{"id":12694,"date":"2023-12-06T15:45:11","date_gmt":"2023-12-06T14:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ceoinfluencers.com\/?p=12694"},"modified":"2023-12-06T15:45:11","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T14:45:11","slug":"did-mark-zuckerberg-stole-facebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ceoinfluencers.com\/did-mark-zuckerberg-stole-facebook\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Mark Zuckerberg Stole Facebook"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Facebook is one of the most influential social networks of all time, having gained more than two billion active users in a relatively short period of time. The company was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his Harvard roommates in 2004 and grew exponentially from there. But did Mark Zuckerberg really “steal” the idea for Facebook?<\/p>\n

The allegations originally came from Rebecca Gibbons at the University of San Jose, California in 2004, who claimed that Zuckerberg had stolen her idea for social networking and used it for Facebook. However, the contention was never proven. In fact, it was later revealed that Zuckerberg had been working on the concept of social networking for a few years prior and had actually come up with the idea himself. This would suggest that he did not steal the idea for Facebook.<\/p>\n

The issue came up again in 2008, when Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, twin brothers who had gone to Harvard and worked with Zuckerberg, filed a lawsuit against him, claiming that he had stolen their concept for a social networking site. They contended that Zuckerberg had taken their idea and used it as the foundation for Facebook. However, the lawsuit was eventually settled out of court and the two brothers received a settlement of cash and stocks in Facebook that was valued at over $160 million.<\/p>\n

The Winklevoss lawsuit was one of the major turning points in the history of Facebook, but it did not prove that Zuckerberg had stolen the idea for the website. Even if the lawsuit had been successful, there’s no guarantee that it would have been proven that Zuckerberg had actually stolen the idea. In fact, Zuckerberg has consistently maintained that he came up with the concept himself.<\/p>\n