Facebook

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[[File:Facebook Logo (2019).svg|thumb|right|165px|The Facebook logo]]{{internet}}
:''You can find a [https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rationalwiki/226614404019306 RationalWiki page] and a [https://www.facebook.com/groups/246451152211485/ RationalWiki group on Facebook]; see [[Fun:RationalWiki Facebook]] for a description of the latter''

{{cquote|But one thing is certain, and it's that I’m a jerk for making this site…|||Mark Zuckerberg<ref>https://archive.fo/IMW19</ref>}}
[[File:Creepy facebook advert edited.PNG|thumb|Facebook has horrible ads that claim your friends have a crush on you. How yuk is that?]]
{{cquote|But if you were where Meta currently is, which is presiding over a hugely profitable but ungovernable, unwieldy, widely detested derangement engine ruled by a sociopathic algorithm and an overbearing cadre of psychotic power users, reviled and abandoned by younger users and in every sense but the most literal a haunted space station overrun by goblins and skunks, you too would want to live in the future.|||by David Roth<ref>[https://defector.com/facebook-meta-asks-wouldnt-it-be-nice-to-die/ Facebook/Meta Asks: “Wouldn’t It Be Nice To Die?”] by David Roth (10:41 AM EST on Feb 16, 2022) ''Defector''.</ref>}}

'''Facebook''' (or '''Meta''' as it is known post-2021 after the company rebranded itself to avoid negative associations the public has with the old name) is a [[Social media platforms|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 {{lived|[[1984]]}} was studying at the time. It gradually expanded to other educational establishments through 2005 before welcoming the uneducated masses in 2006.<ref>{{cite web | title=Zuckerberg: 'Make Facebook Great Again' | website=The Verge | url=https://www.theverge.com/news/602961/zuckerberg-make-facebook-great-again-og | access-date=}}</ref><ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2007/jul/25/media.newmedia A brief history of Facebook], The Guardian, July 25, 2007</ref>

It reached peak popularity with the addition of online gaming, notably the 2009 launch of ''FarmVille'', an espionage tool<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20141216114338/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304772804575558484075236968 Facebook 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''.</ref> 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".<ref>http://fstdt.net/QuoteComment.aspx?QID=75302</ref> 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 [[Russia]]n {{wpl|troll farm|troll farms}} goading the elderlies into [[Flame war|yelling at each other]] by posting [[propaganda]] that sows racial and religious discord.<ref>[https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/09/16/1035851/facebook-troll-farms-report-us-2020-election/ "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</ref>

==Privacy==
{{main|Privacy}}
{{blockquote|'''Zuck''': yea so if you ever need info about anyone at harvard<br>
'''Zuck''': just ask<br>
'''Zuck''': i have over 4000 emails, pictures, addresses, sns<br>
'''Friend''': what!? how’d you manage that one?<br>
'''Zuck''': people just submitted it<br>
'''Zuck''': i don’t know why<br>
'''Zuck''': they "trust me"<br>
'''Zuck''': dumb fucks<ref>[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/09/20/the-face-of-facebook The Face of Facebook] by Jose Antonio Vargas (September 13, 2010) ''The New Yorker''.</ref>}}
{{cquote|Meta is at its core a surveillance company that — to put it kindly — has a checkered past in how they handle user data. They have not earned the benefit of the doubt in terms of accepting that they will safeguard user privacy.|||Chris Gilliard<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/10/23/locked-out-facebook-meta-face-recognition/ Meta’s new fix for locked-out users: Scanning their faces] by Will Oremus (October 23, 2024 at 8:58 a.m. EDT) ''The Washtington Post''.</ref>}}
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 [[antisemitism|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.<ref>[http://www.tomscott.com/evil/ Evil]</ref> 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.{{efn|'''[[Anecdotal evidence|Anecdote]] alert:''' [[:User:Armondikov|I]] have occasionally seen the "groups" feature glitch and display the names and profile pictures of groups that were deleted several years ago (so it's not a local cookies or temp files glitch). Although clicking on them redirects to the main page like with most deleted accounts, there is the uncomfortable possibility that if the titles can still be accessed via a glitch, the content is still in the "recycling bin" even after 3-4 years.
}}
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]] [[Evangelism|glurge-pushers]],<ref group=note>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 [[Religious pareidolia|pareidolic images]] of [[Jesus]] or of [[Marian apparition|Mother Mary]] followed by "'''CHECKMATE AYTEEISTZ!!1'''".</ref><ref>[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Glurge Glurge- TV Tropes]</ref> as well as a rather vicious, manager-[[bullying]], toilet paper-hoarding, [[woo]]-pushing, [[Antivax|vaccine]] and [[Face masks|mask]]-[[Denialism|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|deep-state]] [[antifa]]s, and how "anti-Karen is code for anti-white".{{nofact}}

