Facebook, Inc. [est. 2004] Page at Spirit of America Bookstore

"If you wanted to build a machine that would distribute propaganda to millions of people, distract them from important issues, energize
hatred and bigotry, erode social trust, undermine respectable journalism, foster doubts about science, and engage in massive surveillance
all at once, you would make something a lot like Facebook." ~~~ Siva Vaidhyanathan, professor at the University of Virginia

          short history
          t e x t
          h e r e

In February 2011, Facebook purchased the 57-acre, ten-building former campus of Sun Microsystems in Menlo Park, and completed the move from its longtime location/s in Palo Alto by December 2011. In September 2012, architect Frank Gehry showed Facebook execs his free-form design for the 22-acre Facebook West office building across the road that is expected to complete in 2015.

Why is Facebook blue? According to The New Yorker Magazine, the reason is simple: It's because Mark Zuckerberg is red-green colorblind.

Facebook is quite the internet nag: If you don't log in for a day or two, Facebook will send as many as three 'reminder' emails in a day, telling you that you are missing lots of activity (such as that lone Friend Request from a stranger that showed up a week ago).

Facebook disabled 583 million fake accounts and millions of spam, sex and hate speech posts during the first three months of 2018; Facebook also removed 21 million pieces of content featuring sex or nudity, 2.5 million pieces of hate speech, and almost 2 million items related to terrorism by al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.

Facebook / Cambridge Analytica Scandal - March 2018

Friday March 16: Facebook banned Cambridge Analytica, a firm that ran data operations for President Trump's 2016 campaign; Facebook also banned parent company Kogan.

Monday March 19: Facebook's stock fell by 7.1 percent as CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced calls from U.S. and European leaders to explain how a data firm linked to President Trump's campaign (Cambridge Analytica) got access to information on 50 million Facebook users. Facebook shares finished the day down 13 percent from a record high reached in February - Zuckerberg is said to have lost $6B (virtual money) on that single day.

Tuesday March 20: Cambridge Analytica suspended CEO Alexander Nix pending a full investigation into the undercover video that was broadcast by Britain's Channel 4 News in which Nix appeared to boast of the data firm's success in influencing elections in foreign countries.

2018 Wednesday April 4: Facebook confirmed that as many as 87 million users (71 million of them Americans) were harvested by 'malicious actors'; the website's basic search function has been shut down (for repairs). A Facebook blog post stated that "Given the scale and sophistication of the activity [that] we've seen, we believe [that] most people on Facebook could have had their public profile 'scraped'."

2018 September data breach

2018 Oct 11: Facebook announced that it had purged more than 559 pages and 251 accounts for flooding users with political content.

2018 Oct 12: Facebook clarified its announcement about the September data breach. Only some 30 million users were affected; of those, 14 million had detailed personal information stolen; an additional 15 million users had their name & contact information accessed; and 1 million users were affected but did not have any information stolen; Facebook says that the F.B.I. is investigating the breach.

2020 Tuesday Oct 6: Facebook announced that it is banning all QAnon groups, accounts, and pages from both Facebook & Instagram; the policy resulted in the deletion of 1,500 pages, groups, and profiles; further work to remove these accounts will be "led by Facebook's Dangerous Organizations Operations team".

2020 Oct 12: Facebook changed course and is now officially banning "any content that denies or distorts the Holocaust" from its platform because of "rising anti-Semitism".

2020 Monday evening Oct 19th: The Facebook website changed radically. The ONLY option now is the cellphone/PDA view, there is NO other option available. So on any 1500-pixel desktop screen, the left-hand third and the right-hand third are blank and completely worthless.

2021 Thu Jan 7: Social media giant Facebook, Inc. announced that it was extending indefinitely a temporary block on President Trump's Facebook & Instagram accounts. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that Trump's encouragement of a mob before it stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday showed that the risks of letting Trump continue to use the company's platforms were 'simply too great', so it was 'extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete'. Facebook and its photo-sharing service, Instagram, then suspended Trump from posting over 24 hours starting Wednesday evening, and the tech giant joined Twitter and YouTube in taking down the president’s earlier video. Facebook also said it would remove harmful content posted by other users similarly promoting riots at the U.S. Capitol.

