WEBVTT - The Story of Facebook 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:17.759 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:20.480 Welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Polette, and 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:22.360 I am an editor at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:25.880 Sitting across from me, as always, his senior writer, Jonathan Strickland, 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:30.800 better face the facts. It seems you can't get enough. Ah, Yes, 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:34.200 hundreds of millions of people can't get enough of our 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:39.360 tot Well, yeah, I would say hundreds of millions. In fact, 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:41.840 well I was gonna say, I'm sure a few hundred 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:44.000 million of them are fed up with it because they 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:46.559 did a design change probably in between the time we 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:49.639 record this and the time that this actually goes live. 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:54.320 But we're talking about Facebook, Yes, we have. We've recorded 0:00:54.400 --> 0:01:00.800 several podcasts about various aspects of Facebook, including Facebook and 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:04.959 its stands on privacy or lack thereof, and uh and 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:09.040 other other related topics, uh, Facebook apps. We did one 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:11.839 on the Facebook redesign a couple of years ago, which 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:14.400 is funny because they've been going to say several of 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:17.040 them after that. Yes, there's been more redesigns since then, 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:21.880 but we've never really talked about the actual history of 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:25.640 Facebook and and how it developed into what it is today. 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:29.120 And um, one of the things I'm really grateful about 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:33.960 for this topic is that there was one definitive timeline 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:37.039 that told us everything we needed to know. That no 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:40.319 one was arguing about about how Facebook got started and 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:43.880 who was responsible for it. Right, there's no controversy whatsoever, 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:50.440 nothing in dispute except everything unless your name is Winklevoss. Yeah, ah, 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:53.960 the Winklevosses. It's you know. On a side note before 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:56.600 we get into this, it's hard for me to feel 0:01:56.640 --> 0:02:00.680 sympathy towards them. It's hard for many, many, many people 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:03.200 to feel sympathy for that. When when you're known as 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:09.160 being a handsome, wealthy young person who was on the 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:14.040 Harvard rowing team, extremely athletic olympians exactly, you get to 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:20.560 that point where you're thinking, okay, fine, but yes, the 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:25.079 story of Facebook is um is mired in controversy. Actually, 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:27.720 what you may know if you saw the film and 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:30.840 I am not calling it a documentary because some people 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:35.080 did think of it as a documentary, not the comedy. Yeah, 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:40.440 Social Network, which and believe it or not, this is 0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:44.240 a film that I have seen and Jonathan, but but 0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:50.600 Sorkin himself was very he very specifically pointed out, this 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:54.520 is not a documentary. It was a dramatization based upon 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:58.720 one account of the origins of Facebook, and it took 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:02.400 a lot of liberties with the story for dramatic purposes, 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:05.839 which is, you know, that's what movies do. So that's 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:07.919 why I'm not going to call it. I jokingly call 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:10.239 things documentaries when this case I definitely don't want to 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:13.519 do like that. It is not a documentary. But there 0:03:13.600 --> 0:03:16.240 is some truth in it. Yeah, there's there's some truth, 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:19.520 and some of it is still kind of ripped from 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:22.120 the headlines. Yeah, I'll ripped from the headlines, but some 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:25.720 of it is still kind of in that weird, nebulous 0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:29.920 realm of where does you know who's at fault and 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:33.480 what exactly happened. But let's let's let's look back to 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:38.240 the very beginnings. Um, we're talking about around two thousand two, 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:45.360 one Harvard student named Divya Narinda had kind of come 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:49.960 up with an idea for a platform for Harvard students 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.520 to use that would allow them to connect socially with 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:58.000 one another online, perhaps some sort of online social network 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:00.760 for example, but that was back in two thousand two 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:03.440 when He's first started getting the idea. Then he he 0:04:03.520 --> 0:04:08.200 met up with the Winklevoss twins Cameron Cameron and Tyler 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:12.640 Winklevoss uh and together around in two thousand three. In 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:15.520 the fall of two thousand three, they started to seriously 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:18.640 discuss this and try and come up with a way 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:21.680 of creating it, and their idea was going to be 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:28.679 called Harvard Connections dot com. UH. It eventually would evolve 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:33.440 into connect you dot com the letter letter you, which 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:36.039 could mean connect you as in you the person, or 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:39.320 connect you as in university because they had they had 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:43.520 envisioned this as being a social network for college students. 