[[Jesus]] himself endorses Facebook,<ref>[http://www.docstoc.com/docs/5268017/Jesus-Facebook-Profile Jesus's Facebook profile.]</ref> and according to ''[[The Onion]]'', so does the [[CIA]].<ref>[http://www.theonion.com/video/cias-facebook-program-dramatically-cut-agencys-cos,19753/ "CIA's 'Facebook' Program Dramatically Cut Agency's Cost"]</ref> However, the ''[[Daily Mail]]'' has a long-running hate-on for Facebook,<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/rorycellanjones/2010/03/facebook_v_daily_mail.html BBC dot.Rory — Facebook v Daily Mail]</ref> as its editorial staff thinks it may cause [[cancer]]. To see the best, or perhaps worst, of the site, visit lamebook.<ref>[http://www.lamebook.com/ lamebook.com]</ref>

==The terrible, terrible executive suite==
Sarah Wynn-Williams flawed memoir of her time at Facebook (2011-2017), particularly as policy director paints a portrait of a leadership team focused on the appearance of solving problems ([[public relations]]) [[Hypocrisy|rather than actually preventing or stopping them]].<ref name=wynn>''Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism'' by Sarah Wynn-Williams (2025) Macmillan.</ref> The flaws in the book are her false portrayal of herself of entering the company naively and idealistic (when she had previously been a lawyer and diplomat) and failure to accept her own responsibility.<ref>[https://restofworld.org/2025/careless-people-book-review-facebook-global-policy/ A former Meta employee reviews the new Facebook memoir: Sarah Wynn-Williams’ memoir is a courageous feat, but it glosses over her own indifference to warnings from policymakers, civil society, and internal teams outside the U.S. about serious harm to communities from Facebook.] by Sabhanaz Rashid Diya (26 March 2025) ''Rest of World''.</ref> In the book, she reports Facebook leadership's willingness and indifference to putting their own employees at risk of imprisonment and physical harm for corporate decisions,<ref name=wynn/>{{rp|111-118,230-235}} as well as foisting responsibility for the [[death]] of ordinary people upon individual Facebook employees:<ref name=wynn/>{{rp|305-307}}
{{cquote|Facebook employees will be responsible for data responses that could lead to death, [[torture]] and [[Prison|incarceration]].|||Facebook leadership's view of one of the effects of their partnership with [[China]]}}

==Oh, what a tangled web we weave==
{{cquote|Oh, what a tangled web we weave,<BR>
When first we practise to deceive!"|||Walter Scott<ref>{{wpa|Marmion (poem)|''Marmion''}}</ref>}}

===Destroying democracy in the name of profit===
{{cquote|I think it's more useful to make things happen and then, like, apologize later…|||Zuckerberg<ref name=frontline>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/watch-inside-facebooks-early-days/ Inside Facebook’s Early Days] by Patrice Taddonio (October 29, 2018) ''Frontline, PBS''.</ref>}}
{{cquote|In those days, 'move fast and break things' didn't seem to be [[sociopath]]ic. It wasn't that they intended to do harm so much as they were unconcerned about the possibility that harm would result.|||Roger McNamee, early Facebook investor<ref name=frontline/>}}

{{cquote|We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can't then we don't deserve to serve you.|||Mark Zuckerberg<ref>[https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/facebook-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-break-silence-cambridge-analytica-data-use-n858606 Zuckerberg on Facebook's data privacy issues: 'We need to step up'] by Jason Abbruzzese (March 21, 2018, 6:28 AM PDT / Updated March 21, 2018, 1:01 PM PDT) ''NBC News''.</ref>}}

