This article is about the social media service.

For its owner, formerly known as

Facebook, Inc., see Meta Platforms.
Not to be confused with Face book or The World Factbook.
Facebook
Facebook logo Facebook wordmark
Logo used since September 2023
Screenshot
Type of site Social networking service
Available in 112 languages[1]
List of languages
Founded February 4, 2004; 21 years ago in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US
Area served Worldwide, except blocking countries
Owner Meta Platforms
Founder(s)
Mark Zuckerberg
Dustin Moskovitz
Chris Hughes
Andrew McCollum
Eduardo Saverin
CEO Mark Zuckerberg
URL facebook.com
Registration Required (to do any activity)
Users Increase 3.04 billion monthly active users (as of 5 June 2025)[2]
Launched February 4, 2004; 21 years ago
Current status Active
Written in C++, Hack (as HHVM) and PHP
[3][4][5]
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Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American
technology conglomerate Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other
Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin
Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, its name derives from the face book directories often
given to American university students. Membership was initially limited to Harvard
students, gradually expanding to other North American universities.

Since 2006, Facebook allows everyone to register from 13 years old, except in the
case of a handful of nations, where the age requirement is 14 years.[6] As of
December 2023, Facebook claimed almost 3.07 billion monthly active users worldwide.
[7] As of November 2024, Facebook ranked as the third-most-visited website in the
world, with 23% of its traffic coming from the United States.[8] It was the most
downloaded mobile app of the 2010s.[9]

Facebook can be accessed from devices with Internet connectivity, such as personal
computers, tablets and smartphones. After registering, users can create a profile
revealing personal information about themselves. They can post text, photos and
multimedia which are shared with any other users who have agreed to be their friend
or, with different privacy settings, publicly. Users can also communicate directly
with each other with Messenger, edit messages (within 15 minutes after sending),
[10][11] join common-interest groups, and receive notifications on the activities
of their Facebook friends and the pages they follow.

Facebook has often been criticized over issues such as user privacy (as with the
Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal), political manipulation (as with the
2016 U.S. elections) and mass surveillance.[12] The company has also been subject
to criticism over its psychological effects such as addiction and low self-esteem,
and over content such as fake news, conspiracy theories, copyright infringement,
and hate speech.[13] Commentators have accused Facebook of willingly facilitating
the spread of such content, as well as exaggerating its number of users to appeal
to advertisers.[14]

History
Main article: History of Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg, co-creator of Facebook, in his Harvard dorm room, November 2005
The history of Facebook traces its growth from a college networking site to a
global social networking service.[15]

While attending Phillips Exeter in the early 2000s, Zuckerberg met Kris Tillery.
Tillery, a one-time project collaborator with Zuckerberg, would create a school-
based social networking project called Photo Address Book. Photo Address Book was a
digital face book, created through a linked database composed of student
information derived from the official records of the Exeter Student Council. The
database contained linkages such as name, dorm-specific landline numbers, and
student headshots.[16]

Mark Zuckerberg built a website called "Facemash" in 2003 while attending Harvard
University. The site was comparable to Hot or Not and used photos from online face
books, asking users to choose the 'hotter' person".[17] Zuckerberg was reported and
faced expulsion, but the charges were dropped.[17]

A "face book" is a student directory featuring photos and personal information. In

January 2004, Zuckerberg coded a new site known as "TheFacebook", stating, "It is
clear that the technology needed to create a centralized Website is readily
available ... the benefits are many." Zuckerberg met with Harvard student Eduardo
Saverin, and each agreed to invest $1,000.[18] On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg
launched "TheFacebook".[19]

Membership was initially restricted to students of Harvard College. Dustin

Moskovitz, Andrew McCollum, and Chris Hughes joined Zuckerberg to help manage the
growth of the site.[20] It became available successively to most universities in
the US and Canada.[21][22] In 2004, Napster co-founder Sean Parker became company
president[23] and the company moved to Palo Alto, California.[24] PayPal co-founder
Peter Thiel gave Facebook its first investment.[25][26] In 2005, the company
dropped "the" from its name after purchasing the domain name Facebook.com.[27]

