<p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Vanity Fair</span></p><p class="caption">Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg</p></div><p></p></div></div>Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is starting to seem a little weary of repeating the same defense of Internet.org, his non-profit initiative to bring free internet services to people around the world. </p><p class="p1">Critics, particularly in India,<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-internet-org-developing-world-critics-zuckerberg-petition-open-letter-2015-5"> have been calling Internet.org an affront to the principles of net neutrality.</a></p><p class="p1">Net neutrality is the idea that all internet traffic should be treated equally, no matter what service it comes from.</p><p class="p1">Internet.org's app, <a href="https://press.internet.org/2015/09/24/update-to-internet-org-free-basic-services/">called Free Basics</a>, allows users in developing countries to access only services which follow its specific developer guidelines (for example, all services need to be <a href="http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/05/announcing-the-internet-org-platform/">simple and data efficient to be included</a>). Because Free Basics doesn't include the whole internet and Facebook is creating the criteria for inclusion, people say that the company is building a "walled garden" that violates net neutrality principles. </p><h2 class="p1">Impact and controversy</h2><p class="p1">Zuckberg has <a href="https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10102033678947881">refuted this idea in the past</a>, and <span>on stage </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/vanity-fair-new-establishment-summit">at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit</a> last week he gave a simple, concise analogy explaining why Free Basics makes sense. </p><p class="p1">"Basically, it turns out that everything impactful you want to do has some controversy," he laughed, with what sounded like a tinge of frustration. </p><p class="p1">Price discrimination, what net neutrality protects against, is undeniably bad, he said. But allowing Facebook and other companies like <a href="https://developers.facebook.com/docs/internet-org">Wikipedia, job sites, or news organizations </a>to offer their services for free, isn't. </p><p class="p1">"If you want to sell apples and sell them to white men for a dollar and black women for $2, that is wrong and is rightfully banned," he said. "And net neutrality is kind of like that. If an operator wants to advantage their own video program and not Netflix, for example, that is bad. It's good that regulation protects that. But if the person selling apples wants to donate some to a food bank for free, there's never a law against that. It's really hard to see how what we're doing is hurting anyone."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Facebook</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p class="p1"> Zuckerberg said that for every ten people who get connected to the internet for the first time, one person gets lifted out of poverty and one new job is created. But people who have never had it don't realize what they're missing. </p><p class="p1">"If you ask these people, who didn't grow up with a computer and have never used the internet, do you want to buy a data plan, their answer is going to be 'Why?' They actually have enough money to afford it, but they're not sure why they would want it," Zuckerberg says. "So, the answer to that requires a business model innovation, which is making the internet something where you can use some basic services that don't consume a lot of bandwidth for free. Within a month, more than half of the people who get access to those services, realize why the internet is valuable and become paying customers." </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/inside-the-insane-life-of-sean-parker-napster-facebook-2015-8">Inside the insane life of Facebook billionaire Sean Parker</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="djYXZ4djo8F4ptbDwldBI28l1PG-kk1B" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Mark Zuckerberg nails why critics of his plan to connect the world are wrong

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Daniel Biskup</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Fears of the oncoming artificial intelligence revolution are rampant and growing in Silicon Valley. </p><p>If it comes down to man versus machine, more tech leaders are starting to worry that it will be the machine that will win. Industry leaders from Elon Musk to Peter Thiel to Reid Hoffman have poured money into a Y Combinator-led project <a href="https://backchannel.com/how-elon-musk-and-y-combinator-plan-to-stop-computers-from-taking-over-17e0e27dd02a#.edb9mci3a">to make sure it doesn't happen</a>. </p><p>In an interview with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner for the German newspaper "Die Welt am Sonntag", Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg doesn't seem to worry much about it, calling Musk's reaction a little more on the hysterical side of things.</p><p>Rather, Zuckerberg argues that the machines will only overtake humans if we program them that way. Those chess-beating computers are designed to be that smart, they didn't just learn it, he argues. </p><p>"<span>I think that the default is that all the machines that we build serve humans so unless we really mess something up I think it should stay that way," Zuckberg told <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-interview-with-axel-springer-ceo-mathias-doepfner-2016-2">Döpfner in the interview</a>.</span></p><p><span>Here's how Facebook's CEO sees the coming rise of robots and machines, and why it's not as scary as some make it out to be:</span> </p>

Mark Zuckerberg: We shouldn't worry about AI overtaking humans 'unless we really mess something up'