Zuckerberg has indicated that he has a desire for total [[monopoly]] of service, something that is anathema to democracy.{{cn}} 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?"<ref>[https://www.vox.com/2018/11/26/18111859/maria-ressa-rappler-facebook-mark-zuckerberg-philippines-kara-swisher-recode-decode-podcast 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''.</ref> Facebook's near-monopolistic penetration of the Philippines and feeble monitoring-practices enabled pro-[[Rodrigo Duterte|Duterte]] extremists to use "violent, threatening, often sexualized online vitriol" to falsely discredit legitimate journalists.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/10/09/maria-ressa-nobel-prize-indictment-of-facebook/ Why the Nobel Peace Prize award is a huge blow to Facebook] by Nina Jankowicz (October 9, 2021) ''The Washington Post''.</ref>

[[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 U.S. presidential election |2016 election]], Facebook ignored him.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/obama-tried-to-give-zuckerberg-a-wake-up-call-over-fake-news-on-facebook/2017/09/24/15d19b12-ddac-4ad5-ac6e-ef909e1c1284_story.html 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''.</ref> By 2017, Zuckerberg began to own up to Facebook's culpability in Russian interference,<ref>{{wpa|Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections#Social media and Internet trolls}}</ref> admitting that Russia had purchased over 3,000 [[advertisement |ad]]s to influence the election and to sow racial and religious discord.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/russian-operatives-used-facebook-ads-to-exploit-divisions-over-black-political-activism-and-muslims/2017/09/25/4a011242-a21b-11e7-ade1-76d061d56efa_story.html Russian operatives used Facebook ads to exploit America’s racial and religious divisions] by Adam Entous et al. (September 25, 2017) ''The Washington Post''.</ref> The Russians used Facebook's "Custom Audiences" tool to target specific messages to specific audiences.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/russians-took-a-page-from-corporate-america-by-using-facebook-tool-to-id-and-influence-voters/2017/10/02/681e40d8-a7c5-11e7-850e-2bdd1236be5d_story.html 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''.</ref> (In March 2022 a Russian court declared Facebook "extremist" and banned Meta,<ref>
{{cite web
 |url= https://siliconangle.com/2022/03/21/russian-court-bans-meta-calling-facebook-instagram-extremist/
 |title= Russian court bans Meta, calling Facebook and Instagram 'extremist'
 |last= Farrell
 |first= James
 |date= 21 March 2022
 |department= Policy
 |website= SiliconANGLE
 |publisher= SiliconANGLE Media Inc
 |access-date= 24 April 2022
 |quote= A Russian court today ruled that Meta Platforms Inc.'s Facebook and Instagram apps are both 'extremist' and should be banned in Russia. [...] Meta's other big platform, WhatsApp, has not been affected.
 }}
</ref>
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]].<ref>{{wpa| Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal}}</ref> 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.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/11/facebook-fined-for-data-breaches-in-cambridge-analytica-scandal Facebook fined for data breaches in Cambridge Analytica scandal: Firm fined £500,000 for lack of transparency and failing to protect users’ information]</ref>

Facebook has proven to be an extremely useful tool to [[dictator| autocrat]]s 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 {{wpl| Buzzfeed News}}, 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".<ref>[https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/facebook-ignore-political-manipulation-whistleblower-memo "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</ref>

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.<ref>[https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/15/tech/facebook-stop-the-steal-evasion/index.html "'Stop the steal' groups hide in plain sight on Facebook"] by Brian Fung and Donie O'Sullivan, CNN, 2021 January 15</ref> 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.<ref>
[https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-civic-groups-internal-docs-capitol-riot-misinformation-hate-2021-2 "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.
</ref>