In 2006, Facebook opened to everyone at least 13 years old with a valid email
address.[28][29][30] Facebook introduced key features like the News Feed, which
became central to user engagement. By late 2007, Facebook had 100,000 pages on
which companies promoted themselves.[31] Facebook had surpassed MySpace in global
traffic and became the world's most popular social media platform. Microsoft
announced that it had purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million ($364
million in 2024 dollars[32]), giving Facebook an implied value of around $15
billion ($22.7 billion in 2024 dollars[32]). Facebook focused on generating revenue
through targeted advertising based on user data, a model that drove its rapid
financial growth. In 2012, Facebook went public with one of the largest IPOs in
tech history. Acquisitions played a significant role in Facebook's dominance. In
2012, it purchased Instagram, followed by WhatsApp and Oculus VR in 2014, extending
its influence beyond social networking into messaging and virtual reality. Mark
Zuckerberg announces $60 billion investment in Meta AI according to Mashable.

The Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal in 2018 revealed misuse of user data
to influence elections, sparking global outcry and leading to regulatory fines and
hearings. Facebook's role in global events, including its use in organizing
movements like the Arab Spring and its impact on events like the Rohingya genocide
in Myanmar, highlighted its dual nature as a tool for both empowerment and harm. In
2021, Facebook rebranded as Meta, reflecting its shift toward building the
"metaverse" and focusing on virtual reality and augmented reality technologies.

Features
Facebook does not officially publish a maximum character limit for posts; however,
multiple secondary sources report that users can post up to 63,206 characters in a
single update. Posts may also include images and videos.[33][34] According to
Facebook's official business documentation, videos can be up to 240 minutes long
and 10 GB in file size, with supported resolutions up to 1080p.[35]

Users can "friend" users, both sides must agree to being friends.[36] Posts can be
changed to be seen by everyone (public), friends, people in a certain group (group)
or by selected friends (private).[37] Users can join groups.[38] Groups are
composed of persons with shared interests. For example, they might go to the same
sporting club, live in the same suburb, have the same breed of pet or share a
hobby.[38] Posts posted in a group can be seen only by those in a group, unless set
to public.[39]

Users are able to buy, sell, and swap things on Facebook Marketplace or in a Buy,
Swap and Sell group.[40][41] Facebook users may advertise events, which can be
offline, on a website other than Facebook, or on Facebook.[42]

Website
Further information: List of Facebook features and Facebook Platform

Profile shown on Thefacebook in 2005

Former Facebook logo in use from August 23, 2005, until July 1, 2015
Technical aspects
The site's primary color is blue as Zuckerberg is red–green colorblind, a
realization that occurred after a test taken around 2007.[43][44] Facebook was
initially built using PHP, a popular scripting language designed for web
development.[45] PHP was used to create dynamic content and manage data on the
server side of the Facebook application. Zuckerberg and co-founders chose PHP for
its simplicity and ease of use, which allowed them to quickly develop and deploy
the initial version of Facebook. As Facebook grew in user base and functionality,
the company encountered scalability and performance challenges with PHP. In
response, Facebook engineers developed tools and technologies to optimize PHP
performance. One of the most significant was the creation of the HipHop Virtual
Machine (HHVM). This significantly improved the performance and efficiency of PHP
code execution on Facebook's servers.

The site upgraded from HTTP to the more secure HTTPS in January 2011.[46]

2012 architecture
Facebook is developed as one monolithic application. According to an interview in
2012 with Facebook build engineer Chuck Rossi, Facebook compiles into a 1.5 GB
binary blob which is then distributed to the servers using a custom BitTorrent-
based release system. Rossi stated that it takes about 15 minutes to build and 15
minutes to release to the servers. The build and release process has zero downtime.
Changes to Facebook are rolled out daily.[47]

