court that the company's engineers stated, "torrenting from a corporate laptop doesn’t feel right", that an engineer had intentionally removed copyright statements in books before training (an act that amounts to consciousness of guilt), and that "MZ" had approved the use of LibGen. This lawsuit comes on the heels of a New York federal court ordering LibGen to pay a group of publishers $30 million for copyright infringement.
==Mark Zuckerberg==
Mark Zuckerberg is generally credited as the founder of Facebook, as well as fulfilling various corporate roles at Facebook, being CEO as of 2021. He is one of the world's richest people through his shareholding in Facebook. He has been the subject of a lot of criticism, much of it justified, some not. The 2010 film The Social Network mythologized the founding of the company, portraying Zuckerberg as a loner who was hated by women who set Facebook up for a combination of revenge and companionship, when he actually had a girlfriend at the time.Is the Facebook movie the truth about Mark Zuckerberg?, BBC News, Sep 30, 2010
As someone of Jewish ethnicity, Zuckerberg has been the subject of antisemitic abuse and conspiracy theories, portrayed as one of the fictional Jewish overlords ruling the world, while also coming under attack for Facebook's failure to take action on antisemitic abuse and conspiracy theories (it only banned holocaust denial content in 2020).News site apologises over cartoon showing Facebook’s Zuckerberg as a ‘parasite’ controlling the world, The Jewish Chronicle Oct 8, 2021ADL Says Facebook Won’t Crack Down On Anti-Semitic Hate, Forbes, June 2, 2021Facebook bans Holocaust denial, distortion posts, AP News, Oct 12, 2020Conspiracy Theories and Anti-Semitism, Discourse Magazine, Feb 22, 2021
One particularly colorful conspiracy theory is that Zuckerberg's real name is Jacob Greenberg and that he is the grandson of David Rockefeller. This has been thoroughly debunked. 
He was criticised for his closeness to Donald Trump during the latter's presidency. There were claims of some sort of a deal between Trump and Zuckerberg in which Zuckerberg would let Trump continue to post lies and inflammatory comments on Facebook (which continued until Trump was banned after the 2021 U.S. Capitol riot). This was supposedly discussed in a 2019 meeting at the White House between Trump, Zuckerberg, and Facebook board-member and libertarian crazy Peter Thiel.Facebook Needs Trump Even More Than Trump Needs Facebook, Bloomberg, Sep 17, 2020 According to Mother Jones, after Twitter started publishing factchecking information alongside Trump's tweets in May 2020, Zuckerberg called Fox News to say he wouldn't censor or factcheck the big orange Trumpster.This Week, Mark Zuckerberg Sided with Donald Trump. History Won’t Forget It., Mother Jones, June 2020Twitter tags Trump tweet with fact-checking warning, BBC News, May 27, 2020
He and his wife Chan have been somewhat involved in philanthropy, collaborating with Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to pledge in 2015 to give the vast majority of his wealth to charity at some point in his life (assuming Facebook doesn't go the way of MySpace). The New Yorker noted that his donations of stock could be offset against taxes on money he earned/received, as well as meaning that the government doesn't receive any earnings from Facebook shares held by his charitable foundation (in contrast to income from shares held by individuals or corporations, which is taxable).Mark Zuckerberg and the rise of philanthrocapitalism, New Yorker, December 2, 2015 His actions include donations to Ebola and COVID research. The Zuckerbergs are also involved in more commercial research operations, funding biological research at Chan Zuckerberg Biohub in San Francisco, and funding solar sail research for deep space exploration with the possibility of Facebook on Alpha Centauri in 20 years.Chan Zuckerberg Biohub funds first crop of 47 investigators, Science.org, Feb 8, 2017Hawking, Zuckerberg unveil $10B plan to reach Alpha Centauri in 20 years, April 13, 2016
His attempts at charity are belied by his paranoia and misanthropy, oh-so-common among the billionaire class. In 2023, it was revealed that he was building a massive, blast-resistant underground bunker at his estate in Hawaii where he can escape the apocalypse.Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Top-Secret Hawaii Compound: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is building a sprawling, $100 million compound in Hawaii—complete with plans for a huge underground bunker. A WIRED investigation reveals the true scale of the project—and its impact on the local community. by Guthrie Scrimgeour (Dec 14, 2023 6:00 AM) Wired. His family will be feasting on his beer-and macadamia-nut-fed wagyu cattle before and after the apocalypse if all goes according to plan.'Highest quality beef:' Mark Zuckerberg's cattle to get beer and macadamia nuts in Hawaii by Anthony Robledo (Jan 11, 2024) USA Today.
==See also==
* Fun:RationalWiki Facebook
* Social media platforms
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Anti-vaccination movement
Category:Business
Category:California
Category:Denialist websites
Category:Genocide
Category:Racism
Category:Websites
Category:Social media
Category:Thielsphere