2021 Jan 8: Still-President Trump was indefinitely suspended from Facebook due to his actions surrounding the Capitol riot, with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg citing Trump's "use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government" and saying that "the risks of allowing the president to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great".

2021 May 5: Facebook's Oversight Board announced its decision to uphold the platform's suspension of former President Donald Trump. At the same time, the board also ruled that it "was not appropriate" for Facebook to indefinitely suspend Trump because it's "not permissible for Facebook to keep a user off the platform for an undefined period, with no criteria for when or whether the account will be restored". The board called for Facebook to "reexamine the arbitrary penalty it imposed" on Trump and decide on an "appropriate penalty" within six months.

2021 June 4: Facebook suspended former President Trump for 2 years in response to the Oversight Board ruling.

2021 Oct 28: An embattled Facebook Inc. announced that it is changing its name to Meta Platforms, Inc., or 'Meta' for short. Under the new branding, Facebook and its other apps, such as Instagram and WhatsApp, will keep their names, but all will operate under the Meta umbrella. Late night TV hosts poked fun by calling it Facebook's 'Meta-morphosis'.

2022 Feb 2-3:

Facebook's parent company Meta Platforms reported weaker-than-expected earnings after the market closed on Wednesday; the prior quarter was the first ever in which Facebook lost users; Meta Platforms shares plummeted 26 percent on Thursday, erasing more than $250 billion in market value in the biggest one-day loss ever for a U.S. company. Analysts said that the painful quarter reflected tough competition from Tiktok and other rivals, while the magnitude of the stock plunge demonstrated how much mammoth tech companies have to lose if they run out of room to grow.

2022 Nov 9: Meta - the parent company of Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp - announced its largest-ever round of layoffs, letting go of 13% of its workforce (11,000 people).

Time Magazine 'Man of The Year 2010' cover of Mark Zuckerberg

billionaire Mark Zuckerberg
and his wife, Priscilla Chan Zuckerberg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Zuckerberg
Time Magazine's "Man of The Year" December 2010

Success Magazine 1 April 2011 cover of Mark Zuckerberg

Bloomberg Business Week Magazine cover of Mark Zuckerberg

"The Connector: How Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg Rewired Our World and Changed The Way We Live - A Short Biography
of TIME's 2010 Person of The Year" [17 Dec 2010] by Lev Grossman & TIME managing editor Richard Stengel
http://www.amazon.com/Connector-Facebooks-Zuckerberg-biography-ebook/dp/B003YL4LGG/

"Mark Zuckerberg: Ten Lessons In Leadership" [3/2012] by Michael Essany
http://www.amazon.com/Mark-Zuckerberg-Lessons-Leadership-ebook/dp/B007HJDG4Y/

"60 Minutes: The Face Behind Facebook" [Jan 2008]
http://www.amazon.com/60-Minutes-January-13-2008/dp/B0012BUX3K/

Casa Facebook / Mark Zuckerberg, His Friends & The House That Launched Them book by Judy P. Fusco & Kevin Paterson

"Casa Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg, His Friends, and The Mystique of The House
That Launched Them" [2011]
by Judy P. Fusco, with Kevin Paterson, Photographs by Mark Harper
Author is interesting in her own right, and oh by the way, happens to be the Silicon Valley landlord
who gave the kids launching a start-up called Facebook a break on their first physical office space.
M.J. Distribution 8x5¼ pb [12/2011] out of print/used

Chris Cox
hired 2005, promoted to Chief Product Officer 7/2014
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Cox_(Facebook)

Nicolas Franchet
has long worked as Facebook’s global head of retail & e-commerce

co-founder Chris Hughes
worked at Facebook 2002-2004 and 2006-2007; owned & ran The New Republic Magazine from 3/2012 to 2/2016.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Hughes

Joel Kaplan
leads Facebook's Washington office as Vice President of Global Public Policy

co-founder Dustin Moskovitz
worked at Facebook from 2/2004 to 10/2008
co-founded Asana in 10/2008

vice president Jerome Pesenti
VP of artificial intelligence at Facebook's newly-named parent company Meta (10/2021)

co-founders the Winklevoss twins
used their $11M Facebook payout to become the world's first Bitcoin billionaires (2017)