Facebook used a combination platform based on HBase to store data across

distributed machines. Using a tailing architecture, events are stored in log files,
and the logs are tailed. The system rolls these events up and writes them to
storage. The user interface then pulls the data out and displays it to users.
Facebook handles requests as AJAX behavior. These requests are written to a log
file using Scribe (developed by Facebook).[48]

Data is read from these log files using Ptail, an internally built tool to
aggregate data from multiple Scribe stores. It tails the log files and pulls data
out. Ptail data are separated into three streams and sent to clusters in different
data centers (Plugin impression, News feed impressions, Actions (plugin + news
feed)). Puma is used to manage periods of high data flow (Input/Output or IO). Data
is processed in batches to lessen the number of times needed to read and write
under high demand periods. (A hot article generates many impressions and news feed
impressions that cause huge data skews.) Batches are taken every 1.5 seconds,
limited by memory used when creating a hash table.[48]

Data is then output in PHP format. The backend is written in Java. Thrift is used
as the messaging format so PHP programs can query Java services. Caching solutions
display pages more quickly. The data is then sent to MapReduce servers where it is
queried via Hive. This serves as a backup as the data can be recovered from Hive.
[48]

Content delivery network (CDN)

Facebook uses its own content delivery network or "edge network" under the domain
fbcdn.net for serving static data.[49][50] Until the mid-2010s, Facebook also
relied on Akamai for CDN services.[51][52][53]

Hack programming language

Main article: Hack (programming language)
On March 20, 2014, Facebook announced a new open-source programming language called
Hack. Before public release, a large portion of Facebook was already running and
"battle tested" using the new language.[54]

User profile/personal timeline

Facebook login/signup screen

Each registered user on Facebook has a personal profile that shows their posts and
content.[55] The format of individual user pages was revamped in September 2011 and
became known as "Timeline", a chronological feed of a user's stories,[56][57]
including status updates, photos, interactions with apps and events.[58] The layout
let users add a "cover photo".[58] Users were given more privacy settings.[58] In
2007, Facebook launched Facebook Pages for brands and celebrities to interact with
their fanbases.[59][60] In June 2009, Facebook introduced a "Usernames" feature,
allowing users to choose a unique nickname used in the URL for their personal
profile, for easier sharing.[61][62]

In February 2014, Facebook expanded the gender setting, adding a custom input field
that allows users to choose from a wide range of gender identities. Users can also
set which set of gender-specific pronoun should be used in reference to them
throughout the site.[63][64][65] In May 2014, Facebook introduced a feature to
allow users to ask for information not disclosed by other users on their profiles.
If a user does not provide key information, such as location, hometown, or
relationship status, other users can use a new "ask" button to send a message
asking about that item to the user in a single click.[66][67]

News Feed
Further information: News Feed
News Feed appears on every user's homepage and highlights information including
profile changes, upcoming events and friends' birthdays.[68] This enabled spammers
and other users to manipulate these features by creating illegitimate events or
posting fake birthdays to attract attention to their profile or cause.[69]
Initially, the News Feed caused dissatisfaction among Facebook users; some
complained it was too cluttered and full of undesired information, others were
concerned that it made it too easy for others to track individual activities (such
as relationship status changes, events, and conversations with other users).[70]
Zuckerberg apologized for the site's failure to include appropriate privacy
features. Users then gained control over what types of information are shared
automatically with friends. Users are now able to prevent user-set categories of
friends from seeing updates about certain types of activities, including profile
changes, Wall posts and newly added friends.[71]

On February 23, 2010, Facebook was granted a patent[72] on certain aspects of its
News Feed. The patent covers News Feeds in which links are provided so that one
user can participate in the activity of another user.[73] The sorting and display
of stories in a user's News Feed is governed by the EdgeRank algorithm.[74] The
Photos application allows users to upload albums and photos.[75] Each album can
contain 200 photos.[76] Privacy settings apply to individual albums. Users can
"tag", or label, friends in a photo. The friend receives a notification about the
tag with a link to the photo.[77] This photo tagging feature was developed by Aaron
Sittig, now a Design Strategy Lead at Facebook, and former Facebook engineer Scott
Marlette back in 2006 and was only granted a patent in 2011.[78][79]

