# Facebook History

**Published by:** [stanislau_3](https://paragraph.com/@stanislau3/)
**Published on:** 2023-06-30
**URL:** https://paragraph.com/@stanislau3/facebook-history

## Content

Launched initially as FaceMash in October 2003, Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes, and Andrew McCollum. This social networking platform supports messaging, media upload, voice, and video calls, etc. FaceMash was changed to TheFacebook in 2004. When first launched, only Harvard University students were eligible members of the social network. However, with time, membership was extended across the Ivy League, Boston Area, and other universities in the Canada and US. By September 2006, you can register on Facebook if you have a valid email and are at least 13 years old. Zuckerberg decided to create a student directory with photos and basic personal information, Facemash, which used photos compiled from the online facebooks of nine dormitory Houses, placing two next to each other and asking users to choose the hotter person. To accomplish this, Mark hacked into the protected areas of Harvard’s computer network and copied the houses’ private dormitory ID images. Harvard at that time did not have a student directory with photos and essential information, and the Facemash site generated 450 visitors and 22000 photo-views in its first several hours online. The initial site mirrored people’s physical community—with their real identities, represented the key aspects of what later became Facebook. The site was quickly forwarded to several campus group list servers but was shut down a few days later by the Harvard administration. Zuckerberg got into trouble, being charged by the administration with breach of security, violating copyrights, and violating individual privacy, and faced expulsion, but ultimately the charges were dropped. The following semester, in January 2004, Mark began writing code for a new website. In February 2004, he launched the Thefacebook site, initially located at URL thefacebook.com. When Zuckerberg finished the site, he told a couple of friends, and one of them put it on an online mailing list. Immediately several dozen people joined, and then they were telling people at the other houses. It was like an avalanche; within twenty-four hours, Thefacebook had somewhere between twelve hundred and fifteen hundred registrants.

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