2013 portrait of Facebook exec Sheryl Kara Sandberg Goldberg

Sheryl Kara Sandberg {Goldberg}
former chief of Staff to Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, 1996-2001
former VP Global Online Sales & Operations at Google, 2001-2008
COO at Facebook since March 2008; first woman on board of directors (6/2012)
Facebook page • entry at Wikipedia

listed on TIME 100 for 2012; TIME cover story March 2013
listed on TIME Magazine World 100, April 2013

P.B.S. 'Makers Profiles' short videos of Sheryl Sandberg

In 2008, Facebook agreed to pay Cameron & Tyler Winklevoss $65 million to settle their claims that Zuckerberg
stole the idea for Facebook from them and a third person at Harvard.

Facebook filed for an initial public offering (IPO) on January 1, 2012; the preliminary prospectus stated that the company sought to raise $5 billion, had 845 million monthly active users, and a website accruing 2.7 billion likes and comments daily; after the IPO, Mark Zuckerberg would retain a 22% ownership share in Facebook and would own 57% of the voting shares.

Announced 4/2012: Facebook, Inc. paid $1 billion for San Francisco-based mobile photo-sharing service Instagram [est. 2010]; the final deal closed at $715M.

2012 May 18: Trading in Facebook stock began, struggling to stay above the IPO price for most of the day and forcing underwriters to buy back shares to support the price; at the closing bell, shares were valued at $38.23, only 23¢ above the IPO price and down $3.82 from the opening bell value; the event was widely described by the financial press as a disappointment - the stock nonetheless set a new record for trading volume of an IPO. On May 25th, the stock ended its first full week of trading at $31.91, a 16.5% decline. After many years of trading on the much-inflated New York stock market, Facebook, Inc. Class A Common Stock (FB) is trading at $315 in October 2021.

Announced 6/2012: Facebook, Inc. paid an unknown amount for Karma {website URL www.getKarma.com}, a mobile commerce company that makes social gifting apps; by partnering with brands, Karma offers a catalog of products/gift ideas. After a product has been selected, the 'gifter' can pick and personalize a card to go with that gift; Karma then notifies the recipient that a gift is coming (via a text message, e-mail, or Facebook); once that message has been received, the recipient can further personalize the gift, swap it for another product, or even exchange it for a charitable donation; once that decision has been made, the recipient then enters their address and Karma ships it.

Announced 6/2012: Facebook purchased Israeli company Face {placeholder website www.face.com} for an estimated $60M.

Announced 4/2013: Facebook purchased software company Parse {website URL www.parse.com}, which produces a backend for mobile apps that already
covers Android, iOS, JavaScript, OS X, and Windows 8 & Windows Phone; Parse's offices were located near the Ferry Building in San Francisco;
they have since moved to Facebook HQ in Menlo Park, California.

Announced 2/2014: Facebook purchased software company WhatsApp [est. 2009] based in Mountain View, California for $19B.

Announced 3/2014: Facebook purchased 3-D virtual reality hardware company Oculus VR [est. 2012] based in Irvine, California for $2B.

Announced 7/2014: Facebook purchased video advertising company LiveRail [est. 2007] based in San Francisco, California for $500M.

Announced 10/2017: Facebook purchased positivity-focused polling startup company tbh (net acronym for 'to be honest') [est. 2017], a user-anonymous polling application
aimed at teenagers; the app has been downloaded five million times, with 2.5M daily users sending over 1 billion answers since it launched three months ago.

Divisions and Services
Facebook Gifts charges a small fee to send gift cards to friends.
Mid-2014: Facebook is testing a 'BUY' button for shopping via ads on Facebook.

