The good, the bad and the ugly: Facebook’s 20th anniversary
Facebook began in a Harvard dorm room 20 years ago. Now it is one of the most influential companies in the world. Clarified traces Facebook’s history and impact, from achievements to scandals, and postulates what the next two decades could look like.
On February 4, 2004, *** young Harvard student launched *** website that acted as *** directory to help students connect with each other. That website called the Facebook, would go on to change our world. And that student, Juan Mark Zuckerberg, would go on to become one of the most powerful and richest people on Earth. It's been 20 years since its founding. Facebook, now meta, has evolved and altered our world profoundly. Let's take *** look back at those 20 years and what the next decades may bring. Metta, the parent company that owns Facebook, is one of the biggest companies in the world. More than 3 billion people use at least one of its products daily. It has *** whopping $599 billion market value. I mean, certainly *** lot has changed since Mark Zuckerberg introduced the Facebook on *** Harvard campus. That's Justin Hendricks, the editor of Tech Policy Press, *** nonprofit media and community venture, examining the intersection of technology and democracy. The biggest thing that the company has achieved is scale. There's, you know, hardly been anything quite like it. In the world prior to its existence in terms of connecting humans. So how did Facebook go from *** dorm room startup to *** titan of the tech industry? The story of Meta starts in 2003 when Mark Zuckerberg was *** Harvard sophomore. He created *** website that encouraged users to rate the attractiveness of fellow students. Shortly after, he built the Facebook.com, which connected Harvard students to each other. Quickly, the website expanded to include other.edu email addresses. By June of 2004, there were over 250,000 students signed up from over 34 colleges. Advertisers began to flock to the platform. By the end of 2. In 2005, it boasted 6 million monthly active users. As it opened up to international users, Facebook began to prove its importance in politics during the 2008 presidential election and the 2011 protests in Egypt. Activists and campaigners in both scenarios relied on Facebook's platform to disseminate information. 2012 then became *** pivotal year for the company. It went public. Founder Mark Zuckerberg, who's now 27 years old, will take it public. The IPO is expected to easily raise the $5 billion in cash Facebook says it needs to enhance and expand. That same year, the company bought Instagram. Increasingly looking to diversify, the company later bought WhatsApp and Oculus VR in 2014. More recently, by 2021, Facebook rebranded to Meta, spurred by Zuckerberg's drive towards the metaverse and the company's continual diversification. Oh hey Mark. How has the company and its many changes affected us and our society? There are in in almost *** countless number of different types of groups and, uh, types of identity and types of uh various formulations of kind of human connection that had been fostered uh on Facebook. Uh, I guess the thing is that that comes with unintended consequences and We don't know uh what it means necessarily to connect uh so many minds together. We don't know how it changes the way we interact with one another. Research increasingly points to the addictiveness of social media, especially on younger users. I'm on Facebook, on my iPad, on my Galaxy pad, on my cell phone, or on my laptop all day, all the time. Mehta has been *** key player in the research and debate. In fact, in October 2023, 41 states sued the company for knowingly using features on its platforms that caused compulsive use in children. The company has also been in the hot seat for other major issues, including privacy and interfering with democracy. The biggest scandal for Facebook of the last 20 years has to be the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The scandal revealed that millions of Facebook users' data had been harvested without their consent and used for political advertising for right-wing candidates, including Donald Trump and the Leave EU campaign in the UK. There's no good fighting an election campaign on the facts, because actually it's all about emotion. Uh, but headline after headline, of course, really brought to the fore the privacy concerns, uh, and for *** lot of folks really, uh, illustrated the sorts of concerns around possible political manipulation. Other issues of content mediation, cracking down on hate speech and extremist accounts have plagued the company and created *** more polarized online ecosystem. These societal changes have caused nations around the world to enact legislation to regulate big tech. In Europe, of course, they have now pretty much the building blocks of *** kind of total and comprehensive regulation. In the US we've done next to nothing at the federal level to really take on social media regulation or reform. The past 20 years have been tumultuous, to say the least, but with matter so cemented as an industry leader, what may happen in the next 20 years? Zuckerberg has put *** lot of hope and *** lot of stock into the idea that we all want to wander around in headsets and communicate with each other in three dimensions. The technology is not quite there yet for VR, but the future will tell whether it will be popular. I suspect the future for meta is probably more going to be dictated by its investments in artificial intelligence. For consumers, these often Free tools and platforms come with *** potential cost. The lifeblood of all of these companies is personal data, personal information on you, me, and every one of your viewers. And even if you're not on these platforms, these companies are collecting data about you. It's important for there to be privacy protections in place. It's important for us to continue to study the implications of the collection of that information and of the function of these sites on society.
The good, the bad and the ugly: Facebook’s 20th anniversary
Facebook began in a Harvard dorm room 20 years ago. Now it is one of the most influential companies in the world. Clarified traces Facebook’s history and impact, from achievements to scandals, and postulates what the next two decades could look like.
