Should you delete your Facebook account? Here’s what the man who records all Zuckerberg’s remarks thinks
How much do we really know about Mark Zuckerberg?
The creator of Facebook. One of the world’s richest men. A 39-year-old father-of-three. But is he a force for good?
One man has made it his mission to try to help us answer that question.
For more than a decade, US university professor Dr Michael Zimmer has been recording “every single thing” the Facebook founder says in public, in an archive known as “The Zuckerberg Files”.
Covering a period from 2004 to the present day, it features more than 1,500 transcripts of Zuckerberg’s remarks, including Facebook posts, media interviews and hundreds of videos of his public appearances.
With growing concerns over Facebook users’ privacy and how their data is used, Dr Zimmer says he wanted to take a “closer look” at Zuckerberg’s language and views.
Dr Michael Zimmer is the creator of The Zuckerberg Files. Pic: Sky UK
“The privacy concerns around Facebook, and the amount of data Meta collects across its platforms, are real and important for users to understand,” he tells Sky News.
“I don’t rush to suggest people delete their accounts, as there can be real benefits being on the platforms.
“But it’s important for users to explore the privacy settings available to understand how visible their content is, what kind of details are being collected and shared, and so on.
“Facebook has got better at giving users the ability to manage their privacy, but they could certainly do more.”
Zuckerberg’s posts on his Facebook page suggest he has his own concerns about privacy, Dr Zimmer says.
“More recently he’s been posting more about his family, including pictures of his children – but interestingly we rarely see his children’s faces,” Dr Zimmer adds.
“So I’m assuming he wants to make sure his kids’ faces don’t get put online for privacy reasons, or any kind of face recognition, for their own safety.
“But, of course, his platform has built tools to scan our pictures and our faces.”
Twenty years after it was created, Facebook is now irrevocably linked with concerns about data collection, online safety and the deterioration of democracy itself.
Now, a new Sky documentary delves into how Zuckerberg built his Meta empire (which includes Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp), what drives him and how he’s changed his public persona over the years.
One of four children and the only boy, Zuckerberg was known as the “prince” by his mother, according to the programme.
“He was anointed even within the family,” says David Kirkpatrick, technology journalist and author of The Facebook Effect. “That shaped his worldview tremendously.”
Mark Zuckerberg in 2007
It was at Harvard University where the “prince” became a celebrity, when he created FaceMash – a hot-or-not website where users compared photos of their fellow students.
“It was sexist, it was juvenile. It did get him in trouble,” Mr Kirkpatrick said.
But it almost made him famous. The short-lived FaceMash may have got Zuckerberg hauled before a disciplinary committee, but it also racked up 22,000 hits in its first day.
“By the time he launched Facebook, he was already like a famous innovator so people wanted to know what he was going to do next,” Mr Kirkpatrick adds.
Pic: AP
Zuckerberg created the first version of Facebook in his dorm room – and infamously described the early users who trusted him with their data as “dumb f****”, the documentary says.
He left Harvard early with some friends and headed to Palo Alto, California – Silicon Valley – to work on TheFacebook (as it was known) full time.
Zuckerberg was often seen lying on the floor coding, wearing flip-flops.
Poking – an innocuous Facebook function that was popular for a while – was something he thought up when he was drunk, Zuckerberg says in an early interview.
The rise of Facebook was meteoric. It hit one billion users. President Barack Obama visited its headquarters. It was clear that this social media giant had changed the world forever – but for good or for bad?
Barack Obama with Zuckerberg in 2011
One of the first examples of the power of Facebook was the Arab Spring in the early 2010s, where countries across the Middle East saw popular uprisings and some governments were overthrown.
“Mark was feted,” says former Facebook vice president Richard Allan.
“Here were all these people in countries like Syria, Tunisia and Egypt who could create their own alternative media, in opposition to a state that controlled the media to within an inch of its life and allowed them no space.
“They created the revolution, not us. We weren’t there on the barricades but we had given them a media tool.”
