Mark Zuckerberg reveals what The Social Network movie got completely wrong about how he started Facebook
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg has opened up about what The Social Network movie got completely wrong about how he created the platform, admitting he 'only saw it once'.
The 42-year-old, whose net worth is now estimated to be around $189 billion, started Facebook from his Harvard University dorm room in 2004, when he was just 19 years old.
But it wasn't until 2010 that a film was made about Facebook's origins, with The Social Network becoming one of the first major Hollywood movies to dramatise the rise of a modern tech company.
It follows Zuckerberg as he creates a campus website after a breakup, before turning it into what would become Facebook.
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The film also explores the legal battles that followed the platform's rapid rise, including disputes with co-founder Eduardo Saverin.
But over 15 years on from its release, the dad-of-three has revealed what the movie got completely wrong about how he created the platform.
Speaking on the The Colin and Samir Show, Zuckerberg said: "I only saw it once but I took our whole company to see it, I figured everyone at the company was gonna see it anyway so we might as well just take everyone to go see it.
"It was weird man, cause they got all these very specific details of like what I was wearing, the specific things correct, but then the whole narrative arc around my motivations and all this stuff were like completely wrong."
He noted that the entire 'arc' of the film is based on him building the platform to find a girlfriend, but the tech billionaire admitted he was dating his wife, Priscilla Chan, before he started Facebook.
Dispelling common myths, he added: "It’s an unfortunate part of the internet how people make up a lot of the founding mythology, people cast it as if Facemash, that prank thing that I made, was the precursor to Facebook, I guess because they have face in the name, but Facemash was a prank, completely separate from Facebook.
"To this day, 21 years later, largely because of the movie, people are like oh yeah you started this as a service to rate the attractiveness of people."
He confirmed that Facebook was a much 'more interesting and ambitious project' than what the film perceived it to be.
Since launching Facebook, Zuckerberg expanded the company by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp, with the business later rebranding as Meta in 2021.
Topics: Facebook, Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, Technology, Film and TV
Mia Williams