Facebook’s Questionable History, Revealed

Silicon Alley Insider has posted a long exposé that paints the founding of Facebook, at Harvard in 2004, in a most seamy light. Based on “purported IMs” and unsubstantiated by any explanation of where the IMs came from and why we should believe they’re genuine, the story is thinly sourced, to say the least. But its allegations fall directly in line with the unappealing public persona of Mark Zuckerberg, who is alleged to have appropriated the idea for Facebook from a couple of Harvard seniors for whom he agreed to do the original coding for their social-media site, then called Harvard Connection.

Briefly, according to the messages detailed in the Silicon Alley Insider story, Zuckerberg, after agreeing to develop the Harvard Connections site, delayed and derailed that project while developing his own version, originally called “thefacebook.com.” Here’s the money quote, from an IM exchange between Zuckerberg and Exeter prep school classmate Adam D’Angelo, later to become Facebook’s CTO:

I feel like the right thing to do is finish the facebook and wait until the last day before I'm supposed to have their thing ready and then be like "look yours isn't as good as this so if you want to join mine you can...otherwise I can help you with yours later.”

That’s an interesting take on “the right thing to do.” In a momentary spasm of conscience, Zuckerberg also asked, “Or do you think that’s too d**k?”

Getting over it, he launched Facebook a few weeks later, and the rest is history. In 2008, Zuckerberg agreed to settle with the creators of Harvard Connection (later ConnectU.com) – who, it seems, had nothing more than what a judge called “dorm-room chitchat” on which to base their claims -- for a reported $65 million.

Again, I cannot vouch that the material on which the Silicon Alley Insider story is based is genuine. At the very least, though, the story demonstrates that in dealing with someone who has the moral fiber of a rabid weasel, it’s best to always have them sign a written NDA/non-compete agreement. Even if it’s just dorm-room chitchat.