On 4 February 2004 Mark Zuckerberg launched ‘thefacebook.com’ from his Harvard dormitory.
Two decades later, many users struggle to remember a time they weren’t scrolling through its news feed – or that of its social media sibling, Instagram.
While allowing us to find long-lost friends and family, and supporting small businesses, its 20-year history has been chequered with controversy – from the Cambridge Analytica scandal and allegations of election interference, to lacking protections against harmful content.
Here we look back at the last 20 years – and what could be in store for the trillion-dollar tech company.
2004
When computer science and psychology student Mark Zuckerberg launched thefacebook.com, it was only for students like him – and not open to the wider public.
It was designed so they could exchange posts, messages, and create a network of ‘friends’.
Its mainstay was the ‘wall’, where users could publish posts or write on others.
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Facebook was hot on the heels of its early 2000s rival MySpace and was not monetised so refreshingly free of advertising.
Image: Tyler (left) and Cameron Winklevoss and their ConnectU co-founder Divya Narendra. Pic: AP
But just a few days after it launched, three of Zuckerberg’s fellow Harvard students accused him of stealing their idea for a similar social network they had created called ConnectU. Twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss and Divya Narendra claimed Zuckerberg had helped them with ConnectU, but eventually agreed to settle their legal case in 2008 – in exchange for $65m (£51m), including Facebook shares, and their ConnectU business.
By the end of the year, Facebook already had a million users.
2005
You couldn’t upload photos on Facebook until 2005, when the ability to sub-categorise pictures into albums provided the first platform for the ‘photo dump’.
The inclusion of photos on Facebook also gave birth to the concept of the ‘profile picture’.
The year after the launch, Zuckerberg also decided to drop the ‘the’ and bought the domain name Facebook.com for $200,000 (£170,000) from a company called AboutFace Corporation.
Image: Facebook’s login page in 2010. Pic: AP
2006
A year before the first iPhone was released, Facebook launched a bespoke mobile site for the first generation of smartphone users.
On 26 September 2006 Facebook expanded beyond university students for the first time – allowing anyone with an email address over the age of 18 to join.
With the expansion came the news feed, giving users a curated selection of their friends’ posts, and the wider world the concept of ‘scrolling’.
2006 was also the first year Facebook faced major controversy. Zuckerberg was forced to apologise after his Beacon feature, which sent data to third parties to create targeted ads, began showing users’ purchasing history on their profiles without their consent. Eventually people could opt to turn the feature off.
2007
Facebook’s fourth year brought with it several firsts – videos, ads, Marketplace and pages.
Introducing advertising created huge revenue streams and gave businesses a new way of selling themselves online.
Pages also meant companies and other organisations could create mini-professional profiles that were distinct from personal ones.
On a smaller consumer scale, individual users could advertise goods for sale.
Image: Facebook for iPhone. Pic: AP
2008
Facebook launched its own instant messenger ‘chat’ in March 2008, which became a separate app entirely known as ‘messenger’ in 2011.
With the iPhone came a dedicated Facebook app, separate from its mobile site.
A second major data breach saw the dates of birth of more than 80 million users published on the platform.
2009
This was the year of the ‘like’ button.
And to rival Twitter, which had launched in 2006, Facebook also introduced tagging for photos, posts, and comments.
Image: Pic: Reuters
2010
January 2010 saw Facebook’s first purpose-built data centre open in Oregon.
By the middle of the year the site had reached 500 million users, with ‘groups’ also added for the first time.
In October, The Social Network film was released. Starring Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg, it set out to tell the story of Facebook’s beginnings and the subsequent battle between its founder and the Winklevoss twins. Although it was a huge success in Hollywood, Zuckerberg criticised parts of it for being inaccurate.
Image: Stars of The Social Network film Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake at its premiere in 2010. Pic: AP
2011
In 2011, Facebook began its long and complex relationship with law enforcement.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued it for multiple breaches of its privacy policy. These included users’ friends list being public even when they had made them private, and non-consensual sharing of their personal data with advertising companies.
By 2023, the FTC was on its third case against Facebook.