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Updated: 2:28 PM CST Jan 31, 2024
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Facebook, now Meta, started from humble beginnings 20 years ago on Feb. 4, 2004. A college sophomore, Mark Zuckerberg, launched the site from his Harvard dorm room, unaware of what the company would become. Currently, Meta has a market value of $599 billion and more than 3 billion people use at least one Meta product daily. Clarified takes a look back through the past two decades at Meta, its achievements and scandals, and posits what the future may look like for the tech titan. Zuckerberg first formulated the site in 2003 when he infamously created a website that encouraged its users to rank the attractiveness of his fellow classmates. The website was quickly disbanded after being accused of privacy violations. Shortly after in 2004 he built thefacebook.com to connect students at Harvard. The site expanded to include other students across the country and by June of that same year, 250,000 students were signed up from more than 34 colleges. By the end of 2005, it had 6 million active users and advertisers. Facebook then became available internationally and began to prove its importance in the arena of politics. During the 2008 US presidential election and the 2011 protests in Egypt, activists and campaigners both heavily relied upon the platform to disseminate information and communicate with one another. In 2012, the company went public and bought Instagram, introducing a new era of diversification. Later, it bought WhatsApp and Oculus VR. In 2021, the company rebranded to Meta to emphasize the company’s future in driving the metaverse revolution and its dozens of acquisitions.In those 20 years, a lot has changed in our society, partly because of companies like Meta. “There are an almost countless number of different types of groups and identities and various formulations of human connection that have been fostered on Facebook,” says Justin Hendrix, the editor of tech policy press. “that comes with unintended consequences, and we don't know what it means to connect so many minds together. We don't know how it changes the way we interact with one another.”These online connections have come under fire for increasing feelings of isolation and loneliness, as well as being purposefully addictive. In fact, in October 2023, 41 states and Washington D.C. sued Meta for knowingly using features on its platforms that cause compulsive use in children. The company has also been behind a host of other scandals, including those related to user privacy and interference with democracy and in elections. The biggest of those was the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which found that millions of Facebook users had their data unknowingly harvested and used for political advertising, particularly for right-wing candidates, including Donald Trump. The lack of sufficient content mediation in online spaces like Facebook as well as specific algorithms, have led to a more extreme and polarized internet. Looking to the future, Zuckerberg has put a lot of effort and investment into virtual reality and hopes to be at the forefront of the metaverse. Meta has also invested heavily into artificial intelligence, alongside other big tech companies like Microsoft and Alphabet. For Hendrix, the most important part of the future of technology in our lives will be continuing to research its effects and getting our lawmakers to enact legislation that protects users. “The lifeblood of all these companies is personal data, personal information on you, me and every one of your viewers,” he says. “ And even if you're not on these platforms, these companies are collecting data about you. It's important for there to be privacy protections in place.”
Facebook, now Meta, started from humble beginnings 20 years ago on Feb. 4, 2004. A college sophomore, Mark Zuckerberg, launched the site from his Harvard dorm room, unaware of what the company would become. Currently, Meta has a market value of $599 billion and more than 3 billion people use at least one Meta product daily. Clarified takes a look back through the past two decades at Meta, its achievements and scandals, and posits what the future may look like for the tech titan.
Zuckerberg first formulated the site in 2003 when he infamously created a website that encouraged its users to rank the attractiveness of his fellow classmates. The website was quickly disbanded after being accused of privacy violations. Shortly after in 2004 he built thefacebook.com to connect students at Harvard. The site expanded to include other students across the country and by June of that same year, 250,000 students were signed up from more than 34 colleges. By the end of 2005, it had 6 million active users and advertisers.
Facebook then became available internationally and began to prove its importance in the arena of politics. During the 2008 US presidential election and the 2011 protests in Egypt, activists and campaigners both heavily relied upon the platform to disseminate information and communicate with one another. In 2012, the company went public and bought Instagram, introducing a new era of diversification. Later, it bought WhatsApp and Oculus VR. In 2021, the company rebranded to Meta to emphasize the company’s future in driving the metaverse revolution and its dozens of acquisitions.
In those 20 years, a lot has changed in our society, partly because of companies like Meta. “There are an almost countless number of different types of groups and identities and various formulations of human connection that have been fostered on Facebook,” says Justin Hendrix, the editor of tech policy press. “that comes with unintended consequences, and we don't know what it means to connect so many minds together. We don't know how it changes the way we interact with one another.”
These online connections have come under fire for increasing feelings of isolation and loneliness, as well as being purposefully addictive. In fact, in October 2023, 41 states and Washington D.C. sued Meta for knowingly using features on its platforms that .
The company has also been behind a host of other scandals, including those related to user privacy and interference with democracy and in elections. The biggest of those was the , which found that millions of Facebook users had their data unknowingly harvested and used for political advertising, particularly for right-wing candidates, including Donald Trump. The lack of sufficient content mediation in online spaces like Facebook as well as specific algorithms, have led to a more extreme and polarized internet.
Looking to the future, Zuckerberg has put a lot of effort and investment into virtual reality and hopes to be at the forefront of the metaverse. Meta has also invested heavily into artificial intelligence, alongside other big tech companies like Microsoft and Alphabet.
For Hendrix, the most important part of the future of technology in our lives will be continuing to research its effects and getting our lawmakers to enact legislation that protects users. “The lifeblood of all these companies is personal data, personal information on you, me and every one of your viewers,” he says. “ And even if you're not on these platforms, these companies are collecting data about you. It's important for there to be privacy protections in place.”
