Facebook

Facebook is a social media and social networking website operated by Facebook, Inc. in the United States.

Face book was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. The name is derived from the face book directories that are often handed to American university students. Membership was originally restricted to Harvard students, but it has progressively expanded to include students from other North American institutions and, since 2006, everyone over the age of thirteen. As of 2020, Facebook has 2.8 billion monthly active users and was ranked sixth in the world in terms of internet access. This mobile application was the most widely used and downloaded application in the decade of 2010.^[1]

Internet-connected devices such as personal computers, tablets, and smartphones may be used to access Facebook.^[2] Users may build a profile that includes personal information about themselves after registration. They may submit text, pictures, and video that will be shared with any other users who have chosen to be their "friend" or, depending on the privacy settings, will be shared with the whole world. With Facebook Messenger, users may chat with one another in real time, join common-interest groups, and get alerts on the activity of their Facebook friends and the sites they follow.^[3]

Facebook has been the subject of numerous controversies, including those involving user privacy (as in the Cambridge Analytica data scandal), political manipulation (as in the 2016 U.S. elections), mass surveillance, psychological effects such as addiction and low self-esteem, and content such as fake news, conspiracy theories, copyright infringement, and hate speech. According to some critics, Facebook is complicit in the dissemination of such material, and it has exaggerated its number of users in order to attract advertisers.^[4]

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