===Supporting hate in the name of profit===
{{cquote|Right-wing [[populism]] is always more engaging … nation, protection, the [[other]], anger, fear. That was there in the [19]30's. That's not invented by social media — you just see those reflexes mirrored in social media, they're not created by social media. It's why [[tabloid]]s do better … People respond to engaging emotion much more than they do to, you know, dry coverage.|||One Facebook executive explains the precursors to Nazism are a standard business model, you see<ref>Alex Nicoll (September 27, 2020). [https://archive.ph/wM2zs "An anonymous Facebook exec says 'right-wing populism is always more engaging' and that's why conservative posts thrive on the platform"]. ''Business Insider''.</ref><ref>Alex Thompson (September 26, 2020). [https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/26/facebook-conservatives-2020-421146 "Why the right wing has a massive advantage on Facebook"]. ''Politico''.</ref>}}

Facing increased criticism for its facilitation of [[fake news]] and its influence upon the 2016 election, Facebook hired the [[Republican]] opposition-research firm {{wpl|Definers Public Affairs}} or the PAC {{wpl|America Rising}} to… generate '''more fake news'''! This time it included anti-[[George Soros]] fake news, which generally comes off as thinly-veiled [[antisemitism]].<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/technology/facebook-data-russia-election-racism.html 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."</ref> 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.<ref>[https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jun/23/project-veritas-outs-facebook-more-anti-conservati/ "Facebook, where it's all fun and conservative-censoring games"] by Cheryl K. Chumley, Washington Times, 2020 June 23</ref><ref>[https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/20/republican-report-of-facebook-anti-conservative-bias-suggests-changes.html "Republican-led report finds Facebook has ‘significant work’ to earn conservatives’ trust"] by Lauren Feiner, CNBC, 2019 Aug 20</ref> 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<ref>[https://www.cnet.com/news/how-boogaloo-members-used-facebook-to-plot-an-alleged-murder/ "How boogaloo members allegedly used Facebook to plot a murder"] by Dara Kerr, CNet, 2020 June 19</ref> 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).<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/02/20/facebook-republican-shift/ "How conservatives learned to wield power inside Facebook"] by Craig Timberg, Washington Post, 2020 Feb 20</ref> Key players in the company, such as board member [[Peter Thiel]]<ref>[https://newrepublic.com/article/156055/facebook-right-wing-company-part-one-million "Facebook Is a Right-Wing Company, Part One Million"] by Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 2019 December 18</ref> and vice president of global policy {{wpl|Joel Kaplan}}<ref name="nytimeswalkout">[https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/01/technology/facebook-employee-protest-trump.html "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</ref> (who threw a celebratory party for [[Supreme Court]] justice [[Brett Kavanaugh]] after his confirmation),<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/nov/03/facebook-politics-republicans-right "How key Republicans inside Facebook are shifting its politics to the right"] by David Smith, Guardian, 2019 Nov 3</ref> 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 {{wpl|killing of George Floyd}} in May 2020, Trump went on [[Twitter]] and tweeted {{wpl|When the looting starts, the shooting starts|"when the looting starts, the shooting starts,"}} a violence-glorifying and inciting phrase infamously first uttered by Miami police chief Walter Headley during riots in 1967.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/06/01/police-chief-who-inspired-trumps-tweet-glorifying-violence/ "The police chief who inspired Trump’s tweet glorifying violence"] by Julio Capó Jr., Washington Post, 2020 June 1</ref> 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 [[vigilante]]s.<ref>[https://www.ft.com/content/9e339cdf-a9b1-4d6a-b3db-196cb3e6791d "Zuckerberg, Trump and the protests: Facebook’s muddled makeover"] by Hannah Murphy, Financial Times, 2020 June 8</ref>

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.<ref name="nytimeswalkout"></ref>

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''.<ref>[https://www.stophateforprofit.org/ Stop Hate for Profit home page]</ref> This campaign advocated that corporations advertising on Facebook should [[boycott]] the company due to their lax stance on hate speech, racism, [[cyber-bullying|harassment]], voter suppression, and even [[global warming|climate science denialism]].<ref>[https://www.adl.org/news/letters/an-open-letter-to-the-companies-that-advertise-on-facebook "An Open Letter to the Companies that Advertise on Facebook"] by Jonathan A. Greenblatt, CEO of ADL, 2020 June 25</ref> By July 1, over 500 companies had joined the boycott.<ref>[https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/07/01/lego-dunkin-donuts-join-over-500-companies-in-growing-facebook-boycott/ "Target, Best Buy Join Over 500 Companies In Growing Facebook Boycott"] by Jemima McEvoy, Forbes, 2020 June 30</ref> 