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:48.159 They were originally going to launch it on Harvard's servers 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:51.159 and just to have Harvard students be involved, and then 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:54.719 we're eventually planning to opening opening this up to students 0:04:54.839 --> 0:05:00.240 at other universities. So they start working on this this 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:06.479 project and they hire They are not developers. They they've 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:08.480 got the idea, but they don't have the expertise. So 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:12.280 first they hire a guy named Victor gau g a 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:18.320 o UH. They hire him, but Victor eventually decides he 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:20.640 needs to leave the project. It's just two time consuming 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:22.479 and he doesn't have the time and effort to be 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:25.200 able to pour into it. But he comes up with 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:27.720 a name of a guy that he thinks would be 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:31.800 perfect to help them develop this project. That guy was 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:34.600 a nineteen year old by the name of Mark Zuckerberg. 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:37.320 I feel like I've heard that name, but I don't. 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:39.599 I don't. Yeah, I'm sure I'll think of where I 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:42.599 heard it before. Well, at this point, Winkle, the Winklevoss twins, 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:46.920 and Nerenda are all seniors at Harvard. Zuckerberg at the 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:50.960 time was a sophomore. So Zuckerberg comes onto the project 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:52.960 and takes a look at what, talks to them about 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:55.640 what they want, and says, yeah, this is a great idea. 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:57.960 I'm going to help you build this out and I 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:01.800 will um, I'll put the functionality in and we'll have 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:03.960 more meetings about this. So this is all taking place 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:06.160 in the fall of two thousand three. Yeah. Now, now, 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:10.960 Zuckerberg had been working on other similar types of projects. Yeah. 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:14.080 In fact, the reason why Victor suggested Zuckerberg in the 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:18.240 first place is Zuckerberg was had launched a very high profile, 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:24.039 controversial site at Harvard called face mash. Yes. And the 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:28.800 reason why this was controversial was that what Zuckerberg did, Zuckerberg, 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:33.200 as it turns out, seems to have a a fast 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:36.720 and loose approach when it comes to things like privacy 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:40.520 and rules that was more evident in the past than 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:45.920 it is now. Arguably he's well, he's because now he's incorporated, 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:50.240 he's been more careful about his personal views. His messaging 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:52.720 is a little is maybe a little more careful, I think, 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:55.240 probably because his lawyers have told him to be right. 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:57.960 So what he did with face mash was that he 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:02.400 used it was it was brilliant and it was brazen. 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:05.320 At the same time, he created a site that what 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:08.200 it would do is it would collect images of Harvard 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:12.240 students from other from databases on at Harvard. He essentially 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:16.000 hacked into these systems like the directories. Yeah, I guess 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:19.400 hacked is probably too strong a term. He created code 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:22.760 that would access these directories and pull information from them. 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:24.960 So it wasn't so much as this is a closed 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:27.760 system that he was trying to get access to. He 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:30.560 was just grabbing information that was available and putting it 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:33.440 on a new platform. Right. In this case, the information 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:40.280 were photos would pull photos names of various students at Harvard, Yeah, exactly. 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:42.400 And what face mesh would do is it would pair 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:45.200 two people on a site and you would vote which 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:48.760 person was more attractive, and it kept a tally of 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:52.360 the people who were being voted the most attractive over 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:54.600 and over again. So that part of the site was 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:58.679 just this fun thing where you would go on and say, oh, well, uh, 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:02.680 she's more attractive than than than she is, or or 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:05.239 she and him or he and he whatever. He would 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:06.840 vote and vote and vote and vote, and they would 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:08.360 keep this tally. And then you could also go and 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:13.040 look at the most attractive students at Harvard University. Um. 