Facebook had become something that was politically powerful, and everyone from protesters to world leaders knew it.
But as we know now, Zuckerberg’s empire would not always be regarded as a positive force for democracy.
Where early in his career he talked a lot about being a start-up chief and creating Facebook in his dorm room, the questions in interviews got harder.
Zuckerberg in 2010. Pic: AP
“Suddenly I think some corporate communication people got involved and his message started to be more controlled, more about products, more about what he’s trying to do with the company,” Dr Zimmer says.
“You almost got a sense that he was trying to sort of step away from the day-to-day trials and tribulations of Facebook, until Cambridge Analytica, until the Brexit and the Trump elections, when suddenly Facebook was back in the spotlight.”
Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 US election made the world stand still.
“Overnight we went from everything we touched turned to gold, to everything we touched turned to dust,” says Katie Harbath, who was Facebook’s public policy director from 2014 to 2019.
“When I first joined, movies were being made (about Facebook), the founder was on the cover of Time Magazine, you’re overthrowing dictators – seven years later you’re being told you destroyed democracy.”
After becoming famous for his laid-back appearance, wearing a hoodie and jeans, Zuckerberg looked very different on 10 April 2018: the day he appeared before US Congress.
Zuckerberg appears before US Congress
He faced questions over the Cambridge Analytica scandal where it had emerged data belonging to up to 87 million Facebook users was improperly accessed by the political consulting firm, which has since been shut down.
“You could tell it wasn’t something he wanted to do,” Dr Zimmer says of Zuckerberg’s US Congress appearance, noting that he actually did “quite well”.
“I think ever since then he’s been very effective in reshaping what people focus on.”
This includes things like the Metaverse, a virtual environment where people can interact with each other that some in tech think will be a huge part of humanity’s future.
“I think he’s trying to get us to rethink Facebook as a platform for goodness, for happiness, for all these great things in our lives and to forget about the bad things that happen,” Dr Zimmer adds.
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So has Zuckerberg been a force for good?
“I think overall he’s had a good impact,” says Dr Zimmer, who is an expert in privacy and data ethics.
“I think he – and the way he’s run his organisations – has been naive and miscalculating in terms of the broader impact that they have on the world.
“We can look at examples, especially in developing countries, where his platforms have clearly been used and misused in ways that have harmed people.”
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He adds: “I guess he can’t correct those challenges but I think he can own it, and I think he can find ways to really try to engage in that space and help make sure that his impact and his legacy does remain positive.”
In a statement provided to the documentary, Meta denied that it promotes profit over safety, citing changes made to the newsfeed that mean that users spend less time on Facebook.
It said it has introduced new guidance for parents and teenagers on Instagram and says that its own research found that in most cases teenage girls said the platform made them feel better, not worse.
Zuckerberg has said that he wants Congress to update internet regulation around elections so that harmful content, privacy and competition are addressed.
Zuckerberg: King Of The Metaverse is available to watch on Sky Documentaries from Thursday 11 January.
Virginia Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault, has died aged 41.
In a statement to Sky’s US partner network NBC News on Friday, her family said she took her own life in Neergabby, Australia, where she had been living for several years.
“It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia,” her family said.
“She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking.
“Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors.
“In the end, the toll of abuse is so heavy that it became unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight.”
Ms Giuffre sued the Duke of York for sexual abuse in August 2021, saying Andrew had sex with her when she was 17 and had been trafficked by his friend, the billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The duke has repeatedly denied the claims, and he has not been charged with any criminal offences.
In March 2022, it was announced Ms Giuffre and Andrew had reached an out-of-court settlement – believed to include a “substantial donation to Ms Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights”.
Prince Andrew has denied all claims of wrongdoing. File pic: Reuters
‘An incredible champion’
Sigrid McCawley, Ms Giuffre’s attorney, told NBC News that she “was much more than a client to me; she was a dear friend and an incredible champion for other victims”.
“Her courage pushed me to fight harder, and her strength was awe-inspiring,” she said. “The world has lost an amazing human being today.”