Unfortunately, since the site is largely funded not by major company advertisements but by small businesses,<ref>[https://www.fastcompany.com/90609058/this-new-facebook-ad-targets-the-only-people-left-who-actually-like-the-brand "This new Facebook ad targets the only people left who actually like the brand"] by Jeff Beer, FastCompany.com, 2021 February 27</ref> and a significant chunk of advertising revenue comes from scams and disinformation,<ref>[https://time.com/5921820/facebook-shopping-scams-holidays-covid-19/ "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</ref><ref>[https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/facebook-ad-scams-revenue-china-tiktok-vietnam "Facebook Gets Paid"] by Craig Silverman, Buzzfeed News, 2020 December 10</ref> Facebook's response to this boycott was to not change a damn thing.<ref>[https://gizmodo.com/why-a-real-facebook-ad-boycott-is-doomed-1847717120 "Why a Real Facebook Ad Boycott Is Doomed"] by Shoshana Wodinsky, Gizmodo, 2021 September 21</ref>

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.<ref>[https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/facebook-twitter-don-t-censor-conservatives-they-hire-promote-them-ncna1245308 "Facebook and Twitter don't censor conservatives. They hire and promote them."] by  Angelo Carusone, ''NBC'', 2020 October 29</ref><ref>[http://www.idcommunism.com/2022/12/facebooks-censorship-strikes-again.html "Facebook's Censorship strikes again"], ''IDC'', 2022 December 18</ref>

===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.<ref name=mozur>[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/myanmar-facebook-genocide.html Myanmar’s Military Said to Be Behind Facebook Campaign That Fueled Genocide] by Paul Mozur (October 2018) ''The New York Times''.</ref> 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 [[rape]]s 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.<ref name=stecklow>[https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/myanmar-facebook-hate/ Why Facebook is losing the war on hate speech in Myanmar] by Steve Stecklow (Aug. 15, 2018, 3 p.m. GMT) ''Reuters''.</ref> 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,<ref name=stecklow/> 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.<ref name=stecklow/> 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."<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/04/10/transcript-of-mark-zuckerbergs-senate-hearing/ Transcript of Mark Zuckerberg’s Senate hearing] (April 10, 2018) ''The Washington Post''.</ref> 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.<ref name=stecklow/>

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.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210107190527/https://time.com/5880118/myanmar-rohingya-genocide-facebook-gambia/ 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''.</ref> 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.<ref name=mozur/>

===Putting a price on your child's head===
Despite simultaneously knowing and [[Denialism|denying]] that social media is harmful to children<ref>[https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/09/meta-to-restrict-teen-content-as-complaints-mount-about-youth-harm.html Meta 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''.</ref>{{efn|{{cquote|The existing body of scientific work has not shown a causal link between using social media and young people having worse mental health.|||Zuckerberg<ref>[https://www.sciencenews.org/article/social-media-teens-mental-health Social media harms teens’ mental health, mounting evidence shows. What now? Understanding what is going on in teens’ minds is necessary for targeted policy suggestions] by Sujata Gupta (February 20, 2024 at 7:30 am) ''Science News''.</ref>}}}} and despite denying that they put a price on childrens' heads,<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxT54FUKySQ Facebook safety director testifies to Senate hearing on Instagram's affect on young users] (Sep 30, 2021) ''Reuters'' via ''YouTube''.</ref> 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:
{{cquote|The lifetime value of a 13 y/o teen is roughly $270 per teen. … [t]his number is core to making decisions about your business … you do not want to spend more than the LTV of the user.|||Excerpts from a September 2018 email circulated within Meta<ref name=ags>[https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/Less-redacted%20complaint%20-%20released.pdf Attorneys General of multiple states v. Meta and Instagram] (Filed 11/22/23) ''United States District Court for the Northern District of California''.</ref>}}