On June 7, 2012, Facebook launched its App Center to help users find games and
other applications.[80]

On May 13, 2015, Facebook in association with major news portals launched "Instant
Articles" to provide news on the Facebook news feed without leaving the site.[81]
[82] In January 2017, Facebook launched Facebook Stories for iOS and Android in
Ireland. The feature, following the format of Snapchat and Instagram stories,
allows users to upload photos and videos that appear above friends' and followers'
News Feeds and disappear after 24 hours.[83]

On October 11, 2017, Facebook introduced the 3D Posts feature to allow for
uploading interactive 3D assets.[84] On January 11, 2018, Facebook announced that
it would change News Feed to prioritize friends/family content and de-emphasize
content from media companies.[85] In February 2020, Facebook announced it would
spend $1 billion ($1.21 billion in 2024 dollars[32]) to license news material from
publishers for the next three years; a pledge coming as the company falls under
scrutiny from governments across the globe over not paying for news content
appearing on the platform. The pledge would be in addition to the $600 million
($729 million in 2024 dollars[32]) paid since 2018 through deals with news
companies such as The Guardian and Financial Times.[86][87][88]

In March and April 2021, in response to Apple announcing changes to its iOS
device's Identifier for Advertisers policy, which included requiring app developers
to directly request to users the ability to track on an opt-in basis, Facebook
purchased full-page newspaper advertisements attempting to convince users to allow
tracking, highlighting the effects targeted ads have on small businesses.[89]
Facebook's efforts were ultimately unsuccessful, as Apple released iOS 14.5 in late
April 2021, containing the feature for users in what has been deemed "App Tracking
Transparency". Moreover, statistics from Verizon Communications subsidiary Flurry
Analytics show 96% of all iOS users in the United States are not permitting
tracking at all, and only 12% of worldwide iOS users are allowing tracking, which
some news outlets deem "Facebook's nightmare", among similar terms.[90][91][92][93]
Despite the news, Facebook stated that the new policy and software update would be
"manageable".[94]

Like button
Further information: Facebook like button

The Facebook "like" button

The "like" button, stylized as a "thumbs up" icon, was first enabled on February 9,
2009,[95] and enables users to easily interact with status updates, comments,
photos and videos, links shared by friends, and advertisements. Once clicked by a
user, the designated content is more likely to appear in friends' News Feeds.[96]
[97] The button displays the number of other users who have liked the content.[98]
The like button was extended to comments in June 2010.[99] In February 2016,
Facebook expanded Like into "Reactions", allowing users to choose from five pre-
defined emotions: "Love", "Haha", "Wow", "Sad", or "Angry".[100][101][102][103] In
late April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new "Care" reaction was added.
[104]

Instant messaging
Main article: Facebook Messenger
Facebook Messenger is an instant messaging service and software application. It
began as Facebook Chat in 2008,[105] was revamped in 2010[106] and eventually
became a standalone mobile app in August 2011, while remaining part of the user
page on browsers.[107] Complementing regular conversations, Messenger lets users
make one-to-one[108] and group[109] voice[110] and video calls.[111] Its Android
app has integrated support for SMS[112] and "Chat Heads", which are round profile
photo icons appearing on-screen regardless of what app is open,[113] while both
apps support multiple accounts,[114] conversations with optional end-to-end
encryption[115] and "Instant Games".[116] Some features, including sending
money[117] and requesting transportation,[118] are limited to the United States.
[117] In 2017, Facebook added "Messenger Day", a feature that lets users share
photos and videos in a story-format with all their friends with the content
disappearing after 24 hours;[119] Reactions, which lets users tap and hold a
message to add a reaction through an emoji;[120] and Mentions, which lets users in
group conversations type @ to give a particular user a notification.[120]