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Kimberly White / Getty Images" title_caption="Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54f48fc56bb3f7426294bcd6-960/mark-zuckerberg-361.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Kimberly White / Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg</p></div><p></p></div></div>Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants the the social network to build more tools that allow its users to help each other, he said during Facebook's annual shareholders' meeting on Thursday. </p><p>Facebook has already started doing this, Zuckberg says, but he's urging teams to think of more ways to make to enable it. </p><p>After the Nepalese earthquake in April, for example, Facebook <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-safety-check-feature-nepal-earthquake-2015-4">activated a feature called Safety Check</a> that allowed people in the area to indicate that they were safe.</p><p>Facebook technically built the tool back in October, but this natural disaster was its largest deployment to-date: Millions of people marked themselves as "safe" and more than 100 million people got notifications about their friends and family. </p><p>Facebook also put a "Donate" button on the top of people's News Feed after the earthquake and users ended up contributing more than $15 million.</p><p>"That's more than most governments around the world contributed," Zuckerberg said, "And just from Facebook users."</p><p>Facebook also became part of the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-amber-alerts-saved-a-child-2015-5">Amber Alerts system earlier this year</a>, which means that when a child disappears in a users' area, they'll see a notification about it at the top of their News Feed. At least one child has been found thanks to the integration so far, Zuckerberg said. </p><p>"There's a lot more stuff like this that we can do," Zuckerberg said. "We're in a unique place where we can do these things because of our reach and there's a real hunger in our community for it. I'm really excited about enabling more of this and proud that we can be part of it."</p><p>Zuckerberg's answer came after a shareholder asked him what the company wished it was working on that it wasn't.</p><p>Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg initially whisked the question away. </p><p>"That's a hard question to answer," she said. "The things we're not working on but want to work on are things that we might work on in the future. But if we say that we wish we were working on them, then other people might start working on them." </p><p>Zuckerberg's answer, which danced around the question without giving anything away, came after Sandberg promised that Facebook would continue to invest in new projects and unveil new investments when it was ready. </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/kids-choose-between-iphone-and-samsung-2015-4">Kids settle the debate and tell us which is better: an Apple or Samsung phone</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="JuZ2ppdDqpnTN4qk0JxJdpt7pBWqTiaj" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Mark Zuckerberg says he wants Facebook to build more tools to let people help each other 

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivers the opening keynote at the Facebook f8 conference on April 30, 2014 in San Francisco, California. Facebook is hosting the one-day developers conference for the first time since 2011, with over 1500 developers expected to attend.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the lesson he learned from India's recent ruling banning his project to bring free internet to its citizens is that "every country is different."</p><p>Zuckerberg spoke at Mobile World Congress, the annual trade event for the mobile phone industry. It was an audience filled with software developers, carriers, and hardware manufacturers.</p><p>"We recently had this ruling in India. There's no differential pricing for services. Even if for free. That's not allowed. That's disappointing for the mission we're trying to do and a major setback in India," Zuckberg said. "The main learning is that every country is different. The models that worked in one country are different in another. In India we're going to focus on different programs. There are other parts of Internet.org that we're going to focus on." </p><p><a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/india-net-neutrality-blocks-free-basics-facebook-internet-trai-2016-2">The Indian government ruled that Facebook's "Free Basics" plan was illegal</a>, and blocked the company from launching free internet for citizens. That might sound strange, but the free version of the internet Facebook wanted to offered emphasised its own services and services offered by its partners. That upset net neutrality advocates, who wanted a free and open internet.</p><p>"We've had lots of different issues in our 12 years," Zuckerberg said. "We take the hits that we get and learn from them and try to do better."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/john-mcafee-iphone-backdoor-terrible-idea-2016-2">John McAfee explains why an iPhone backdoor is a terrible idea</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="tlaGwzMTE62pPQuJ3_ceddwSMihTkX0P" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Mark Zuckerberg says the lesson he learned from India blocking his plan to launch free internet is that 'every country is different'

<p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Spotify released a 20-song homage&#xa0;to&#xa0;global artists, called "The Refugee Playlist," in a move on Monday that quickly drew charges of poor-taste from some observers.</span></p><p><span>President Donald Trump <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-signs-executive-action-for-new-vetting-measures-2017-1">signed an executive order</a> on January 27 that restricted people from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the US, in an effort to&#xa0;<span>keep out "radical Islamic terrorists."</span>&#xa0;The ban sparked protests around the world&#xa0;over the weekend.</span></p><p><span>Tech executives from Google cofounder Sergey Brin to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckberg&#xa0;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/executives-who-are-against-trumps-immigration-ban-2017-1">also chimed in</a>, expressing a range of emotions&#xa0;over how restrictions on immigration might affect the global tech industry.