The lawsuit by multiple states' Attorneys General argues that Meta deliberately targets and manipulates teens to maximize profits:
{{quotebox|Meta’s scheme involved four parts: (1) through its development of Instagram and Facebook, Meta created a business model focused on maximizing young users’ time and attention spent on its Social Media Platforms; (2) Meta designed and deployed harmful and psychologically manipulative product features to induce young users’ compulsive and extended Platform use, while falsely assuring the public that its features were safe and suitable for young users; (3) Meta concealed and suppressed internal data showing the high incidence of user harms on its Social Media Platforms, while routinely publishing misleading reports boasting a deceptively low incidence of user harms; and (4) despite overwhelming internal research, independent expert analysis, and publicly available data that its Social Media Platforms harm young users, Meta still refuses to abandon its use of known harmful features&nbsp;— and has instead redoubled its efforts to misrepresent, conceal, and downplay the impact of those features on young users’ mental and physical health.<ref name=ags/>}}

===Promoting pseudoscience in the name of profit===
[[File:Some kind of fucking bullshit.jpg|thumb|right|375px|A typical response to deceptive advertising on Facebook.]]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 {{wpl|The Markup}} (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]]".<ref>[https://themarkup.org/coronavirus/2020/04/23/want-to-find-a-misinformed-public-facebooks-already-done-it "Want to Find a Misinformed Public? Facebook’s Already Done It"] by Aaron Sankin, The Markup, 2020 April 23</ref> In 2019, it was possible for Facebook advertisers to target people who believed in [[Anti-vaccination|"vaccine controversies"]].<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/feb/15/facebook-anti-vaccination-advertising-targeting-controversy "Revealed: Facebook enables ads to target users interested in 'vaccine controversies'"] by Julia Carrie Wong, The Guardian, 2019 15 Feb</ref> In 2017, it was possible to target [[Antisemitism|"Jew haters"]] with a Facebook ad.<ref>[https://www.propublica.org/article/facebook-enabled-advertisers-to-reach-jew-haters "acebook Enabled Advertisers to Reach ‘Jew Haters’"] by Julia Angwin, Madeleine Varner and Ariana Tobin, ProPublica, 2017 Sep 14</ref> After each investigative report, the specific offending category was removed from the advertising target selection list.<ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-facebook-ads/facebook-gets-rid-of-pseudoscience-ad-targeting-category-idUSKCN2253CC "Facebook gets rid of 'pseudoscience' ad-targeting category"] by Elizabeth Culliford, Reuters, 2020 April 23</ref> 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]], {{wpl|cumin}} seeds and questionable "[[alternative medicine]]" clinics).<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/opinion/facebook-cancer-ads.html "I Have Cancer. Now My Facebook Feed Is Full of ‘Alternative Care’ Ads."] by Anne Borden King, New York Times, 2020 July 10</ref>

===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.<ref>[https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/qanon-groups-have-millions-members-facebook-documents-show-n1236317 "QAnon groups have millions of members on Facebook, documents show"] By Ari Sen and Brandy Zadrozny, NBC News, 2020 August 10</ref>

===Promoting fake news in the name of profit===
In March 2021, the research group Cybersecurity for Democracy, a part of the {{wpl|New York University Tandon School of Engineering}},<ref>[https://cybersecurityfordemocracy.org/about CyberSecurity for Democracy: About page]</ref> 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.<ref>[https://medium.com/cybersecurity-for-democracy/far-right-news-sources-on-facebook-more-engaging-e04a01efae90 "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</ref> 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!)<ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/fake-news-facebook-misinformation-study-b1914650.html "Fake news got more engagement than real news on Facebook in 2020, study says"] by Nathan Place, Independent, 2021 September 5</ref> 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.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210811045412/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/10/opinion/facebook-misinformation.html "We Research Misinformation on Facebook. It Just Disabled Our Accounts."] by Laura Edelson and Damon McCoy, New York Times, 2021 August 10</ref>

