Zuckerberg Called People on Harvard Connect 'Dumb'

Photo credit: Getty Images
Photo credit: Getty Images

From ELLE

Back in 2010, shortly before the release of The Social Network, a film that famously documented the sketchy history of Facebook, The New Yorker published its own profile of Facebook co-founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.

Yes, this is the same Zuckerberg who's been testifying before Congress as a direct response to the social platform's latest scandal involving Cambridge Analytica. The questions from Congress have mostly centered around Facebook's dedication to its users' privacy and the protection-and selling-of their data.

Funnily enough, this line of questioning directly ties back to that OG New Yorker profile, which included a few select IMs Zuckerberg sent back in his Harvard days, when he was first building the site.

The New Yorker reported that a site called Silicon Alley Insider first obtained these messages and posted a transcript. One of the conversations references Zuckerberg's ability to access information about any Harvard student:

Zuck: yea so if you ever need info about anyone at harvard
Zuck: just ask
Zuck: i have over 4000 emails, pictures, addresses, sns
Friend: what!? how’d you manage that one?
Zuck: people just submitted it
Zuck: i don’t know why
Zuck: they “trust me”
Zuck: dumb fucks

When asked about the messages, Zuckerberg said he "absolutely" regretted them. He told the magazine, "If you’re going to go on to build a service that is influential and that a lot of people rely on, then you need to be mature, right? I think I’ve grown and learned a lot." He also said he shouldn't still be defined by his past immaturity. "I think a lot people will look at that stuff, you know, when I was nineteen, and say, 'Oh, well, he was like that... He must still be like that, right?'"

While it's true that Zuckerberg has grown (and grown Facebook) over the past 14 years, it's safe to say these past "mistakes" will continue to follow him, as long as he's in the public eye. Or, like, being questioned by the government.

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