The Social Network, a film about the founding company Facebook, was a critical success. As of this writing, it has a 97% aggregate score on Rotten Tomatoes. With all movies that are semi-biographical and based on real life, there is a question of fact and fiction in the film. The following highlights the many questions the movie’s viewers had.
WARNING: Some of the movie descriptions below may contain spoilers.
Didn’t Mark Zuckerberg really create a website called Facemash?
Yes. You can read an article about Mark Zuckerberg’s trial with him in the Crimson. One oversight compared to the movie is that Facemash had real pictures of men and women, not just women.
Is Erica Albright real?
The answer is partly yes, partly no. The blog entry that Mark Zuckerberg writes in the first part of the movie is read almost verbatim from the Vivejournal blog (although the girl’s name is different ). It is not known what it was. It could be a friendly person or some random person in one of his classes, only real life Mark Zuckerberg can really tell.
Did Sean Parker open Facebook after a one night stand?
No. He found out through a roommate.
Did Sean Parker, the founder of Napster, really help Facebook get off the ground?
Yes. It helped Facebook in its first round of funding.
Did Sean Parker get caught with drugs?
Yes. He was arrested for possession of cocaine, although not during the time suggested in the movie and not in California. He finally resigned after his arrest.
Didn’t Mark Zuckerberg and Sean Parker really rape Eduardo Saverin?
There are always two parts in history. The film portrays Eduardo as the victim, while Marco and Sean face him. Edward worked on getting money and building a business model for Facebook while he was in New York. According to some reports, Eduardo became a problem when the company needed to grow, so much so that helping him and the cause of the lawsuit was later considered a better option. What people don’t know is if Edward simply signed away his rights or if Mark lied to him. What few people know.
Did Mark Zuckerberg steal his idea from Divvya Narendra, Tyler Winklevoss, and Cameron Winklevoss?
Law school graduation gift ideas are usually not protected, they are only copyrighted and patented. What is known is divvya, Tyler and Cameron met with Mark Zuckerberg to discuss the programming and setup of HarvardConnection/ConnectU. Mark had access to atleast some internal information to the document, from which it can be suspected that the ideas or even the code could have been taken. The truth is known to very few.
Has Facebook really settled with all the above mentioned parties?
Although the amount and details of the settlement are questionable, and some pending litigation is possible, the final data are accurate. The parties made an extra-judgment about the amount.
Are Final Clubs real?
That’s basically how fraternities are.
How accurate is the programming/technical content?
It’s hard to say, since there were only minutes and bits of spoken words and screenshots on computers. However, I (I am a professional software engineer) and many other colleagues agree that they are at least reasonably realistic. most moved. Many of the technical terms were real and the code shown in the screenshots looked quite legitimate. Sometimes a few technical terms were used together in a sentence that made no technical sense. It can be assumed that Aaron Sorkin composed some technical terms while not understanding the underlying meaning.
Who else is real in the movie?
Peter Thiel is a true venture capitalist who helped fund Facebook in the first place. He is most famously known for co-creating the Paypal Coin. Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes were both former founders/employees of Facebook. Dustin Moskovitz later left the company to found Asana.com. Christopher Hughes left the company to pursue other ventures. In 2008, President Barack Obama launched an online campaign.
Sources:
Peter Sciretta, “The Truth Behind the Social Network”, Slashfilm
Luke O’Brien, “Facebook Fakery,” Slate
Nicholas Carlson, “http://www.businessinsider.com/is-the-social-network-true-2010-10”, BusinessInsider
Nicholas Carlson, “The Facebook Movie Is Cold-Blooded Revenge – New, IMs Tell The Real Story”, Businessinsider
Nicholas Carlson, “Finally – The Full Story of How Facebook Was Founded,” Businessinsider
Wikipedia