===Co-opting Snopes===
{{main|Snopes}}
Facebook entered into a cooperative agreement with the fact-checking site Snopes between 2016 and 2019.<ref name=rodriguez>[https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/01/snopes-leaves-facebook-fact-check-program.html 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''.</ref> Facebook paid as much as $100,000 to Snopes in 2017 alone<ref name=rodriguez/> — small change for Facebook, which was making $220,000 per minute in 2021.<ref>[https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/facebooks-massive-outage-costs-the-company-an-estimated-60-million-in-revenue/ 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''.</ref> 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.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/dec/13/they-dont-care-facebook-fact-checking-in-disarray-as-journalists-push-to-cut-ties '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''.</ref> Just imagine — Facebook bought Snopes' reputation for well under the average wage of a single Facebook employee<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210315214632/https://www.comparably.com/companies/facebook/salaries Facebook Salaries] ''Comparably'' (archived from March 15, 2021).</ref> 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.<ref name=kadrey>[https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/01/10/pacer_kadrey_vs_meta_1.pdf 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.</ref><ref name=milmo>[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/10/mark-zuckerberg-meta-books-ai-models-sarah-silverman 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''.</ref> 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]].<ref name=milmo/> The plaintiffs alleged based on internal Meta memos and other evidence presented in court that the company's engineers stated, "[[Tor|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.<ref name=kadrey/><ref name=milmo/> 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.<ref name=kadrey/>

==Mark Zuckerberg==
[[File:Mark Zuckerberg F8 2018 Keynote (41118883004).jpg|thumb|right|250px|Just words on a screen]]
{{cquote|While we should be thankful [Zuckerberg] has chosen to emulate [[Augustus]] instead of, say, [[Caligula]], he is nonetheless aspiring toward the absolute power – and hairstyle – of a Roman dictator.|||Douglas Rushkoff<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/25/we-will-coup-whoever-we-want-the-unbearable-hubris-of-musk-and-the-billionaire-tech-bros ‘We will coup whoever we want!’: the unbearable hubris of Musk and the billionaire tech bros: Challenging each other to cage fights, building apocalypse bunkers – the behaviour of today’s mega-moguls is becoming increasingly outlandish and imperial] by Douglas Rushkoff (25 Nov 2023 04.00 EST) ''The Guardian''.</ref>}}
{{cquote|''AUT ZUCK AUT NIHIL''|||Zuckerberg's T-shirt at Meta Connect 2024, aka ''Either Zuck or Nothing''. Borrowed from {{wpl|Cesare Borgia||'s}} personal motto and his desire to emulate [[Julius Caesar]].<ref>[https://braddelong.substack.com/p/tech-bros-being-simply-weird-mark "Tech-Bros Being Simply Weird: Mark Zuckerberg & the Bull of the Borgias Edition"] by Brad Delong, Grasping Reality, Substack, 2024 October 20</ref>}}

'''Mark Zuckerberg''' {{lived|1984}} 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.<ref name=wpmz>{{wpa|Mark Zuckerberg}}</ref> 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 [[incel|loner who was hated by women]] and set Facebook up for a combination of revenge and companionship, when he actually had a girlfriend at the time; he commented that he built the site simply because he likes building things.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11437873 Is the Facebook movie the truth about Mark Zuckerberg?], BBC News, Sep 30, 2010</ref> Whether it was worth building is open to your interpretation.

As someone of [[Jew]]ish ethnicity, Zuckerberg has been the subject of [[antisemitic]] abuse and [[conspiracy theory|conspiracy theories]], portrayed as one of the [[International Jewish conspiracy|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).<ref>[https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/news-site-apologises-over-cartoon-showing-facebook-s-zuckerberg-as-a-parasite-controlling-the-worl-1.521291 News site apologises over cartoon showing Facebook’s Zuckerberg as a ‘parasite’ controlling the world], The Jewish Chronicle Oct 8, 2021</ref><ref>[https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2021/06/02/adl-says-facebook-wont-crack-down-on-anti-semitic-hate/ ADL Says Facebook Won’t Crack Down On Anti-Semitic Hate], Forbes, June 2, 2021</ref><ref>[https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-media-social-media-elections-mark-zuckerberg-14e8073ce6f7bd2a674c99ac7bbfc240 Facebook bans Holocaust denial, distortion posts], AP News, Oct 12, 2020</ref><ref>[https://www.discoursemagazine.com/culture-and-society/2021/02/22/conspiracy-theories-and-anti-semitism/ Conspiracy Theories and Anti-Semitism], Discourse Magazine, Feb 22, 2021</ref>

