The message Mark Zuckerberg sent to a friend just after he launched Facebook has been revealed.
The Meta-owned social media platform is the biggest on the globe, with Facebook having a whopping 3.07 billion active users.
That puts it way ahead of the likes of WhatsApp, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.
But believe or not, there was a time when Facebook wasn’t the social media juggernaut we see today.
Zuckerberg and four fellow Harvard students founded the social media platform in 2004, and it really blew up from there.
In February 2004, the now-Meta CEO spoke to the Harvard Crimson about his new website amid concern of all the personal details you had to put into the site.
Facebook launched in 2004 (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“There are pretty intensive privacy options,” Zuckerberg said at the time. “People have very good control over who can see their information.”
During the first few weeks of Facebook being on the internet, Zuckerberg was speaking to a friend about the social media platform.
At the time, there was a lot of concern about people’s identities and whether you could trust Facebook.
I mean, it was a completely new concept during the time.
During this period of worry, Zuckerberg had a conversation with a friend on instant messenger, which was later leaked and published by Silicon Valley Insider.
The exchange went as followed:
Zuckerberg: yea so if you ever need info about anyone at harvard
Zuckerberg: just ask
Zuckerberg: i have over 4000 emails, pictures, addresses, sns
Friend: what!? how’d you manage that one?
Zuckerberg: people just submitted it
Zuckerberg: i don’t know why
Zuckerberg: they ‘trust me’
Zuckerberg: dumb f***s
Messages Mark Zuckerberg sent were leaked (Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
Jim Breyer, who was a member of the Facebook board from 2005 to 2013, spoke to The New Yorker about the leaked messages and the damage it had done.
He said: “Based on everything I saw in 2006, and after having a great deal of time with Mark, my confidence in him as C.E.O. of Facebook was in no way shaken.
“He is a brilliant individual who, like all of us, has made mistakes.”
Zuckerberg himself addressed the leak, telling the outlet he ‘absolutely’ regretted sending the messages.
He added: “If you’re going to go on to build a service that is influential and that a lot of people rely on, then you need to be mature, right?
“I think I’ve grown and learned a lot.”
UNILAD has reached out to Meta for comment.
