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Sexism to narcissism: 13 Shocking Things about Facebook as it enters teens

  • Facebook or rather TheFacebook.com was founded on 4 February, 2004.
  • While on an accelerated growth path, the company and its founder has been entangled in numerous controversies. 

 

 

Facebook turns 13

1. The story has it that Mark Zuckerberg was approached by Winklevoss brothers who originally had an idea to build a network that could connect all of the Harvard students. Zuckerberg loved the idea, but started avoiding their calls as he got busy building his own project. Winklevoss brothers later filed a civil lawsuit against Zuckerberg for copying their idea. 

 

2. Facebook was launched as thefacebook.com on 4 February 2004 from Harvard dorm. It was in 2005 that the company dropped ‘The’ from its name after purchasing facebook.com for $200,000. When launched. It was funded by Zuckerberg's then best friend Eduardo Saverin. Saverin was later cut out from Facebook and his stake was supposedly  diluted. Facebook and Saverin filed lawsuits against one another, which were later settled out of court. 

 

3. Facebook’s popularity spread like wildfire and by December 2004 about one million people were active on the social network. It was soon time to move from dorm with roommates to a space that functions as an office. The 'great Facebook wall' was launched in 2004, and the rest is history. 

 

Facebook turns 13

4. Facebook's rapid growth caught the eye of entrepreneur Sean Parker, who was founder of Napster. Parker introduced Zuckerberg to investors and convinced him to move to California. Parker was hired and then kicked out of the company when he got arrested for involvement with drugs.

 

5. Facebook's work culture has often hit headlines for the worse. Facebook’s ex-employees have made some chilling revelations in the past. One such book - The Boy Kings: A Journey into the Heart of the Social Network - revealed that female workers at the social network were propositioned for threesomes and faced insults, usually given lower rank jobs and used as second class help. Things were believed to have changed after Sheryl Sandberg joined the company. 

 

6. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg is also known for his self obsession. Apparently on his 22nd birthday, female employees were asked to wear T-shirts with his name printed on them. Zuckerberg's stare 'borders on the psychopathic, said another report


7. Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg received a lot of flak for fooling people into signing a petition in support of 'Free Basics'. Free basics aka Internet.org aka violating net neutrality was booted out of the country. Zuckerberg has been accused of pushing his own financial gains and shrewd business disguised as a noble act of connecting the world together. 

 

8.Mark Zuckerberg suffers from colour-blindness and that's the reason why Facebook always opted for the blue colour scheme.  Facebook turns 13

 

9. The 'Like' button as you know it was once the 'Awesome' button. It was bid goodbye in 2007. However, 'Like' got a lukewarm response initially. 

 

10. Facebook bought every budding startup that it felt was threat to its empire, from Instagram to WhatsApp. 

 

11. Facebook is obsessed with Snapchat. It has tried buying as well as acquiring Snapchat on multiple occasions. From Slingshot to well, we've lost the count, but failed each time. 

 

12. Facebook was also pulled up for 'injecting' stories into its trending section. The trending section is believed to show the stories read by most people across the world. Facebook and its 'news curators' were also believed to have blacklisted topics. 

 

13. Al Pacino was the first "face" that appeared on the site. The pixelated sketch of the man on the homepage was the younger Oscar-winning actor. 

 

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