In April 2020, Facebook began rolling out a new feature called Messenger Rooms, a
video chat feature that allows users to chat with up to 50 people at a time.[121]
In July 2020, Facebook added a new feature in Messenger that lets iOS users to use
Face ID or Touch ID to lock their chats. The feature is called App Lock and is a
part of several changes in Messenger regarding privacy and security.[122][123] On
October 13, 2020, the Messenger application introduced cross-app messaging with
Instagram, which was launched in September 2021.[124] In addition to the integrated
messaging, the application announced the introduction of a new logo, which will be
an amalgamation of the Messenger and Instagram logo.[125]

Businesses and users can interact through Messenger with features such as tracking
purchases and receiving notifications, and interacting with customer service
representatives. Third-party developers can integrate apps into Messenger, letting
users enter an app while inside Messenger and optionally share details from the app
into a chat.[126] Developers can build chatbots into Messenger, for uses such as
news publishers building bots to distribute news.[127] The M virtual assistant
(U.S.) scans chats for keywords and suggests relevant actions, such as its payments
system for users mentioning money.[128][129] Group chatbots appear in Messenger as
"Chat Extensions". A "Discovery" tab allows finding bots, and enabling special,
branded QR codes that, when scanned, take the user to a specific bot.[130]
Privacy policy
See also: § Privacy
Facebook's data policy outlines its policies for collecting, storing, and sharing
user's data.[131] Facebook enables users to control access to individual posts and
their profile[132] through privacy settings.[133] The user's name and profile
picture (if applicable) are public.

Facebook's revenue depends on targeted advertising, which involves analyzing user

data to decide which ads to show each user. Facebook buys data from third parties,
gathered from both online and offline sources, to supplement its own data on users.
Facebook maintains that it does not share data used for targeted advertising with
the advertisers themselves.[134] The company states:

"We provide advertisers with reports about the kinds of people seeing their ads and
how their ads are performing, but we don't share information that personally
identifies you (information such as your name or email address that by itself can
be used to contact you or identifies who you are) unless you give us permission.
For example, we provide general demographic and interest information to advertisers
(for example, that an ad was seen by a woman between the ages of 25 and 34 who
lives in Madrid and likes software engineering) to help them better understand
their audience. We also confirm which Facebook ads led you to make a purchase or
take an action with an advertiser."[131]

As of October 2021, Facebook claims it uses the following policy for sharing user
data with third parties:

Apps, websites, and third-party integrations on or using our Products.

When you choose to use third-party apps, websites, or other services that use, or
are integrated with, our Products, they can receive information about what you post
or share. For example, when you play a game with your Facebook friends or use a
Facebook Comment or Share button on a website, the game developer or website can
receive information about your activities in the game or receive a comment or link
that you share from the website on Facebook. Also, when you download or use such
third-party services, they can access your public profile on Facebook, and any
information that you share with them. Apps and websites you use may receive your
list of Facebook friends if you choose to share it with them. But apps and websites
you use will not be able to receive any other information about your Facebook
friends from you, or information about any of your Instagram followers (although
your friends and followers may, of course, choose to share this information
themselves). Information collected by these third-party services is subject to
their own terms and policies, not this one.

Devices and operating systems providing native versions of Facebook and Instagram
(i.e. where we have not developed our own first-party apps) will have access to all
information you choose to share with them, including information your friends share
with you, so they can provide our core functionality to you.

Note: We are in the process of restricting developers' data access even further to
help prevent abuse. For example, we will remove developers' access to your Facebook
and Instagram data if you haven't used their app in 3 months, and we are changing
Login, so that in the next version, we will reduce the data that an app can request
without app review to include only name, Instagram username and bio, profile photo
and email address. Requesting any other data will require our approval.[131]

Facebook will also share data with law enforcement if needed to.[131]

Facebook's policies have changed repeatedly since the service's debut, amid a
series of controversies covering everything from how well it secures user data, to
what extent it allows users to control access, to the kinds of access given to
third parties, including businesses, political campaigns and governments. These
facilities vary according to country, as some nations require the company to make
data available (and limit access to services), while the European Union's GDPR
regulation mandates additional privacy protections.[135]