</span></p><p>Not to be outdone, Spotify released a refugee-themed playlist on Monday. It&#xa0;includes such classics as "We Are The Champions," from British rock band Queen, and new hits including "Wavin' Flag" by <span>Somali Canadian </span>artist K'Naan and "Better" from Soviet-born Regina Spektor.</p><p>The tracks are all from artists who originated from outside the US, even though most were not actually refugees.</p><p>"In a world that welcomes refugees, we get world-changing music from artists like these," the playlist description read.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>The playlist received mixed reactions on social media. Some find the playlist to be in poor taste.</p><p>While others found the playlist to be uplifting.</p><p>You can listen to the playlist and decide for yourself&#xa0;<a href="https://play.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/7v1BarmZ8HAbm5qxidROPB?play=true&amp;utm_source=open.spotify.com&amp;utm_medium=open">here</a>.</p><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/silicon-valley-trump-immigration-ban-refugee-google-airbnb-apple-uber-lyft-microsoft-2017-1">Here's how the top Silicon Valley companies are responding to Trump's immigration ban</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="VpM2lhOTE6-VjxvEj0EhoOu0VOFyj4Yw" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Spotify is capitalizing on the Trump travel ban with an awkward refugee-themed playlist

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Eduardo Munoz/Reuters</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Facebook has built a tool to help schools adopt a system of personalized learning that it wants to give to any public school that wants it for free, <a href="http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/09/introducing-facebook-and-summits-k-12-education-project/">the company announced Thursday</a>. </p><p>Facebook developed the tool - called the Personalized Learning Plan - in partnership with <a href="http://www.summitps.org/whoweare/mission">Summit Public Schools</a>, which have notably high college-acceptance rates thanks to a special approach to learning that emphasizes letting students move at their own pace. </p><p>Instead of spending classroom time for lectures, Summit schools deliver all content and assignments online. Class time is then dedicated to teacher-led, real-world projects and student collaboration. Teachers also encourage students to understand all their work in the context of larger, long-term goals, and work with them to plan and track their course-work as a path towards those goals. </p><p>The software Summit was using to distribute lessons and plot student ambitions got the job done, but it Facebook worked with the schools to improve it.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image"><a title_source="Facebook" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55e8736f9dd7cc1b008b7fd6-960/facebook summit.png"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Facebook</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The partnership blossomed after Priscilla Chan, wife of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, toured a Summit school in Sunnyvale. She found the school and its methods inspiring in their effectiveness, and encouraged her husband to check it out too. Zuckberg, impressed, offered to donate to the school, but Summit CEO Diane Tavenner said that help building new software would be even better, <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/3/9252845/facebook-education-software-plp-summit">The Verge reports</a>. </p><p>This year, Facebook is supporting Summit as it partners with other public schools in a pilot program testing out the new technology, with plans to use feedback from the test to eventually make the tool available to any school in the US. </p><p>The software won't require a Facebook account to join, and the company promises that the team working with Summit operates independently from the rest of the company. </p><p>"This is personal for those of us working on the team here at Facebook," the company writes in its blog post. "Through our kids, our families and the teachers in our lives, we've seen that there's an opportunity to help apply our skills to the future of <keyword id="6355445" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Education">education</keyword>, and we all wanted to find a way to help make an impact by doing what we do best - building software."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-uber-ceo-travis-kalanick-made-billions-2015-7">The insanely successful life of Uber billionaire Travis Kalanick</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="xwY2lmdjrD0sKNXKjphpxxEqtRvRDYXG" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Facebook is building education software that it plans to give away to any school that wants it

<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mobile-world-congress-2015"></div><p></p></div></div>Mark Zuckerberg sought to make his appearance at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year sit more comfortably with wireless carriers than the last.</p><p>In 2014, Zuckerberg used his appearance at the trade show to plug Internet.org - Faceobok's not-for-profit initiative to connect "the next billion" to the internet, offering services such as Facebook, search, and weather for free in developing countries. He asked for up to five of the world's biggest carriers to sign up, asking them to offer basic wireless services for free in the hope that once people had tried the internet for the first time, they'd sign up to pay for more data.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-dinner-wireless-carriers-barcelona-2014-2">That didn't sit well with some carriers </a>- well aware that Facebook had also just paid $19 billion to acquire Whatsapp, an over-the-top service that has meant the number of SMS messages sent has dramatically dropped - concerned Facebook wanted them to stump up the infrastructure costs (even Zuckberg admitted on 0 and give yet more services away for free.