2011 was also the year the much-loved Facebook wall was replaced with a timeline.
2012
In April 2012, Facebook bought Instagram for $1bn (£0.8bn) and in May it was floated on the stock market for the first time.
Zuckerberg said he bought the photo-sharing app because it was a “threat” to Facebook’s future and the IPO was one of the biggest and most anticipated in history, with an estimated share value of $104bn (£82.2bn).
Image: Zuckerberg leaves his New York City hotel on the day of Facebook’s IPO in 2014. Pic: Reuters
Oculus, a Facebook-owned brand, also produced its first virtual reality headset.
Later that year the platform reached a new milestone of one billion users – a seventh of the world’s population.
2013
In June 2013 a bug saw the email addresses and phone numbers of six million Facebook users accessible online.
It was thought to have been an issue since the year before but was only spotted in 2013.
In terms of features, this year saw users able to edit their posts retrospectively and share stickers as well as emojis.
2014
Two years after the acquisition of Instagram, Facebook bought WhatsApp for 19 times the amount. WhatsApp was created in 2009 for iPhone by a former Yahoo employee.
Today more than half of the world’s internet users have WhatsApp.
2015
At the very end of 2015 the Cambridge Analytica scandal was first reported by The Guardian and The New York Times.
Over the next few years it emerged that the UK-based political consultancy firm had harvested millions of Facebook users’ data for various clients without their consent.
The scandal implicated US politicians, and the Vote Leave campaign, among others. Eventually the UK Information Commissioner ruled the firm was not involved in the Brexit referendum beyond “some initial enquiries… in the early stages” by UKIP.
It was hugely damaging for Facebook’s reputation and its finances.
2016
As self-shooting live broadcasts became more and more of a feature on the internet, Facebook Live was launched.
Three years later it was used by terrorist Brenton Tarrant as he carried out the Christchurch Mosque shootings in New Zealand, which killed 51 people and left 40 injured.
AI now exists to help Facebook identify and block people from filming themselves carrying out atrocities.
Image: Christchurch mosque shooter Brenton Tarrant streamed the attacks live on Facebook. Pic: Reuters
2017
A year after stories became a feature on Instagram, Zuckerberg and his developers introduced them on Facebook.
In a less popular move, Facebook 360 was launched to enable users to upload panoramic photos to their profiles.
2018
The Cambridge Analytica scandal came to a head in 2018, with a raid of their London offices and the company eventually disbanding.
It led to Zuckerberg being compelled to appear before US Congress to answer questions for the first time.
Image: Cambridge Analytica’s London offices in 2018. Pic: Reuters
Facebook also suffered the fallout of another data breach that year in which hackers accessed logins of 50 million users.
And former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg joined the company as vice president of global affairs. He has since been promoted to president.
Image: Nick Clegg, Facebook’s president of global affairs. Pic: AP
2019
Three separate data breaches continued to chip away at Facebook’s image in 2019.
The first saw 540 million users’ data made public, the second happened when Facebook “unintentionally” released emails of more than 1.5 million people, and the third saw the names, phone numbers and usernames of 267 million people made public.
In response to privacy concerns, Meta says it’s since invested $5.5bn (£4.3bn) to tackle the issue, with a team of 3,000 people worldwide.
“As expectations around privacy evolve, it’s critical for companies to continue investing in guardrails and processes to meet people’s privacy needs and expectations,” it said in a recent statement.
2020
A second FTC case against Facebook resulted in a court order banning it from monetising data acquired from profiles of users under 18 and limiting its use of AI.
This year, as part of its response to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook agreed to “fundamentally shift our approach to protecting people’s privacy” and paid a $5bn (£3.9bn) fine.
2021
As COVID continued to separate people all over the world from their loved ones, Zuckerberg announced Facebook Inc would become Meta.
Not only was Meta a parent company for Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and other assets, it also laid the groundwork for the ‘Metaverse’.
Image: Pic: Reuters
In its launch announcement, Zuckerberg described it as “letting you share immersive experiences with other people even when you can’t be together – and do things together you couldn’t do in the physical world” and the “next evolution in a long line of social technologies”.