One particularly colorful conspiracy theory states that Zuckerberg's real name is Jacob Greenberg and that he is the grandson of David Rockefeller.{{cn}} 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 [[Peter Thiel]].<ref>[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-09-17/facebook-and-mark-zuckerberg-need-trump-even-more-than-trump-needs-facebook Facebook Needs Trump Even More Than Trump Needs Facebook], Bloomberg, Sep 17, 2020</ref> 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 fact check the big orange Trumpster.<ref>[https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/06/mark-zuckerberg-donald-trump/ This Week, Mark Zuckerberg Sided with Donald Trump. History Won’t Forget It.], Mother Jones, June 2020</ref><ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52815552 Twitter tags Trump tweet with fact-checking warning], BBC News, May 27, 2020</ref>

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).<ref>[https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/mark-zuckerberg-and-the-rise-of-philanthrocapitalism Mark Zuckerberg and the rise of philanthrocapitalism], New Yorker, December 2, 2015</ref> 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.<ref>[https://www.science.org/content/article/chan-zuckerberg-biohub-funds-first-crop-47-investigators Chan Zuckerberg Biohub funds first crop of 47 investigators], Science.org, Feb 8, 2017</ref><ref>[https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/226475-hawking-zuckerberg-unveil-10b-plan-to-reach-alpha-centauri-in-20-years Hawking, Zuckerberg unveil $10B plan to reach Alpha Centauri in 20 years], April 13, 2016</ref>

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]].<ref>[https://www.wired.com/story/mark-zuckerberg-inside-hawaii-compound/ 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''.</ref> 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.<ref>[https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/01/11/mark-zuckerberg-cattle-eat-macadamia-beer-hawaii/72196941007/ 'Highest quality beef:' Mark Zuckerberg's cattle to get beer and macadamia nuts in Hawaii] by Anthony Robledo (Jan 11, 2024) ''USA Today''.</ref>

Since about 2024, Zuckerberg's tried to improve Trump's view of him. He donated $1 million to Trump's 2nd inaugural fund.<ref>Liv McMahon (December 12, 2024). [https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8j9e1x9z2xo "Mark Zuckerberg's Meta donates $1m to Trump fund"]. ''BBC News''.</ref> [[Steve Bannon]] distrusted him and related Zuckerberg's political signalling to his then-recent physical makeover:
{{quotebox|Zuckerberg's, you know, [[Paul of Tarsus|road to Damascus]] came a little late. It was after [[2024 United States presidential election|the Fifth of November]]. It's very, you know, now wants to be a bro. He Kung Fu fights. He's going to UFC. He's got his hair done differently. He's, he's cut. That doesn't hack it with me. That guy will flip on President Trump and he'll flip on us in the second. When it's convenient for him. He will flip.<ref>Caleigh Bartash and Eric Fayeulle (January 19, 2025). [https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bannon-tech-billionaires-surrendered-trump/story?id=117826772 "Bannon says tech billionaires have 'surrendered' to Trump"]. ''ABC''.</ref>}}

Perhaps not coincidentally, Zuckerberg seemed to expect Trump would stop an antitrust case against Meta/Facebook, which didn't work.<ref>Dana Mattioli, Rebecca Ballhaus and Josh Dawsey (April 15, 2025). [https://archive.ph/d8BzX "Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Failed Negotiations to End Antitrust Case"]. ''The Wall Street Journal''.</ref>

==See also==
* [[Fun:RationalWiki Facebook]]
* [[Social media platforms]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|3|80%}}
[[Category:Anti-vaccination movement]]
[[Category:Business]]
[[Category:California]]
[[Category:Denialist websites]]
[[Category:Epsteinsphere]]
[[Category:Genocide]]
[[Category:Racism]]
[[Category:Websites]]
[[Category:Social media]]
[[Category:Thielsphere]]

Categories: Anti-vaccination movement, Business, California, Denialist websites, Epsteinsphere, Genocide, Racism, Websites, Social media, Thielsphere