“Rest in peace, my sweet angel,” she added.
Dini von Mueffling, Giuffre’s representative, also told the outlet: “Virginia was one of the most extraordinary human beings I have ever had the honour to know.
“Deeply loving, wise, and funny, she was a beacon to other survivors and victims. She adored her children and many animals.
“She was always more concerned with me than with herself. I will miss her beyond words. It was the privilege of a lifetime to represent her.”
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Ms Giuffre said at the end of March she had four days to live after a car accident, posting on social media that “I’ve gone into kidney renal failure”. She was discharged from hospital eight days later.
Raised mainly in Florida, she said she was abused by a family friend early in life, which led to her living on the streets at times as a teenager.
She said that in 2000, she met Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite who was convicted in 2021 on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Ms Giuffre said Maxwell then introduced her to Epstein and hired her as his masseuse, and said she was sex trafficked and sexually abused by him and associates around the world.
‘I am now a survivor’
After meeting her husband in 2002, while taking massage training in Thailand at what she said was Epstein’s behest, she moved to Australia and had a family.
She founded the sex trafficking victims’ advocacy charity SOAR in 2015, and is quoted on its website as saying: “I do this for victims everywhere.
“I am no longer the young and vulnerable girl who could be bullied. I am now a survivor, and nobody can ever take that away from me.”
:: Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.
World
Fighter jets, a naval destroyer and guns on show: The ‘unprecedented’ security operation for Pope’s funeral
As the line of mourners moves slowly along behind him, Ciriaco Sarnelli peers at me from beneath the immaculate brim of his cap.
The military police chief looks, by any standards, magnificent – shoulders back and proudly wearing the black uniform of the Carabinieri.
“Our history goes back more than 200 years,” he says. “We remember our past, and our place. The only people with black uniforms are the priests, the judges and the Carabinieri.”
He leaves the rest unsaid – the Carabinieri sit at the heart of Italian cultural life.
Ciriaco Sarnelli, Carabinieri military police chief
Pope latest: Security ramping up ahead of funeral
Once, they defended the borders of a young nation. Now, they have a new challenge that has its own weighty burden – to keep St Peter’s Square safe during the funeral of Pope Francis.
This is no easy task. Hundreds of thousands will descend upon the Vatican for the event.
Many of the world’s best-known politicians and dignitaries will be welcomed into St Peter’s Basilica.
Inside will be Donald Trump, Sir Keir Starmer, Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron, Prince William and dozens upon dozens of other dignitaries.
Outside will be the Carabinieri.
They won’t be alone – there are thousands of other police officers due to be assigned to protect the event – but the Carabinieri are affiliated to the military; the most highly-trained officers on duty.
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A member of the security personnel wields an anti-drone gun for the Pope’s funeral
“This is an extraordinary operation,” says Sarnelli, as we look out over the crowd. “So we have employed some special units that belong to Carabinieri – the bomb squad, a dogs unit, snipers and helicopters. We want to assure the people who are arriving here that they can take part in this event in the best way, in a secure way.”
He says they are ready for “common crimes” – like pickpockets in the crowd – but also “the biggest, terrifying events”.
He says there is “excellent coordination” with police forces from other countries.
Around him, his officers are smiling, chatting to tourists and Romans alike.
The security here is overt but friendly, even if I’m told there are also plenty of plain-clothed officers mingling within the crowd.
Guns and grins both on show.
A police helicopter circles above. In the port of Rome, a naval destroyer has been primed for action; there are fighter jets ready to take off.
You can watch full coverage of the funeral live on Sky News on Saturday
Huge crowds have come from around the world to see the Pope’s body
If the impression is relaxed, the reality is different. The classic swan.
All the strands are pulled together from one place and, what’s more, it offers a perfect view of Vatican City.
From where I’m standing, I can see the front of St Peter’s Basilica, the side, and the roads around it. I can see the crowds coming in, and the crowds going out.
And I can see an anxious policeman drumming his fingers.