In December 2021 a joint $150m (£118m) lawsuit sued Facebook over allegations it failed to address misinformation that promoted the genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
In response, Meta created a Myanmar-specific policy to remove praise, support, and advocacy of violence by Myanmar security forces and protesters on all its platforms. It has also banned the Myanmar military itself, including any pages, groups, and accounts representing military-controlled businesses.
Its latest statement added: “Our team continues to monitor the situation on the ground in Myanmar and we will continue to take any action necessary to keep our community safe.”
2022
Meta’s safeguarding measures against harmful content came under unprecedented scrutiny in 2022 when a UK coroner ruled that “negative online content” had played a role in someone’s suicide for the first time.
The case was that of Molly Russell, a 14-year-old schoolgirl from London, who was found dead in her bedroom in 2017.
Image: Molly Russell. Pic: PA
Her father Ian campaigned against under-regulated tech companies after evidence emerged she had viewed content that promoted self-harm and suicide on platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest.
The firm’s head of health and wellbeing, Elizabeth Lagone, attended the hearing in person and said many posts viewed by Molly would have violated Instagram’s policies, for which she apologised.
Image: Elizabeth Lagone, Meta’s head of health and wellbeing, arrives at Molly Russell’s inquest. Pic: PA
2023
By 2023 the Metaverse had begun to cost its parent company dearly.
By the end of the year, Meta Reality Labs had haemorrhaged $46.5bn (£36bn). As such, 2023 quickly became Zuckerberg’s self-proclaimed “year of efficiency” with 21,000 planned job cuts.
Image: A man tries out a Meta virtual reality headset. Pic: AP
Meanwhile, Meta honed in on its rival X, formerly Twitter, which had not long been bought outright by Elon Musk. To do so it launched its own subscription service – Meta verified – and a separate X-style app for Instagram called Threads.
By the end of the year, Meta was also facing its third privacy case from the FTC in the US.
So what’s next?
In 2024 and beyond, Facebook’s challenges remain largely the same as recent years – and revolve mainly around misinformation and regulation.
Fears over profitability when billions were lost following the launch of the Metaverse in 2021 appear to have been reversed, with share prices reaching an all-time high.
Social media consultant and industry analyst Matt Navara says this is largely to do with job cuts that have enabled Zuckerberg’s AI work on the Metaverse to be a cash cow for the ad revenue business.
Similarly, the threat once posed by TikTok has mostly subsided with the success of Instagram Reels and TikTok’s growth plateauing. Meta has also benefited from Elon Musk’s takeover and rebranding of X, which has facilitated the launch of a rival app Threads.
Mr Navarra comments that Meta has often proved “like Teflon” in that “nothing very bad seems to stick for long”.
But as 2024 began for Zuckerberg answering awkward questions around online harms in the US Senate, it appears legislation that could curb how Meta’s platform operate is “closer than ever”.
“We’re at the point where it’s hard for US lawmakers to do nothing, with bipartisan support for new regulation coming through.”
But he says questions remain on how impactful legislation would be – as has been in the case in the UK and Europe.
Meta has already said it will stop under-18s from being able to view harmful content about self-harm and eating disorders.
And in a year when two billion people are going to the polls in elections, misinformation will be Meta’s ultimate test.
“All platforms will face criticism,” Mr Navarra says. “There will be headlines around the abuse of AI and what Meta’s role has been. It probably has the most advanced automated systems in place to tackle it, but undoubtedly things will slip through the cracks and I suspect it’ll never be enough.”
Beyond this year, Mr Navarra predicts that Zuckerberg’s vision of the Metaverse is still “someway out”, and possibly into the next decade, with virtual reality headsets unlikely to be commercially viable until at least 2027.
2024
So far in 2024, Meta has promised to hide content that promotes self-harm and eating disorders on Facebook and Instagram.
It says it plans to use the 40,000 staff it has working on safety and security worldwide and the $20bn invested since 2016 to make further progress on those issues.