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:16.480 This kind of upset the college board, the student board 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:19.080 at Harvard, not to mention a few of the students 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:23.200 who didn't want their pictures being judged up there. Yeah yeah, 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:28.520 it Harvard's a little conservative, as it turns out. Um, 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:31.920 so the students, uh, student board kind of brought Mark 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:36.400 Mark Zuckerberg up on the you know, saying that this 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:39.800 was not a very smart thing to do, that it 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:46.040 was a violated privacy dude. Yeah, and uh he was not. Um, 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:49.080 he was not expelled for this, but he was reprimanded 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:52.040 for it, yes, and said that he was charged specifically 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:56.400 with breaching security, violating copyrights, and violating individual privacy. So 0:08:56.600 --> 0:08:59.680 face mash gets shut down, but he had. He was 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:02.880 fairly notorious on campus already because of this, and it 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:05.320 was such a successful site. So he was thought of 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:08.440 as a guy who could develop not just stuff that worked, 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:11.160 but stuff that appealed to people. And that's why Victor 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:13.320 had said, this is the guy you should get to 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:17.079 help develop your connect you project. Now I didn't run 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:19.960 across this in my actual research, but on the in 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:23.520 the movie. Uh And again I don't know whether or 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:26.560 not it's actual fact or that was gussied up for 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:29.360 the script, but they said that one of the other 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:32.160 problems that they had with it was that the it 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:35.160 texts the university's network because it was very very popular. 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:39.160 Um it was. It was definitely popular. Though whether or 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:42.400 not it actually texts their broad band is yeah, I 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:45.080 don't know about that, but yeah, the fact that it 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:50.280 was very popular attracted that that would have attracted interest. Yes, 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:54.480 so uh So anyway, Mark Zuckerberg joins the connect You team, 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:57.000 and again this is taking place in the fall of 0:09:57.000 --> 0:09:59.040 two thousand three, fall and winter of two thousand three 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:02.760 could possibly go. He's he starts sending the messages. When 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:05.360 they're asking him, Hey, what's the status on this project, 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:08.240 he starts sending back messages saying, Oh, I'm really busy. 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:10.440 I've got a lot of schoolwork. But don't worry. I'm 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:12.120 gonna be working on this. It's just I'm gonna have 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:14.280 to put it off a little bit longer, but we'll 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:15.920 be able to launch. We're just gonna probably launch a 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:20.320 little later than we had planned. Uh, skip ahead into 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:25.520 two thousand four and then uh, specifically, February four, two 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:31.800 thousand four, Zuckerberg launches a an online site called the 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:36.520 Facebook dot com for Harvard students, and it's a social 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:41.319 site where people can create profiles and connect with other students, 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:45.560 which might sound a little similar to something that the 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:48.600 Winklevosses were working on. In fact, the Winklevosses loot so 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:54.480 and within six days of Facebook being launched, the Winklevosses 0:10:54.559 --> 0:11:01.000 and Nearinda said, Dude, you're working for us, and this 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:03.520 thing that you just launched looks an awful lot like 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:06.679 the thing we want to launch. What's up with that? 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:10.000 And you were telling us this whole time that you 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:13.320 didn't have the time to work on our project that 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:15.800 we thought you were a part of. And in fact, 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:21.679 this later developed into a very serious lawsuit against Facebook, 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:26.199 which stretched on for several years and it um In fact, 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:29.320 it went on until two thousand eight, when there was 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:32.920 a settlement and settlement for sixty five million dollars, and 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:38.600 then the Winklevosses decided to um appeal that settlement, saying 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:43.440 that really doesn't reflect the enormity of the problem here, 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:47.120 whereas the judges in the cases I was reviewing, we're 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:51.960 essentially saying, hey, this wasn't Zuckerberg was not under a contract. 