</p><p>This year, Zuckerberg began his keynote at Mobile World Congress full of praise for carriers and the wider mobile industry: "The <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">folks here part of industry are leading charge to connect everyone in the world and have been for decades. They have a </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">long legacy and history in the sense of mission in industry, that's why all these folks are doing all the work to lay all the fibre, and build all towers to get this done."</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Later on he insisted that more important than the update on Internet.org's progress to date was the fact that he was inviting launch partners on stage to discuss their experiences with the initiative so far. He was joined by Airtel Africa CEO Christian De Faria, Millicom SVP of operations Mario Zanotti, and GSMA chairman and Telenor CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Zanotti, for example, said that since its Internet.org trial started, there has been a 30% increase in customers paying for data, and a 10 fold increase in smartphone sales. Airtel's De Faria concurred, saying the carrier had seen "not seen erosion," despite giving some internet services away for free through Internet.org</span></p><p>Zuckerberg did not provide much by way of an update on Internet.org that was not already out there. Internet.org is currently available in six countries: Four in Africa, Colombia, and India.</p><p>He did offer some personal updates from his travels to those countries: He visited a "cyber village" in Jakarta where children are teaching adults how to use the internet, and how Indian Prime Minister Modi "used the internet as a primary campaigning tool to connect with people."</p><p>He wasn't here at Mobile World Congress to tal about the new bells and whistles (or "satellites and planes," or "drones and lasers") Facebook is using to help get people connected. </p><p>"People like talking about that stuff because it's sexy, actually the bigger deal is there are a lot of people who have grown up without the internet," Zuckerberg said.</p><p>There was barely a mention of Facebook at Zuckerberg's keynote at Mobile World Congress this year (the same as the last.) But the message from the stage was loud and clear: Zuckerberg wants more operators on board and he is determined that it won't affect their businesses, at least not in the long-term. </p><p> </p><p><em>This story is updating. Click here to refresh the page.</em></p>

Zuckerberg goes on charm offensive with wireless carriers at Mobile World Congress for Internet.org

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right click-to-enlarge" style="width:400px"><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Scott Olson / Getty Images" title_caption="The young Zuckerberg." class="zoomin" href="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/4f29487f6bb3f7c551000032-960/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-getty.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Scott Olson / Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">The young Zuckerberg.</p></div><p></p></div>As headlines go, this one about Facebook rather understates the importance of the events that were unfolding at the time:</p>
<h3>"Hundreds Register for New Facebook Website."</h3>
<p>It was written 10 years ago, when Facebook got its first mention in the media. At least, we presume that <a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2004/2/9/hundreds-register-for-new-facebook-website/">this article by The Harvard Crimson</a> about student "Mark E. Zuckerberg" was the first scoop on what would later become Facebook.</p>
<p>At the time, the site - "thefacebook.com" - was going viral at Harvard and had 650 users. Zuckerberg said that "he anticipated that 900 students would have joined the site by this morning."</p>
<p>Nine-hundred!</p>
<p>As told by The Crimson, Zuckberger built the site because he was tired of waiting for Harvard to get its act together:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span>I think it's kind of silly that it would take the University a couple of years to get around to it. I can do it better than they can, and I can do it in a week.</span></p>
<p>Of course, now that Facebook is exactly 10 years old, we all know what happened next. Facebook now has 1.3 billino users, and the entire internet has been redesigned to accommodate it.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2004/2/9/hundreds-register-for-new-facebook-website/"><strong>Here's the full article, written by staff writer Alan Tabak, and on Feb. 9, 2004. :</strong></a></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span>When Mark E. Zuckerberg '06 grew impatient with the creation of an official universal Harvard facebook, he decided to take matters into his own hands.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">After about a week of coding, Zuckerberg launched thefacebook.com last Wednesday afternoon. The website combines elements of a standard House face book with extensive profile features that allow students to search for others in their courses, social organizations and Houses.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">"Everyone's been talking a lot about a universal face book within Harvard," Zuckerberg said. "I think it's kind of silly that it would take the University a couple of years to get around to it. I can do it better than they can, and I can do it in a week."</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">As of yesterday afternoon, Zuckerberg said over 650 students had registered use thefacebook.com. He said that he anticipated that 900 students would have joined the site by this morning.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">"I'm pretty happy with the amount of people that have been to it so far," he said. "The nature of the site is that each user's experience improves if they can get their friends to join it."</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">But Director of Residential Computing Kevin S. Davis '98 said that the creation of a Harvard facebook was not as far off as Zuckerberg predicted.