An interesting legal drama has unfolded in the United States of America as a lawyer named Mark Zuckerberg dragged Facebook to court for repeatedly taking down his account over alleged impersonation of the company’s billionaire founder, Mark Zuckerberg.
The story, first reported by local Indiana station WTHR and later published by The Telegraph, indicated that Mark Stephen Zuckerberg — a bankruptcy attorney based in Indiana — has been battling the social media giant for years after his business and personal pages were repeatedly blocked.
Mr Zuckerberg, who has practised law for nearly four decades, said the ordeal cost him thousands of dollars in lost business. He claimed he spent over $11,000 (£8,000) on Facebook adverts to promote his law firm, only for the platform to accuse him of “impersonating a celebrity” — even though he carried the name since long before the billionaire tech mogul was old enough to walk.
“It’s not funny,” the attorney told WTHR. “Not when they take my money.”
The Indiana lawyer said sharing the name with one of the world’s richest men has made his life miserable: from receiving death threats and tech-support phone calls, to more than 100 daily friend requests from strangers. In Las Vegas, he once walked up to a limo driver holding a sign with his name, only to find himself mobbed by fans waiting for the Meta boss.
He added that he sometimes books restaurants under fake names because staff assume “Mark Zuckerberg” is a prank caller.
“I’d rather not pick a fight with them, but I don’t know how to make them stop,” Mr Zuckerberg said of Facebook.
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, admitted awareness of the mix-up, saying: “We know there’s more than one Mark Zuckerberg in the world, and we are getting to the bottom of this.”
Mr Zuckerberg is suing for damages and legal fees. Still, he said he might consider dropping the case if the billionaire founder offered him an unusual settlement: “If he let me spend a week on his boat to say I’m sorry, I’d probably take him up on that.”
