Facebook: Twenty Years

On 4 February 2004, a social networking site was launched to students of Harvard University. Calling itself TheFacebook, it allowed them to connect with each other using their university emails and photos. It was founded by a psychology and computer science student called Mark Zuckerberg, along with other Harvard students. Zuckerberg had previously developed a site called “FaceMash” on which visitors could compare the photos of two students and decide which one was more attractive.

TAGGING AND LIKES

Within twenty-four hours, 1,200 students had signed up to TheFacebook. Within a month, more than half the university’s undergraduates were members. The platform expanded to other US universities, high schools and tech companies like Apple and Microsoft. In 2005, the site changed its name to Facebook and introduced the idea of tagging people in photos. News Feed was launched in 2006. The ‘Like’ button appeared in 2009. 

GLOBAL SUCCESS

Facebook quickly went global. People all over the world discovered that you could keep in touch with family and friends constantly, make new friends easily, and express yourself freely without the discomfort of physical interaction. Advertisers discovered that they could engage customers directly, which brought even more people to Facebook. By 2012, the platform had over 1 billion monthly active users.

ADDICTION AND BULLYING

However, social dilemmas were beginning to arise. People tended to carefully curate their pages and image, and the scroll of miscellaneous attention-seeking ‘news’ became endless. The site became a source of distraction, unhealthy comparison and insecurity. It was easy to troll, stalk or bully someone on Facebook, or to mislead them by creating a false identity. 

DEALS WITH DATA

Facebook also faced major controversies related to privacy, content moderation, influence on media, ethical concerns and security issues. It has been criticised for its handling of user data, such as in the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal when, in the 2010s, personal data belonging to millions of users was collected without their consent and used for political advertising. Facebook has also been criticised for its opaque policies on dangerous content, including hate speech, incitement of violence and the spread of disinformation.

THE METAVERSE

In 2021, Facebook had nearly three billion users, making it the largest social network in the world. That year, the company changed its name to Meta. CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he now wants to focus the company on building the metaverse, a shared virtual environment that will fuse physical and digital worlds. The success of the metaverse is a topic of ongoing debate and speculation.