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:55.320 This was like just people chatting in a dorm room. 0:11:55.360 --> 0:11:58.839 It wasn't. It wasn't like a legally binding thing. And 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:04.079 and you haven't really proved than that, Uh, Zuckerberg stole 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:07.520 information from connect You, And in fact, most of the 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:10.640 reports I read suggests that the way he implemented things 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:13.800 on the Facebook dot com was not the way they 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:16.679 were trying to implement things for connect You. In fact, 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:20.160 that they us Zuckerberg himself referred to Connect You as 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:23.520 more or less a dating site, which to him was 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:26.040 too narrow a view. He didn't want to create a 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:28.920 site just to try and find a date. He wanted 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:31.040 to create a site that would allow people to connect 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:34.400 with one another on multiple levels, not just trying to 0:12:34.400 --> 0:12:38.600 find a relationship. So, uh, it may very well be 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:42.480 that the Facebook dot com and connect you dot com 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:47.560 we're not identical. Like, it wasn't that that Zuckerberg was 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:51.760 stealing stuff to implement into Facebook. It's just that the 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:56.720 two platforms were at least similar, they were going after 0:12:56.760 --> 0:13:00.720 a similar population. The fact that were going across the 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:03.040 identical population originally because it was going to be the 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:09.440 Harvard students, right, and that Zuckerberg was purposefully holding back 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:12.000 the connect you projects so that he would have a 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:16.680 favorable launch for Facebook, which again you might say it's unethical, 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:19.760 but it's different. It's a different kind of unethical than 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:25.880 stealing intellectual property. So I can't I don't think Zuckerberg's 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:30.800 hands are clean in this, not fully clean, but I 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:35.360 don't necessarily believe he was lifting ideas from the wink 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:38.319 of voss is. But he certainly wasn't helping their cause 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:41.720 at all. And in fact, um that's really evident now 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:45.839 because Facebook is huge and connect You is not. It 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:49.840 doesn't exist. Yeah, And then there's Ah, then there is 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:54.960 a person named Aaron Greenspan, uh who who was working 0:13:55.000 --> 0:14:00.439 on his own site, which he was calling House System. Um. 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:02.480 And in two thousand and three he now he's at 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:05.440 Harvard student And in two thousand three he was promoting 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:09.479 his site with the brand new feature called the Facebook, 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:15.480 which showed up before the Facebook dot com. And uh, 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:20.280 you know, so there are several people who would like 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:24.320 to disagree with Zuckerberg's assertion that he was the one 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:26.920 who came up with the entire thing himself, right, And 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:30.840 then there's there's some other problems too. Um, there's some 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:33.920 other controversies in this these early days of Facebook. So 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:38.280 six days after Facebook launches, there's the complaint from the 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:43.640 Winklevoss twins um and uh. And Zuckerberg starts to worry 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:48.120 that that the college is going to get involved in 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:52.480 this dispute, and in fact is worried about um, the 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:59.880 folks from connect you at connecting with the the university newspaper. 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:04.960 So uh, Harvard crimson is one of the problems. So 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:08.160 so he starts to it starts to really get complicated. Now, 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:12.680 at one point there were allegations of Zuckerberg hacking into 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:17.880 connect you profiles to make them less useful, and that 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:24.640 he was supposedly um accessing connect you profiles and changing 0:15:24.640 --> 0:15:29.720 a setting to turn profiles invisible to other people. So 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:32.480 if you log into your profile, you might say, why 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:34.480 is no one interacting with me? And it's because no 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:37.320 one can find you because he had gone in there 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:40.520 and reset your your settings so that it was a 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:46.440 private profile. Uh. And so it was essentially a case 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:52.760 of sabotage if those allegations are indeed true. But beyond that, uh, 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:55.680 there was the point of worrying about the Winkle bosses 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:59.800 going to the Crimson and saying Zuckerberg ripped us off. 0:16:00.400 --> 0:16:04.440 And so the Crimson reporters, for their part, were doing 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:07.080 their due diligence and reporting the news and trying to 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:10.120 