From rising star to villain: the rise and fall of Mark Zuckerberg

In October, Aaron Sorkin returns to give Mark Zuckerberg a good thrashing. In the 2010 film "The Social Network", directed by Fincher, Zuckerberg was played by Jesse Eisenberg; I appreciated the actor's portrayal because Mark came across precisely that way – a pale, strange and subtly monstrous figure. Fuelled by that unquenchable fire of social resentment. In the new film "The Social Reckoning", Zuckerberg is played by Jeremy Strong, the man with the sad face, the super-loser from "Succession", and Mark is now the master of the world. The film will be about the Facebook Files, the Wall Street Journal investigation. So the first film was the genesis of the legend; in the latest film, the legend is tarnished and we see the bill that Facebook is presenting twenty years on. It strikes me as a bit too neat a narrative – indeed, it’s Nemesis personified – because just last Thursday, a resounding blow landed on Mark’s head: a monster of a judgement, with tentacles reaching far and wide, and if you look at the compensation figure head-on, it’s enough to turn you to stone – over half a billion. For Zuckerberg, the years of sleepless nights are beginning (did he ever sleep?).

A Brilliant Prospect. Back in 2004, Zuckerberg was just like the American character in those Tom Cruise films. Twenty years old, he dropped out of Harvard halfway through, yet my goodness, what exceptional talent, what an instinct for innovation. He used to walk about in slippers and had incredible ideas. Within three years, he’d indirectly helped elect a president (Obama) who’d used his magic toy, Facebook. And it was a toy everyone envied; he’d built a whole new world, and he’d invented that alternative universe himself. More or less: Mark had improved on every previous model of online community – copying and doing better, a practice which, unfortunately, isn’t ethical but has always been a powerful formula. He worked, he worked constantly and wore a tracksuit top; then he refused to sell Facebook, and even Steve Jobs gave him a little round of applause. This is where it went wrong: Mark reached the threshold of the revered master before he became the usual arsehole.

Venerable Master. Facebook became a continent. In its early years, it fostered friendships and careers at the speed of light. We had such a good time – what memories. Then came the acquisition of Instagram, another global bank brimming with gold bars, and WhatsApp, with its billions of users. I wonder how Zuckerberg feels when he reflects on the fact that he has truly ‘connected the world’ – it is no longer just an advertising slogan but a description, not myth-making but literal, of the new power he has invented and which is now his.

Then, about ten years ago, he lost his head. He had everything, so all that remained was to change his privacy settings: who could search for him, and for what purpose. It was the height of Silicon Valley’s allure; he felt more like a philosopher than a billionaire and began coming up with strange ideas, radical futurism. The mission, as those who speak English in the office put it, has gone a bit off the rails. Mark starts to make even less sense of it all with every passing year, and in 2021, whilst Facebook was facing a new wave of accusations and documents were revealing the effects of its diabolical contraptions, Zuckerberg said he was ready to announce the future. Facebook becomes Meta, and in California they’ve convinced themselves they can turn us all into cartoon characters: we’ll send our little avatars to the office whilst we’re connected from home via psychedelic headsets. The metaverse! Response from those concerned (us): Please, give us a break.

The usual arsehole. Then politics comes along, and it becomes clear that the idealist in his slippers had been minding his own business. Cambridge Analytica exposed to everyone a king who’d been walking around naked for ages: Facebook wasn’t just a platform where people posted photos in swimwear to find a partner; it was a machine built to turn our stupidity into data and adverts. Congress comes knocking. Billions more have been lost, but Mark’s megalomania shows no sign of abating. In 2022, Meta goes through one of its most serious crises, and the following year becomes the ‘Year of Efficiency’. Out go the top executives and the rank-and-file; out go almost all of them. Translation: a bloodbath. Meanwhile, he begins to revamp his public image, takes part in jiu-jitsu tournaments and has his photo taken striking cool poses. Prada fashion shows and a decent haircut. In January 2025, on a podcast, he explains that the corporate world has become too soft and that a bit more “masculine energy” can have its positive aspects. Well, let’s give it a go. Meanwhile, the clouds are gathering thick and dark, and the rulings are pouring in. On 6 August, a judge in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay a further $567 million (for a fund to support young people). The judge also requested a series of changes to the platforms. Meta is contesting the decision and Mark, now the usual old arsehole, says that social media is still brilliant and announces he’ll appeal.