Image: Families hold up pictures of their children as Zuckerberg answers questions on online sexual exploitation. Pic: Reuters
And Zuckerberg has appeared before the US Senate, apologising to families whose children have fallen victim to online sexual exploitation on his platforms.
In response to this year’s elections, Meta has promised to block new political ads during the final week of the US election campaign and will require advertisers to disclose when they use AI in social or political posts.
Shares skyrocketed when it was announced shareholders would receive dividends from Meta for the first time at the start of February.
Two Cambodian soldiers have been returned by Thailand ahead of a key meeting aimed at maintaining a ceasefire between the countries.
In Bangkok, Thai government spokesperson Jirayu Houngsub said on Friday that two Cambodian soldiers had been sent back, and the remaining 18 were being processed for violating immigration law.
“The Cambodian soldiers intruded on Thai territory and the army took them into custody, treating them based on humanitarian principles,” he said.
In a statement, the Cambodian defence ministry asked Thailandto return all the detained soldiers.
“Cambodiais actively engaging in negotiations to secure their release, and reiterates its firm call for their immediate and unconditional release in accordance with the international humanitarian law,” a ministry spokesperson said.
It follows days of deadly fighting along the Thai-Cambodian border which saw at least 43 people killed and left over 300,000 people displaced.
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1:50
July: Sky at scene of deadly rocket attack
The violence – the worst fighting between the neighbours in over a decade – ended with a truce reached on Monday following a push from Malaysia and calls from US President Donald Trump who threatened to hold off tariff negotiations with both countries until fighting ceased.
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Thailand and Cambodia previously faced tariffs of 36% for sending goods to the US, their largest export markets.
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Officials from both Thailand and Cambodia will be meeting in Malaysia next week for talks aimed at maintaining the ceasefire along the disputed border.
The two nations have been at loggerheads over border areas for decades, and simmering tensions escalated into an exchange of gunfire, shelling and rockets on last week, with both sides accusing one another of initiating the violence.
Both countries recalled their ambassadors, and Thailand closed its border crossings with Cambodia.
Relations between the pair deteriorated sharply after an armed confrontation in May that killed a Cambodian soldier. Nationalist passions on both sides have further inflamed the situation.
Two senior US officials will visit Gaza later today, amid growing concerns about the scale of the humanitarian crisis.
Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee will inspect a food distribution site – and report back to the president immediately.
Our US correspondent David Blevins says the visit “is not unprecedented but is highly unusual … due to obvious security concerns and political sensitivities”.
He added: “I think it reflects the growing concern there is here in the United States about the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe.”
Image: Steve Witkoff met Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Thursday. Pic: US embassy in Jerusalem
Aid workers on the ground have warned that a “politically manmade famine” is taking place in the territory.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, told The World With Yalda Hakim that “more and more people will continue to die” unless there is urgent change.
Donald Trumphas expressed frustration at the lack of aid reaching Palestinians and has repeatedly blamed Hamas– but US government analysis has found no evidence that the militant group is systemically stealing supplies.
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He told reporters yesterday: “It’s terrible what’s occurring there. People are very hungry, you know.
“The United States gave $60m … for food. And, it’s a shame because … I don’t see the results of it. Part of the problem is Hamas is taking the money and they’re taking the food.”
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8:07
Kids are ‘dying silently of hunger’
On Thursday, Mr Witkoff arrived in Israel and held discussions with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu– the first meeting between the pair since both Israel and the US withdrew their negotiating teams from Qatar a week ago.
At the time, he claimed that Hamas “shows a lack of desire” to reach a truce.
Under heavy international pressure, Israel has paused fighting in parts of Gaza and airdropped food – although the volume of supplies remains far lower than what aid organisations say is needed.
Image: Palestinians rush to collect humanitarian aid airdropped in central Gaza. Pic: AP
While more aid trucks have entered Gaza, nearly all the lorries are stripped of their cargo by crowds of Palestinians desperate for food, or looted by armed gangs.
The alternative food distribution system run by the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has also been marred by violence.