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">"There is a project internally with computer services to create a facebook," Davis said. "We've been in touch with the Undergraduate Council, and this is a very high priority for the College. We have every intention of completing the facebook by the end of the spring semester."</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Davis said that the principle complication with the creation of an official facebook was figuring out how to design an interface so that directory information could not easily be compiled without authorization.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Zuckerberg's site allows people with Harvard e-mail addresses to upload their pictures and personal and academic information. Just as with the popular website Friendster, which Zuckerberg said was a model for his new website, members can search for people according to their interests and can create an online network of friends.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Lisa H. Feigenbaum '04 said that she joined thefacebook.com because it provided an open alternative to the password-protected House facebooks.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">"If there was a situation where you needed to identify someone for an organization or a meeting, it would be very helpful," she said.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Zuckerberg said that the most innovative feature of the site is that people can search for other students in their classes so that they can branch out to form friendships and study groups.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">"If you're in a class where you don't know anyone and want to ask somebody for help, this is a way to find out the names of people in that class," said thefacebook.com user Roberto C. Acosta '05.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Zuckerberg said that the extensive search capabilities are restricted by a myriad of privacy options for members who do not want everyone to be able to look up their information.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">"There are pretty intensive privacy options," he said. "You can limit who can see your information, if you only want current students to see your information, or people in your year, in your house, in your classes. You can limit a search so that only a friend or a friend of a friend can look you up. People have very good control over who can see their information."</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Zuckerberg said that he hoped the privacy options would help to restore his reputation following student outrage over facemash.com, a website he created in the fall semester.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Using without permission photos from House facebooks, Facemash juxtaposed the pictures of two random Harvard undergraduates and asked users to judge their physical attractiveness. The website drew the ire of students and administrators alike, and Zuckerberg shut it down within days of the initial launch.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">In addition to the privacy options, Zuckerberg added security features to thefacebook.com that he said will ensure that only the owner of a particular Harvard e-mail account can upload information to the website.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">When a person registers to join thefacebook.com, a program checks to make sure that the name of the prospective member matches up with the entered e-mail address. Next, a confirmation message is sent to the e-mail account, and the account is finally activated if and when the owner of the account clicks on an encrypted link back to thefacebook.com.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Zuckerberg said that he was also careful to avoid the potential copyright infringement charges that landed him before the Administrative Board after the creation of Facemash.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">"Facemash was a joke, it was funny, but at its root it had its problems-not only the idea, but the implementation. It was distributing materials that were Harvard's. I was very careful with [thefacebook.com] to make sure that people don't upload copyrighted material," he said.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Davis said that thefacebook.com is not necessarily in violation of any Harvard rules.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">"There's nothing inherently wrong with a third party site on which students choose to create a personal network," Davis said. "If there was a third party site on which students uploaded course syllabi or videos, that could potentially become a property issue with the University."</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Zuckerburg said thefacebook.com has no such capabilities and does not violate University rules.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">While Zuckerberg promised that thefacebook.com would boast new features by the end of the week, he said that he did not create the website with the intention of generating revenue.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">"I'm not going to sell anybody's e-mail address," he said. "At one point I thought about making the website so that you could upload a resume too, and for a fee companies could search for Harvard job applicants. But I don't want to touch that. It would make everything more serious and less fun."</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>-Staff writer Alan J. Tabak can be reached at tabak@fas.harvard.edu.</em></p>

This Was The First News Story Ever Written About 'TheFacebook.com,' From The Site's Birth 10 Years Ago