"Internet.org by Facebook" [est. 2013]
A consortium of Facebook and seven American mobile telephone companies that says that they want to provide low-cost access to the internet for people in Third World countries. Controversy arises because Internet.org is also involved in anti-net neutrality legislation (with Airtel, Voda & TRAI) in India
{see 23-page extract from the full 117-page application}
official website • entry at Wikipedia

Facebook Watch video-on-demand service [est. 8/2017]
Original content is produced by partners, who receive 55% of revenue vs. 45% for Facebook; ads on FB began 12/2019.
official website • entry at Wikipedia

'Meta Boost US' private group with 68.4K members (2022)
group created in August 2018 as 'Boost With Facebook US'; name recently changed; group is owned and moderated by Meta.
entry at Wikipedia

"A Parent's Video Guide to Facebook.com" [2009]
http://www.amazon.com/Parents-Video-Guide-Facebook-com/dp/B0027P9NPO/

"The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of The Company That Is Connecting The World"
[S&S 6/2010] by David Kirkpatrick
http://www.amazon.com/Facebook-Effect-Inside-Company-Connecting/dp/1439102112/
http://www.amazon.com/The-Facebook-Effect-Company-Connecting/dp/1439102120/

"Facebook and Philosophy: What's On Your Mind?" ((Oct 1, 2010) by D. E. Wittkower
http://www.amazon.com/Facebook-Philosophy-Whats-Popular-Culture/dp/0812696751/

"Inside Facebook" article [Fortune mag] by Miguel Helft & Jessi Hempel
http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Facebook-ebook/dp/B007FIQW4I/

"Tales From Facebook" (Apr 19, 2011) by Daniel Miller
http://www.amazon.com/Tales-Facebook-Daniel-Miller/dp/0745652107/

"Facebook Diaries" [Jun 24, 2011] by Brian Shell
http://www.amazon.com/Facebook-Diaries-ebook/dp/B00585CG54/

"Facebook Companion [Paperback] by Matthew Miller 7/2011
http://www.amazon.com/Facebook-Companion-Matthew-Miller/dp/1118087003/

"60 Minutes: The Face Behind Facebook" (January 13, 2008)
http://www.amazon.com/60-Minutes-January-13-2008/dp/B0012BUX3K/

"A Parent's Video Guide To Facebook.com" [2009] Starring Dr. Brian J. Dixon ()
http://www.amazon.com/Parents-Video-Guide-Facebook-com/dp/B0027P9NPO/

"60 Minutes: Facebook" (December 5, 2010)
http://www.amazon.com/60-Minutes-Facebook-December-2010/dp/B004EYT58Q/

"How Did They Ever Make A Movie of Facebook?" documentary [2011]
Strangely, this docufilm is not listed on IMDb, but IMDb has links for viewing it (in four parts); released February
2011 in Sherman Oaks, CA as part of pre-Oscar promotions for "The Social Network"; directed by David Prior
Part 1: Commencement • Part 2: Boston • Part 3: Los Angeles • Part 4: The Lot

"Trumping Democracy: Real Money • Fake News • Your Data"
[streaming Nov 2017, DVD release Dec 2017]

Trumping Democracy 2017 documentary film by Thomas Huchon

"In the darkness of the web, democracy was trumped by data." • Explosive documentary that follows the money in the 2016 election cycle to the elusive billionaire Robert Mercer, who bought Breitbart News and funded the effort while inserting Steve Bannon into the presidential campaign as its manager. Mercer-owned company Cambridge Analytica used data of millions of Americans – acquired from Facebook, Google, banks, credit companies, social security, and more – and tactics honed during the U.K.'s Brexit campaign to identify voters deemed 'most neurotic or worried', whom they believed could swing for Trump. In the days before the election, using the little-known Facebook feature called 'dark posts', Cambridge Analytica deployed highly manipulative & personalized messages seen only one time by the user before disappearing • 69-minute documentary film directed by Thomas Huchon
Cinema Libre color DVD [12/2017] for $11.63
Amazon Instant Video [11/2017] rental $3.99, purchase $9.99
bare credits at IMDb • official movie website • watch 11/2017 official trailer [3:04] online at YouTube

Visiting this webpage from outside the U.S.A.? It is possible to make purchases from these coded Amazon (USA) links
via other Amazon sites: just follow these instructions.