Bug Bounty Program

A Facebook "White Hat" debit card, given to researchers who report security bugs,
May 2014
On July 29, 2011, Facebook announced its Bug Bounty Program that paid security
researchers a minimum of $500 ($699.00 in 2024 dollars[32]) for reporting security
holes. The company promised not to pursue "white hat" hackers who identified such
problems.[136][137] This led researchers in many countries to participate,
particularly in India and Russia.[138]

Reception
Userbase
Facebook's rapid growth began as soon as it became available and continued through
2018, before beginning to decline. Facebook passed 100 million registered users in
2008,[139] and 500 million in July 2010.[140] According to the company's data at
the July 2010 announcement, half of the site's membership used Facebook daily, for
an average of 34 minutes, while 150 million users accessed the site by mobile.[141]

In October 2012, Facebook's monthly active users passed one billion,[142][143] with
600 million mobile users, 219 billion photo uploads, and 140 billion friend
connections.[144] The 2 billion user mark was crossed in June 2017.[145][146] In
November 2015, after skepticism about the accuracy of its "monthly active users"
measurement, Facebook changed its definition to a logged-in member who visits the
Facebook site through the web browser or mobile app, or uses the Facebook Messenger
app, in the 30-day period prior to the measurement. This excluded the use of third-
party services with Facebook integration, which was previously counted.[147]

From 2017 to 2019, the percentage of the U.S. population over the age of 12 who use
Facebook has declined, from 67% to 61% (a decline of some 15 million U.S. users),
with a higher drop-off among younger Americans (a decrease in the percentage of
U.S. 12- to 34-year-olds who are users from 58% in 2015 to 29% in 2019).[148][149]
The decline coincided with an increase in the popularity of Instagram, which is
also owned by Meta.[148][149] The number of daily active users experienced a
quarterly decline for the first time in the last quarter of 2021, down to 1.929
billion from 1.930 billion,[150] but increased again the next quarter despite being
banned in Russia.[151]

Historically, commentators have offered predictions of Facebook's decline or end,

based on causes such as a declining user base;[152] the legal difficulties of being
a closed platform, inability to generate revenue, inability to offer user privacy,
inability to adapt to mobile platforms, or Facebook ending itself to present a next
generation replacement;[153] or Facebook's role in Russian interference in the 2016
United States elections.[154]

Facebook popularity. Active users (in millions) of Facebook increased from just a
million
in 2004 to 2.8 billion in 2020.[135]
Population pyramid of Facebook users by age As of 2010[update][155]
Population pyramid of Facebook users by age As of 2010[155]
Demographics
The highest number of Facebook users as of April 2023 are from India and the United
States, followed by Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico and the Philippines.[156] Region-
wise, the highest number of users in 2018 are from Asia-Pacific (947 million)
followed by Europe (381 million) and US-Canada (242 million). The rest of the world
has 750 million users.[157]

Over the 2008–2018 period, the percentage of users under 34 declined to less than
half of the total.[135]

Censorship
Further information: Censorship of Facebook and Censorship by Facebook

Map showing the countries that are either currently blocking or have blocked
Facebook in the past
Currently blocked
Formerly blocked
In many countries the social networking sites and mobile apps have been blocked
temporarily, intermittently, or permanently, including: Brazil,[158] China,[159]
Iran,[160] Vietnam,[161] Pakistan,[162] Syria,[163] and North Korea. In May 2018,
the government of Papua New Guinea announced that it would ban Facebook for a month
while it considered the impact of the website on the country, though no ban has
since occurred.[164] In 2019, Facebook announced it would start enforcing its ban
on users, including influencers, promoting any vape, tobacco products, or weapons
on its platforms.[165]

Criticisms and controversies

Main article: Criticism of Facebook
"I'm here today because I believe Facebook's products harm children, stoke
division, and weaken our democracy. The company's leadership knows how to make
Facebook and Instagram safer, but won't make the necessary changes because they
have put their astronomical profits before people."