<p></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Screenshot via Internet.org/YouTube" title_caption="A way to provide Internet access to everyone on earth? " class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5411ffaa6bb3f7ab23e99dbd-960/screen shot 2014-09-11 at 11.34.22 am.png"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Screenshot via Internet.org/YouTube</span></p><p class="caption">A way to provide Internet access to everyone on earth? </p></div><p></p></div></div>Facebook wants to fill the sky with drones. An even though you'll probably never see them, they'll provide an important - although not exactly uncontroversial - service to the planet.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Earlier this year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg published a white paper, titled "<a href="https://fbcdn-dragon-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/t39.2365-6/851574_611544752265540_1262758947_n.pdf">Connecting the World from the Sky</a>," at <a href="http://internet.org/">Internet.org</a>, a nonprofit established to increase Internet access globally. The organization believes that a connected world is, to borrow a favorite Zuckerberg phrase, more "free and open." </span><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_left click-to-enlarge" style="width:400px"><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Reuters" title_caption="Zuckerberg: " Connecting="" the="" world="" is="" one="" of="" fundamental="" challenges="" our="" time.="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53864baaecad0438074e37e7-960/rtx13khe.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Zuckerberg: "Connecting the world is one of the fundamental challenges of our time."</p></div><p></p></div><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">But there's a problem: Although much of the developed world has abundant Internet access through a variety of technologies, much of the developing world doesn't. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Enter Facebook, to provide the connectivity that isn't there.</span></p>
<p>"Connecting the world is one of the fundamental challenges of our time," Zuckerberg writes. "When people have access to the Internet, they can not only connect with their friends, family and communities, but they can also gain access to the tools and information to help find jobs, start businesses, access healthcare, education and financial services, and have a greater say in their societies. They get to participate in the knowledge economy."</p>
<p><strong>THE INVISIBLE PLATFORM</strong></p>
<p>Most of us get our Internet through the well-established online infrastructure that exists in the developed world. Telecommunications giants, cable companies, and wireless networks maintain the pipes that allow us to search Wikipedia, post photos to Instagram, pay our bills, apply for mortgages, buy snow tires, do our taxes, tweet, start businesses, click on cute animal photos, play video games, and update our Facebook status.</p>
<p>Still, as Zuckerberg points out, "Today, only around 2.7 billion people have access to the Internet - just a little more than a third of the world's population."</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Internet.org" title_caption="A lot of the world is connected - but a lot isn't." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/541202d36bb3f7e038e99dbb-960/screen shot 2014-09-11 at 11.40.03 am.png"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Internet.org</span></p><p class="caption">A lot of the world is connected - but a lot isn't.</p></div><p></p></div></div>The growth rate for that access is 9% - not enough, in Zuckerberg's view. "If we want to connect the world, we have to accelerate that growth."</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">This is where drones - or "unmanned aerial vehicles" (UAVs) as they're officially defined - come in. Facebook's Connectivity Lab is actively developing large - but inexpensive - solar powered drones that will be able to fly not for days, not for months, but for <em>years.</em></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><em> </em>They'll be cheap to build and, once launched, practically free to operate. And unlike a drone concept under development by Amazon, intended to provide delivery services ("Prime Air"), Facebook's drones will fly so high that they'll be effectively invisible.</span></p>
<p>This is because the best operating environment for drones that need to stay aloft for a long time is 65,000 feet. That's a lot higher that commercial aircraft typically fly. But it's signifcantly below the space occupied by low-orbit satellites.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">In a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxX6r-xDgG4">video created by Internet.org</a>, Facebook's Yael Maguire explains the challenges involved with making this happen.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span><strong> </strong></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span><strong>Satellites are better at supplying Internet access to places where there aren't a lot people...</strong></span></span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Screenshot via Internet.org/YouTube" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54120077eab8eab053ce63ad-960/screen shot 2014-09-11 at 11.36.50 am.png"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Screenshot via Internet.org/YouTube</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><strong>...but drones are better when there are more people living in a given area that's underserved for Internet access. </strong><span> </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Screenshot via Internet.org/YouTube" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/541200d16da811f70e41de3d-960/screen shot 2014-09-11 at 11.38.32 am.png"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Screenshot via Internet.org/YouTube</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></span></span>It's a sweet spot for delivering Internet access to "a city-sized area of territory with a medium population density," according to Zuckerberg. As a bonus, bad weather and turbulence at this altitude won't bounce drones around. The invisible platform would be stable and reliable.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Unlike a competing idea from Google, which Zuckerberg subtly criticizes: Balloons. They're harder to control than drone, and they're less durable. That doesn't mean that Google <em>isn't </em>also trying to pursue a drone strategy: the search giant actually <a href="http://motherboard.vice.com/read/google-will-beam-gigabit-internet-from-solar-powered-drones">outbid Facebook</a> for a U.S. dronemaker, Titan Aerospace, in April, leaving Facebook to buy a U.K.