	"Facebook For Dummies" [2008, rev 2018] by Carolyn Abram, with Amy Karasavas Kindle Edition from Wiley/For Dummies [7th edition 2/2018] for $13.00 Wiley/For Dummies 7th Edition 9¼x7¼ pb [3/2018] for $17.32
	"Talking Back To Facebook: The Common Sense Guide To Raising Kids In The Digital Age" [2012] by James P. Steyer, Foreword by Chelsea Clinton Kindle Edition from Scribner/Simon & Schuster Digital Sales [5/2012] for $1.99 {sic} Scribner 9x6 pb [5/2012] for $13.28 Scribner 9x6 hardcover [5/2012] for $24.87
	"The Complete Guide To Facebook Advertising" [2017] by Brian Meert Kindle Edition from Amazon Digital Services [10/2017] for $14.99 AdvertiseMint 10x8 pb [8/2017] for $34.99
	"Antisocial Media: Anxious Labor In The Digital Economy" [2018] by Greg Goldberg Kindle Edition from NYU Press [1/2018] for $14.85 NYU Press 9x6 pb [1/2018] for $21.77 NYU Press 9x6 hardcover [1/2018] for $75.86 {sic}
	"Facebook Advertising: The Complete Guide To Dominating The Largest Social Media Platform" [2018] by Noah Gray Kindle Edition from Amazon Digital Services [4/2018] for $2.99 {sic} CreateSpace 9x6 pb [4/2018] for $12.99
	"Facebook Marketing For Dummies" [orig 2009, rev 2018] by Stephanie Diamond & John Haydon Kindle Edition from For Dummies [4/2018] for $13.00 For Dummies 6th Edition 9¼x7¼ pb [5/2018] for $16.37
	"Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy" [2018] by Siva Vaidhyanathan "An indictment of how 'social media' has fostered the deterioration of democratic culture around the world, from facilitating Russian meddling in support of Trump's election to the exploitation of the [Facebook] platform by murderous authoritarians in Burma and the Philippines" Kindle Edition from Oxford Univ Press [5/2018] for $9.99 Oxford Univ Press 9¼x6 updated pb [10/2021] for $17.95 South Asia Edition 8¾x6 pb [6/2018] for $16.62 Oxford Univ Press 9¼x6¼ hardcover [6/2018] for $13.00
	"Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram For Senior Dummies" [2018] by social media expert Marsha Collier simple advice on using social media to connect with family and friends or to stay up to date on current events; friendly guide walks you through setting up and enjoying an account at the top three social media sites - Face-book, Twitter, Instagram - without using confusing tech jargon, and makes it easy to keep your account/s safe and secure with the latest privacy features Kindle Edition from For Dummies [11/2018] for $15.00 For Dummies 3rd Edition 9x7¼ pb [12/2018] for $17.99
	"Zucked: Waking Up To The Facebook Catastrophe" [2019] New York Times bestseller by Roger McNamee Former mentor to MarkZ in the early days says that MarkZ and Sheryl Sandberg are unable or unwilling to comprehend his concerns about the damage being done from manipulation by and of Facebook's gigantic social media platform Kindle Edition from Penguin Press [2/2019] for $14.99 Penguin Books 8½x5½ pb [2/2020] for $17.00 Penguin Press 9¼x6¼ hardcover [2/2019] for $16.23
	"Facebook: The Inside Story" [2020] by Steven Levy 'documents the unchecked power and shocking techniques of the company, from growing at all costs, to outmaneuvering its biggest rivals to acquire WhatsApp and Instagram, to developing a platform so addictive that even some of its own are now beginning to realize its dangers' Kindle Edition from Blue Rider Press [2/2020] for $14.99 Blue Rider Press 9x6 pb [2/2021] for $17.79 Blue Rider Press 9¼x6¼ hardcover [2/2020] for $20.49
	"An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook's Battle For Domination" [2021] by Sheera Frenkel & Cecilia Kang tagline: The book [that] Facebook doesn’t want you to read Kindle Edition from Harper [7/2021] for $13.99 Harper 8x5¼ pb [DUE July 2022] for $17.99 Harper 9x6 hardcover [7/2021] for $14.99
	"Behind The Mask of Facebook: A Whistleblower's Shocking Story of Big Tech Bias and Censorship" [2021] by Ryan Hartwig & Kent Heckenlively Whistleblower Ryan Hartwig was a content moderator for nearly two years working for Cognizant - a Phoenix, Arizona subcontractor to Facebook - reviewing & deleting groups, pages, posts, comments, and videos for Facebook and Instagram; Ryan went public in June 2020 and has helped contribute to a criminal referral to the Department of Justice for Mark Zuckerberg, through Cong. Matt Gaetz’s office Kindle Edition from Skyhorse [8/2021] for $16.99 Skyhorse 9x6 hardcover [8/2021] for $18.29