But we are not in St Peter’s and not even in the Vatican.
This is the high-security control room on the fifth floor of Rome’s police headquarters.
And from here, you can see everything.
The control room from where security officials can see across the Italian capital
An array of screens are in front of us and, watching them, men and women, huddled over screens and all wearing contrasting uniforms.
Some are military, some national police, some wear the clothes of firefighters. A few are in plain clothes and there is even a man wearing the badge of the prison officers’ service.
This centre is a hub for collaboration and decision-making and it brings together every service that is involved in ensuring the safety and security of the funeral.
There is a Carabinieri officer here, as well as the Guardia di Finanza national police and the Roman force. The government’s secret intelligence service is represented here, too.
Elisabetta Accardo is from Rome’s police department. We talk against the gentle hubbub in the control room, colleagues pointing at screens and agreeing plans.
Elisabetta Accardo, Rome Police control room spokeswoman
I ask when Italy last had to deal with a security operation on this scale, and she laughs. “Hundreds of years,” she says.
“It is unprecedented. The level of security is at the maximum.” She describes the plan as “structured three-dimensional security”.
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It is a plan that has been long in the making, but which has been reshaped over the past few days to react to the whims of the Pope’s final wishes.
It is, after all, more than a century since a pope was buried outside the walls of the Vatican.
You get the impression that the people designing the security plan could rather have done without having to add an hour-long procession through Rome into the plan.
But so be it.
By Saturday night, it will be done. Rome can start to get back to normal; the foreign leaders will be on their way home.
And the Rome police will breathe just a little bit easier.
World
Kremlin blames Ukraine for car bomb killing of Russian general near Moscow – as Trump envoy meets Putin
The Kremlin has blamed Ukraine for a car bomb that killed a Russian general near Moscow hours before Donald Trump’s envoy was due to meet Vladimir Putin in the capital.
The death of Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik is the second such fatal attack on a top Russian military officer in four months.
Russia’s top criminal investigation agency said he was killed by an explosive device placed in his car in Balashikha, just outside the capital.
Follow the latest updates on the Ukraine war
Yaroslav Moskalik. Pic: Russian Ministry of Defence
Moskalik was a deputy head of the main operational department in the General Staff of the Russian armed forces.
“The Kyiv regime once again simply shows its true nature. The Kyiv regime continues to be involved in terrorist activity on the territory of our country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
He didn’t offer any evidence.
“It shows once again that, despite the peace talks, we must be on guard and understand the nature of this regime.”
Ukraine has not responded to the killing.
Investigators work at the scene where Lt Gen Yaroslav Moskalik was killed. Pic: AP
Investigative committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said the explosive device was rigged with shrapnel, adding that investigators were at the scene.
Videos showed a vehicle burning in the courtyard of an apartment building and a body covered in a sheet could be seen on the pavement nearby.
It comes after Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov was killed in December when a bomb hidden on an electric scooter parked outside his apartment building exploded as he left for his office.
Russian authorities blamed Ukraine for the killing of Kirillov, and Ukraine’s security agency acknowledged that it was behind that attack.
Kirillov was the chief of Russia’s radiation, biological and chemical protection forces, the special troops tasked with protecting the military from the enemy’s use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and ensuring operations in a contaminated environment.
His assistant also died in the attack.
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Talks bring Russia and US ‘closer together’
Friday’s bombing came as Mr Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff met Mr Putin in Moscow to discuss a US-brokered peace plan for Ukraine.
The talks allowed Russia and the United States to “further bring their positions closer together” on “a number of international issues”, a Kremlin aide said.
The two sides discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between representatives of the Russian Federation and Ukraine”, Yuri Ushakov said.
The talks in Moscow lasted for three hours and were “constructive and useful”, he added.
Speaking on a flight to Italy for the Pope’s funeral, the US president said he hadn’t been fully briefed on Mr Witkoff and Mr Putin’s meeting – but added it was a “pretty good meeting”.
The meeting was their fourth encounter since February.
Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.
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