—Frances Haugen, condemning lack of transparency around Facebook at a US

congressional hearing (2021).[166]
"I don't believe private companies should make all of the decisions on their own.
That's why we have advocated for updated internet regulations for several years
now. I have testified in Congress multiple times and asked them to update these
regulations. I've written op-eds outlining the areas of regulation we think are
most important related to elections, harmful content, privacy, and competition."

—Mark Zuckerberg, responding to Frances Haugen's revelations (2021).[167]

Facebook's importance and scale has led to criticisms in many domains. Issues
include Internet privacy, excessive retention of user information,[168] its facial
recognition software, DeepFace[169][170] its addictive quality[171] and its role in
the workplace, including employer access to employee accounts.[172]

Facebook has been criticized for electricity usage,[173] tax avoidance,[174] real-
name user requirement policies,[175] censorship[176][177] and its involvement in
the United States PRISM surveillance program.[178] According to The Express
Tribune, Facebook "avoided billions of dollars in tax using offshore companies".
[179]

Facebook is alleged to have harmful psychological effects on its users, including

feelings of jealousy[180][181] and stress,[182][183] a lack of attention[184] and
social media addiction.[185][186] According to Kaufmann et al., mothers'
motivations for using social media are often related to their social and mental
health.[187] European antitrust regulator Margrethe Vestager stated that Facebook's
terms of service relating to private data were "unbalanced".[188]

Facebook has been criticized for allowing users to publish illegal or offensive
material. Specifics include copyright and intellectual property infringement,[189]
hate speech,[190][191] incitement of rape[192] and terrorism,[193][194] fake news,
[195][196][197] and crimes, murders, and livestreaming violent incidents.[198][199]
[200] Commentators have accused Facebook of willingly facilitating the spread of
such content.[201][202][203] Sri Lanka blocked both Facebook and WhatsApp in May
2019 after anti-Muslim riots, the worst in the country since the Easter Sunday
bombing in the same year as a temporary measure to maintain peace in Sri Lanka.
[204][205] Facebook removed 3 billion fake accounts only during the last quarter of
2018 and the first quarter of 2019;[206] in comparison, the social network reports
2.39 billion monthly active users.[206]

In late July 2019, the company announced it was under antitrust investigation by
the Federal Trade Commission.[207]

The consumer advocacy group Which? claimed individuals were still utilizing
Facebook to set up fraudulent five-star ratings for products. The group identified
14 communities that exchange reviews for either money or complimentary items such
as watches, earbuds, and sprinklers.[208]

Privacy concerns
Main article: Privacy concerns with Facebook
See also: Privacy concerns with social networking services § Facebook

Details of information collected via PRISM

Facebook has experienced a steady stream of controversies over how it handles user
privacy, repeatedly adjusting its privacy settings and policies.[209] Since 2009,
Facebook has been participating in the PRISM secret program, sharing with the US
National Security Agency audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and
connection logs from user profiles, among other social media services.[210][211]

On November 29, 2011, Facebook settled Federal Trade Commission charges that it
deceived consumers by failing to keep privacy promises.[212] In August 2013 High-
Tech Bridge published a study showing that links included in Facebook messaging
service messages were being accessed by Facebook.[213] In January 2014 two users
filed a lawsuit against Facebook alleging that their privacy had been violated by
this practice.[214]

On June 7, 2018, Facebook announced that a bug had resulted in about 14 million
Facebook users having their default sharing setting for all new posts set to
"public".[215] Its data-sharing agreement with Chinese companies such as Huawei
came under the scrutiny of US lawmakers, although the information accessed was not
stored on Huawei servers and remained on users' phones.[216] On April 4, 2019, half
a billion records of Facebook users were found exposed on Amazon cloud servers,
containing information about users' friends, likes, groups, and checked-in
locations, as well as names, passwords and email addresses.[217]