	"Sheryl Sandberg: The Biography" for Kindle [2012] by Adrienne Fenderson very lightweight work, a mere 15 pages on Kindle Kindle Edition from Amazon Digital Services [2/2012] for $2.99
	"Lean In: Women, Work, and The Will To Lead" [2013] by Sheryl Sandberg Amazon Best Book of the Month, plus cover story on TIME Magazine (both March 2013) Kindle Edition from Random House Digital [3/2013] for $4.99 Knopf 9½x6 hardcover [3/2013] for $14.97 Random House Audio UNABR audio CD read by Elisa Donovan [3/2013] for $24.84
	"Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy" [2017] by Sheryl Sandberg & Adam Grant #1 New York Times bestseller; named a Best Book of 2017 by Barnes & Noble and Amazon Kindle Edition from Knopf/Random House [4/2017] for $13.99 Penguin Export 8½x5¼ pb [4/2017] for $8.15 Knopf 90½x5¾ hardcover [4/2017] for $14.68 Spanish-language Kindle Edition from Conecta/Grupo Penguin [11/2017] for $12.99 Vintage Español 8x5¼ Spanish-language pb [1/2018] for $10.67 German-language Kindle Edition from Ullstein Ebooks [6/2017] for $20.99 Ullstein 8&frac35x5½ German-language hardcover [6/2017] for $22.54

		"[The main] character bears almost no resemblance to the actual Mark Zuckerberg. The reality is much more complicated." per Time Magazine December 2010 cover story "You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies": The story of the college student who created the Facebook phenomenon and six years later became the youngest billionaire in history. Directed by David Fincher; based on the book by Ben Mezrich; starring Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Brenda Song, Rashida Jones, Max Minghella, Rooney Mara & Joseph Mazzello Sony Pictures widescreen color Blu-ray [1/2011] 2 disks for $16.99 Sony Pictures widescreen color DVD [1/2011] 2 disks for $11.99 full credits at IMDb • official movie site
		"The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook - A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal" [2009 bestseller] by Ben Mezrich Without access to central figure Mark Zuckerberg, the author fictionalized many important parts of the story, as well as sensationalizing college life; the result is a questionable but nonetheless exciting tale. Kindle Edition from Anchor [7/2009] for $12.99 Anchor 8¼x6 pb [5/2010] for $10.85 Anchor 7¾x5 pb [9/2010] for $10.85 Doubleday 9¼x6 hardcover [7/2009] for $16.50
		"La Revanche d'Un Solitaire: La Véritable Histoire de Fondateur Facebook (Revenge of A Loner: The True Story of Facebook Founder)" [2012] by Ben Mezrich Édition Spécial Capital mass pb [2012] import/used "Milliardär per Zufall: Die Gründung von Facebook - Eine Geschichte über Sex, Geld, Freundschaft, und Betrug" [2011] by Ben Mezrich Kindle Edition from Riva [2/2011] for $17.80 Redline Wirtschaft 7½x5 pb [2011] for $28.11 "Multimillonarios Por Accidente: El Nacimiento de Facebook - Una Historia de Sexo, Talento, Dinero y Traición (Billionaires By Accident: The Birth of Facebook)" [2010] Alienta Editorial 9x6 pb [3/2010] out of print/used

Spirit of America Bookstore Facebook, Inc.[est. February 2004]

Spirit of America Bookstore
Facebook, Inc.
[est. February 2004]