-based drone company, Ascenta, for $20 million, making it by far one of Zuckerberg's least costly acquisitions.</span></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Internet.org" title_caption="Drones make the most sense closer to the Earth's surface." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/541201ee6bb3f7732ae99dc0-960/screen shot 2014-09-11 at 11.40.30 am.png"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Internet.org</span></p><p class="caption">Drones make the most sense closer to the Earth's surface.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p><strong>ADVERTISING FOR EVERYONE</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">The white paper wraps Facebook's drone agenda in the noble and uplifting rhetoric of global togetherness and shared progress - better living through friending. For what's it's worth, the technical arguments are compelling: It does make a lot of sense to supply cheap connectivity with cheap drones to regions where incomes and infrastructure is nowhere near a first-world level. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">But of course if Facebook wants to capture its piece of the accelerating growth on Internet access that Zuckberg demands, it will help to control the the platforms. In fact, the whole concept of a "platform" makes it natural for companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon to logically look to drones as the Next Big Thing. Google controls a search platform, Amazon controls an e-commerce platform, and Facebook controls a social networking platform.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Other business operate on top of these platforms and pay tribute to the owners. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">But none of the these companies owns the Internet. So controlling <em>access</em> to the Internet is the next best thing. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Critics of Facebook's motives in particular argue that Zuckerberg &amp; Co. are enthusiastic about drones because the bulk of the access they'll provide will be on mobile networks - Facebook's Number One market for future growth - and because Facebook will be able to prioritize its own products, from Instagram to WhatsApp, and the advertising that follows.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">The entire debate about "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality">net neutrality</a>" also falls away if you're the access provider - Facebook wouldn't have to worry about restrictions on data consumption if the social media colossus puts hundreds of drones at 65,000 feet and equips them to tap into Internet bandwidth outside the purview of U.S. regulators. (Although the specifics of how these drones would connect to Internet, and what companies would be working with Facebook, haven't been worked out yet.) </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">They would be "cellphone towers 60,000 feet tall," as techno-futurist and XPrize CEO <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-diamandis/drones-overhead-seeing-ev_b_5207127.html">Peter Diamandis memorably put it</a> at the Huffington Post.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">And these twelve-mile-high cellphone towers also would be where there currently aren't even very many 100-foot-tall cellphone towers - and governments that are less preoccupied with privacy issues. <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/drones-regulations-google-amazon-facebook-110454.html">As Politico recently noted</a>, the developing world is actually more favorable to the evolving Silicon Valley-drone project than Facebook, Google, and Amazon's home market. Getting drones up and flying with limited government interference is a lot easier in Africa or Australia.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">In fact, legal experts are already anticipating a strange new world of "<a href="http://fortune.com/2014/04/09/drone-law-becomes-big-business/">drone law</a>" as UAVs begin to fill the skies. But it will be a complex undertaking to write new laws and interpret old ones with drone technology being improved as such a rapid pace.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">The nature of operating drones at 60,000 feet and above probably appeals to aspects of the libertarian Silicon Valley mindset. But it's not as if there aren't risks - to the drones themselves, more than people on the ground. <a href="http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/planes-uavs/this-is-how-the-faa-regulates-american-airspace-15894142">Popular Mechanics provides a good breakdown</a>: If Facebook intends to send 11,000 drones into the wide blue yonder, it's going to either have to make them smart enough to dodge collisions with military aircraft, including other drones, or keep track of them on an active basis from the ground.</span></p>
<p><strong>AS IMPORTANT AS SATELLITES</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">In the grand scheme of things, Facebook's drones could provide a real leap forward, in ways we may not fully appreciate at this juncture. It's easy to<span style="color: #000000;"> forget that much of what we take for granted in modern telecommunications</span> relies on an extensive network of satellites. Satellites, obviously, didn't exist until the 1950s. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">But in the half century since <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_1">Sputnik</a>, this largely invisible technology has delivered tremendous benefits to society. It's unlikely, however, that you think about satellites when you're using GPS to navigate your way around a few city blocks - or cross country.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"Connecting the World from the Sky" is similar in its aspirations. Drones that deliver everything from groceries to televisions may very well be buzzing around our skies very soon. We won't be able to miss them. But the impact of Facebook's invisible drones could be much greater.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p></p><p class="tagline">Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.</p>

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