Book To ‘Tell-All’ About Facebook

A recent post on the well-known blog Gawker subjected Facebook’s often controversial roots to further scrutiny, when it reported an upcoming “tell-all” book that suggests the social networking site came about as a result of Mark E. Zuckerberg and other Facebook founders’ desire to get into final clubs and to “get laid.”

Gawker, which focuses on media gossip and pop culture, posted the leak on May 22, reporting that Benjamin A. Mezrich ’91, who also wrote “Bringing Down the House,” has signed a deal for over $1 million to write a memoir about the creators of Facebook.

Facebook, allegedly Zuckerberg’s brainchild, was born within the brick walls of Kirkland House in 2004 and quickly became an Internet and social phenomenon, currently claiming over 70 million active users.

But the site’s origins have been heavily disputed.

A lawsuit filed in 2004 by ConnectU founders Divya K. Narendra ’04, Cameron S. H. Winklevoss ’04, and Tyler O. H. Winklevoss ’04 claimed that Zuckerberg had stolen the idea from them. The case was dismissed in 2007.

According to Gawker’s anonymous tipster, former Facebook CEO Eduardo L. Saverin ’05 is Mezrich’s only source, and Zuckerberg is now suing his former collaborator.

The post also included reproductions of various pages from the book proposal, particularly those that include “previously unreported” claims.

In addition to the allegations that the Facebook founders were motivated to create the site in order to “get into a Final Club” and “have access to the social secrets that would finally get them laid,” Gawker readers also learned that Facebook was set to go public this fall, though the company would have had to register for it by now.

While Harvard students and Facebook users may not have a long attention span for the murkiness of the Web site’s creation, Mezrich’s book, written largely from Saverin’s viewpoint, might put the situation on the public’s radar, said Luke O’Brien ’97, who wrote an article in the November/December issue of 02138—a magazine geared exclusively to Harvard alumni—that revealed documents from the lawsuit.

“These things tend to fade away fairly quickly,” O’Brien said. “I think people know about the lawsuit between ConnectU and Facebook, but they [don’t] know much about it.”

“If you were there when Zuckerberg started Facebook, you would be a lot more aware of the situation because when the lawsuit was filed, there was coverage of it and people were friends with the parties involved,” he added.

But O’Brien echoed a point Gawker was careful to make too.

“I think that given the track record for the author, people should be very careful about what they read into the book. This guy has a history of passing fiction off as non-fiction,” he said, referring to controversy that surrounded “Bringing Down the House.”

Indeed, the book proposal includes a story about Zuckerberg and Saverin eating koala on the yacht of Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNeilly.

“A reporter called up McNeilly and he said that he had never had a yacht,” O’Brien said.

Saverin, Mezrich, Facebook’s press department, and Gawker’s managing editor did not respond to requests for comment.

—Staff writer Betsy L. Mead can be reached at emead@fas.harvard.edu.