Doctor Tom Adamkiewicz, a paediatrician working at Nasser Hospital in Gaza, told Sky News that the majority of the hospital’s patients have signs of malnutrition – and “many children are passing out literally during the day and injuring themselves”.
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3:41
Gazan boy arrives in UK for treatment
Separately, German foreign minister Johann Wadephul also arrived in Israel on Thursday on a two-day trip that will also take him to the occupied West Bank.
Germany, traditionally a staunch ally of Israel, has been increasingly critical. Mr Wadephul warned that Israel is “increasingly finding itself in a minority position”.
But he stopped short of moving towards recognising a Palestinian state, something his allies France, the UK and Canada have vowed to do in Septemberif certain conditions are met.
Meanwhile, Sweden’s prime minister has called on the EU to “freeze” its trade agreement with Israel – with Ulf Kristersson describing the situation in Gaza as “utterly deplorable”.
After visiting Gaza, Mr Witkoff will travel to Russia. He has held extensive talks in Moscow with Vladimir Putin in the past.
The US president has given his Russian counterpart until 8 August to reach a deal to halt the fighting in Ukraine, or else he will impose economic sanctions.
A 15-year-old boy from Gaza brought to the UK for urgent medical treatment has told Sky News of his joy and relief.
Majd Alshagnobi arrived at London’s Heathrow Airport with his mother and two siblings to a hero’s welcome on Wednesday evening, with well-wishers bearing flowers, gifts, and banners.
It has been a tortuous wait for the teenager, who suffered severe facial injuries in February 2024 when Israeli tank shells exploded near him and a group of friends.
Majd lost part of his face as well as his entire jaw and all his teeth. It has left him and his family traumatised.
His mother, Islam, told me that doctors at the Mamadani hospital in Gaza were shocked that her son survived the incident.
“When Majd first got to the hospital, they thought he was dead because of the severities of the injuries on his face and leg,” she said. “But when he raised his arm, they realised he was still alive.
“All the operating rooms were busy, so they carried out the operation in the kitchen to save him.
“It was very difficult for him to breathe, and they had to feed him through tubes and syringes through his nose. He really suffered.”
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2:56
Sky News investigates: Gaza’s deadliest days
Majd stood awestruck at the window of the small central London apartment where his family had been accommodated. He wore a blue surgical mask but gently pulled it down to reveal a smile.
“Thank God I have the opportunity to receive treatment here… that’s the reason I have come. To get treatment,” he said. “Since I arrived, I have felt so much happier.
“We’ve been greeted in such a nice way, with gifts and things to help us.”
But it will take time for the young football fan to come to terms with the trauma he has suffered.
When I ask him what he remembers from his time in Gaza, he replies: “I saw dogs eating bodies and I was terrified, and I thought I was going to die. Stuff like that…”
Image: Majd Alshagnobi’s mother Islam
His mother, who has had to leave two of her children in Gaza with their father, tells me: “Right now my family in Gaza live in tents. We’ve lost our home, we’ve lost our memories, we’ve lost our dreams. Nothing is left in Gaza.
“My two children who are still in Gaza with their father, every day I wake up in fear that they have been killed. Anything could happen to them in Gaza.”
Around 5,000 children have been evacuated from Gaza, with the majority going to Egypt and Gulf countries.
Majd is the third child to come to the UK with the help of the charity Project Pure Hope.
The group of volunteers have been campaigning successive governments for the last 20 months to create a scheme which would allow for the evacuation of 30 to 50 children.
The charity has raised the money to bring the children and their families to the UK, and cover their medical costs, privately.
Last week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the government was “accelerating efforts” to evacuate Gazan children who need urgent medical care in the UK.
Omar Din, the co-founder of Project Pure Hope, says it is time for the government to step in and take responsibility.
“We’re hoping following the prime minister’s announcement last Friday, that in the coming days we’ll have some concrete actions,” he said. “The more we wait, the more children die who we could be saving.
“We’ve done this privately because there was no other option available but myself, and members of my founding team, have done lots of this work for Ukrainian refugees previously. There’s no reason we shouldn’t be doing that for Gazans.”