research this before they ran a story. So they went 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:13.680 to Zuckerberg and they asked him, you know, about the allegations, 0:16:13.680 --> 0:16:16.400 and he said, look, the stuff on the Facebook dot 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:19.560 com the platform is totally different and the implementation is 0:16:19.600 --> 0:16:22.360 totally different from connect you. And he said I can 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:25.720 even prove it. And originally he wanted them to sign 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:30.120 a non disclosure agreement. Uh, while he showed them that 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:33.720 the two systems were totally different, but they're reporters, and 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:37.480 they said, uh, we don't do that because then we 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:40.880 couldn't report on it. What would be the point. So 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:45.480 eventually Zuckerberg agrees to show them without the use of 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:48.720 an NDIA, and they also come to the same conclusion. 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:54.560 They say, no, these two systems are different enough so that, uh, 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:57.520 we don't see that there's really any allegation that could 0:16:57.560 --> 0:16:59.800 be supported by this. We don't really think there's a 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:05.919 story here. So they kind of back off, but the 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:09.119 story doesn't in there. The Winklevoz continue. The wink Winklevoss 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:13.359 twins continue to pressure the Crimson reporters, saying, look, there's 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:17.800 something more here and we need you to really look 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:22.720 into this, and so the story keeps on moving. Zuckerberg 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:26.679 doesn't know what's going on and allegedly decides to access 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:30.479 the reporter's email to hack the reporter's email, although it's 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:35.040 not really hacking because here's what he did. He looked 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:38.240 at the servers for the Facebook dot com. He looked 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:41.280 for profiles of people who were reporters or worked for 0:17:41.440 --> 0:17:45.840 the Crimson, and then he looked for any records of 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:50.960 failed lugin attempts and looked at the failed passwords to 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:54.920 guess the real password, and then assumed that the real 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:57.800 password for the Facebook dot Com account would likely be 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:02.200 the same one used for the email, then logged into 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:08.640 the email. Yeah, so not really hacking, because hacking would involve, 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:12.919 you know, some sort of guesswork or decrypt ing or No. 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:15.600 He was just taking a list of passwords that he 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:17.879 had available to him because he was the one running 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:20.400 the show at the Facebook dot Com and using the 0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:23.880 logic that most people don't bother with creating different passwords 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:26.280 for different accounts. This, by the way, is where we 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:30.280 tell you make different passwords for your various accounts. It's 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:32.399 a pain in the butt, but it prevents stuff like 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:35.560 this from happening where someone you know, you never know. 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:37.639 There may be a service that you connect to and 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:40.720 everyone but one person in that company is on the 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:42.960 up and up, but that one person is kind of 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:46.000 a jerk, and then they use that information to try 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:49.360 and access your your stuff elsewhere. That's why you need 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:52.880 to have different passwords, unique passwords for each place. So 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:56.280 he starts to try and access email. The ironic thing 0:18:56.320 --> 0:18:59.080 here was that the reporters had come again come to 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:02.320 the conclusion that there isn't really a story there, and 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:05.000 so they weren't really moving on stuff. They were going 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:07.200 to report the story, but they weren't going to come 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:13.240 down on uh. You know, this is a legitimate, uh allegation. Um, 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:17.000 so that that's also kind of interesting. Uh. And again 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:20.119 I have to say, all of these are allegations that 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:23.520 have been leveled. There's no definitive yes he did or 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:27.600 no he did not. There are the nials from Facebook 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:30.480 essentially come down to we don't comment on that because 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:34.560 we don't want to give more uh publicity to people 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:39.119 who are dragging up mud and just slinging it at Zuckerberg. 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:42.679 We stand by the success of Facebook dot com. Yeah. 0:19:42.800 --> 0:19:45.560 I think there's really only one person who knows everything 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:54.760 for sure. Yeah, and he's incredibly rich, so uh Yeah. 0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:58.080 Then in that same year, in two thousand four, in 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:02.520 September two thoour he at the first round of of 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:07.199 real investment money, which came from the former PayPal CEO 0:20:07.359 --> 0:20:11.960 Peter Thiel, who poured in half a million into Facebook. 