The phone numbers of at least 200 million Facebook users were found to be exposed
on an open online database in September 2019. They included 133 million US users,
18 million from the UK, and 50 million from users in Vietnam. After removing
duplicates, the 419 million records have been reduced to 219 million. The database
went offline after TechCrunch contacted the web host. It is thought the records
were amassed using a tool that Facebook disabled in April 2018 after the Cambridge
Analytica controversy. A Facebook spokeswoman said in a statement: "The dataset is
old and appears to have information obtained before we made changes last
year...There is no evidence that Facebook accounts were compromised."[218]

Facebook's privacy problems resulted in companies like Viber Media and Mozilla
discontinuing advertising on Facebook's platforms.[219][220] A January 2024 study
by Consumer Reports found that among a self-selected group of volunteer
participants, each user is monitored or tracked by over two thousand companies on
average. LiveRamp, a San Francisco-based data broker, is responsible for 96 per
cent of the data. Other companies such as Home Depot, Macy's, and Walmart are
involved as well.[221]

In March 2024, a court in California released documents detailing Facebook's 2016

"Project Ghostbusters". The project was aimed at helping Facebook compete with
Snapchat and involved Facebook trying to develop decryption tools to collect,
decrypt, and analyze traffic that users generated when visiting Snapchat and,
eventually, YouTube and Amazon. The company eventually used its tool Onavo to
initiate man-in-the-middle attacks and read users' traffic before it was encrypted.
[222]

Racial bias
Facebook was accused of committing "systemic" racial bias by the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission based on the complaints of three rejected candidates and a
current employee of the company. The three rejected employees along with the
Operational Manager at Facebook as of March 2021 accused the firm of discriminating
against Black people. The EEOC initiated an investigation into the case in March
2021.[223]

Shadow profiles
A "shadow profile" refers to the data Facebook collects about individuals without
their explicit permission. For example, the "like" button that appears on third-
party websites allows the company to collect information about an individual's
internet browsing habits, even if the individual is not a Facebook user.[224][225]
Data can also be collected by other users. For example, a Facebook user can link
their email account to their Facebook to find friends on the site, allowing the
company to collect the email addresses of users and non-users alike.[226] Over
time, countless data points about an individual are collected; any single data
point perhaps cannot identify an individual, but together allows the company to
form a unique "profile".

This practice has been criticized by those who believe people should be able to
opt-out of involuntary data collection. Additionally, while Facebook users have the
ability to download and inspect the data they provide to the site, data from the
user's "shadow profile" is not included, and non-users of Facebook do not have
access to this tool regardless. The company has also been unclear whether or not it
is possible for a person to revoke Facebook's access to their "shadow profile".
[224]

Cambridge Analytica
Main article: Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal
Facebook customer Global Science Research sold information on over 87 million
Facebook users to Cambridge Analytica, a political data analysis firm led by
Alexander Nix.[227] While approximately 270,000 people used the app, Facebook's API
permitted data collection from their friends without their knowledge.[228] At first
Facebook downplayed the significance of the breach, and suggested that Cambridge
Analytica no longer had access. Facebook then issued a statement expressing alarm
and suspended Cambridge Analytica. Review of documents and interviews with former
Facebook employees suggested that Cambridge Analytica still possessed the data.
[229] This was a violation of Facebook's consent decree with the Federal Trade
Commission. This violation potentially carried a penalty of $40,000 ($50,087 in
2024 dollars[32]) per occurrence, totalling trillions of dollars.[230]

According to The Guardian, both Facebook and Cambridge Analytica threatened to sue
the newspaper if it published the story. After publication, Facebook claimed that
it had been "lied to". On March 23, 2018, the English High Court granted an
application by the Information Commissioner's Office for a warrant to search
Cambridge Analytica's London offices, ending a standoff between Facebook and the
Information Commissioner over responsibility.[231]
On March 25, Facebook published a statement by Zuckerberg in major UK and US
newspapers apologizing over a "breach of trust".[232]

You may have heard about a quiz app built by a university researcher that leaked
Facebook data of millions of people in 2014. This was a breach of trust, and I'm
sorry we didn't do more at the time. We're now taking steps to make sure this
doesn't happen again.