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:17.359 That's pretty impressive, although at the time before that, the 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:22.280 man who was funding the Facebook servers was another Harvard 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:26.840 student Eduardo Severin, Yes, and he was. He was a 0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:29.280 big part of the company for quite some time. Yeah. 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:34.400 I think he owned like a share of Facebook dot com, 0:20:34.400 --> 0:20:38.639 which seven or fifty million active users, multibillion dollar company. 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:44.400 That's that's some that's some hard cash right there. So yeah, 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:48.439 that's uh, that's the that's the really controversial part of 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:51.399 the beginning of Facebook. And like we said, you know, 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:54.639 there was the whole the whole lawsuit, the settlement, the 0:20:54.680 --> 0:20:59.000 appeal of the settlement, but there are other um parts 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:03.680 of Facebook that had some controversy that same year. Uh 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:07.520 for example, Well, first of all, before I jump ahead there, 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:11.399 it launched in February, and March it opened up to 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:15.000 not just Harvard, but to Stanford and Columbia and Yale 0:21:15.080 --> 0:21:18.000 as well. So March of two thousand four, now it's 0:21:18.200 --> 0:21:22.760 up open to four universities. Um. In June, that's when 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:26.919 Zuckerberg's like, this is this is what I'm doing. I'm 0:21:26.920 --> 0:21:29.160 gonna be I'm gonna make a ment, this is my 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:32.720 this is my meal ticket and he high tails it 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:36.879 out to Palo Alto, California. That becomes the headquarters for Facebook. 0:21:36.920 --> 0:21:42.560 So Harvard no longer uh. In September two four, they 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:45.800 add the application of groups so that you can create 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:48.760 groups within Facebook, so that you've got your own like 0:21:48.960 --> 0:21:52.960 group of folks who have a similar interest or are 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:57.000 from a similar place. Uh, and they add the wall 0:21:57.440 --> 0:22:00.280 to the profile because before we gotta remember, you know, 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:04.199 today it's easy to forget that. When Facebook first launched, 0:22:04.280 --> 0:22:07.560 it was incredibly basic. You had a profile page. It 0:22:07.640 --> 0:22:09.520 was a profile page where people could find out more 0:22:09.520 --> 0:22:12.000 information about you. That was pretty much it. So if 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:15.480 you wanted to have Jonathan on your list of people, 0:22:15.560 --> 0:22:19.080 basically you would bookmark the page and go back there. Yeah, 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:21.160 and it would just really like a directory. It would 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:23.920 be almost like an online business card, but a little 0:22:23.920 --> 0:22:27.639 more personal than that. And then, uh, but in September 0:22:27.680 --> 0:22:29.199 that's when they have two thousand four US when they 0:22:29.200 --> 0:22:32.159 added the wall feature where you could update little status 0:22:32.280 --> 0:22:34.680 is and that's where you got the whole you know, tonight, 0:22:34.720 --> 0:22:39.600 I'm gonna go out to blah blah blah. However, no education. However, 0:22:39.680 --> 0:22:42.400 to see what your friends were talking about, you still 0:22:42.400 --> 0:22:45.719 had to visit their profile. So in other words, if 0:22:45.720 --> 0:22:47.560 I wanted to know what Chris was up to, I 0:22:47.600 --> 0:22:50.399 would go to Chris's profile and read it on his page. 0:22:50.560 --> 0:22:53.240 It wouldn't show up on my page at all. We'll 0:22:53.240 --> 0:22:55.280 get into that because that's another thing, is that it's 0:22:55.320 --> 0:22:59.000 easy to forget when the features of Facebook got introduced. Yeah. 0:22:59.000 --> 0:23:00.359 As a matter of fact, I think a lot of 0:23:00.359 --> 0:23:03.439 people since um, since it was originally aimed at college 0:23:03.440 --> 0:23:06.920 students U, it may be difficult for the majority of 0:23:06.960 --> 0:23:09.440 the rest of us who didn't have accounts until Facebook 0:23:09.440 --> 0:23:12.359 went public um. And I don't mean I p O, 0:23:12.480 --> 0:23:14.880 I mean opened up to opened up to the public. 0:23:15.440 --> 0:23:18.480 Um that that we realized that and a lot of 0:23:18.520 --> 0:23:22.439 these features had already been implemented, the very basics had 0:23:22.480 --> 0:23:24.240 been implemented. Will be getting into one of those in 0:23:24.280 --> 0:23:27.560 a minute. But yeah, Uh, back then it was you 0:23:28.040 --> 0:23:31.200 had to be a college student or to be able 0:23:31.200 --> 0:23:34.360 to access Facebook at that point, and it before two 0:23:34.400 --> 0:23:37.359 thousand four was over, they had switched from the Facebook 0:23:37.400 --> 0:23:41.600 to Facebook. Uh. Also, in fall of two thousand four 0:23:42.640 --> 0:23:45.479 they tried to launch, in fact, they do launch another 0:23:45.560 --> 0:23:48.680 service that connects to Facebook. This should sound familiar to 0:23:48.720 --> 0:23:51.639 anyone who's used any sort of application which requires you 0:23:51.680 --> 0:23:55.120 to connect through Facebook. First, they called it wire Hog. 0:23:55.840 --> 0:23:59.040 Do you remember wire Hog? No, I don't wire Hog. 0:23:59.119 --> 0:24:00.760 I mean I've heard of it, but I don't remember it. 0:24:00.880 --> 0:24:03.280 So wire Hog launched in two thousand four, fall of 0:24:03.320 --> 0:24:05.040 two thousand four, and the idea was that it was 0:24:05.040 --> 0:24:08.280 going to be a sharing platform that would allow you 0:24:08.320 --> 0:24:11.840 to share things like photos or music from your computer 0:24:11.960 --> 0:24:13.960 with other people, so almost like a peer to peer thing. 0:24:14.000 --> 0:24:16.960 But it used Facebook's log in system as a connector. 0:24:17.440 --> 0:24:20.240 So it was a precursor to a lot of the 0:24:20.280 --> 0:24:24.160 other websites and applications that you know, you you log 0:24:24.240 --> 0:24:26.520 in through Facebook and then you can interact more with 0:24:26.600 --> 0:24:29.760 that site. It kind of was a predecessor to that 0:24:30.240 --> 0:24:33.520 now because of the file to file sort of relationship 0:24:34.040 --> 0:24:36.840