Facebook CEO Mark Zuckeberg was asked about something he'd probably like people to forget during his testimony on Wednesday in front of Congress: FaceMash. 

energyandcommerce/YouTube

Congressman asks Zuckerberg about FaceMash—and people lost it

Rep. Billy Long was very interested in what FaceMash was.

Photo of Andrew Wyrich 

Andrew Wyrich

Tech

Posted on Apr 11, 2018   Updated on May 21, 2021, 6:53 pm CDT

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was asked about something he’d probably like people to forget during his testimony on Wednesday in front of Congress: FaceMash.

Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo) brought up the website, which asked people to vote on the attractiveness of students at Harvard University, so Zuckeberg had to discuss the website he created in the early 2000s under oath in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

He even took a swipe at The Social Network, a movie that dramatized the creation of Facebook.

Here’s how the exchange between Facebook’s founder and Long, who genuinely didn’t seem to know the history of FaceMash, went:

“What was FaceMash and is it still up and running?” Long asked.

“No, congressman, FaceMash was a prank website that I launched in college, in my dorm room, before I started Facebook,” Zuckerberg said, slightly smirking. “There was a movie about this, or it said it was about this—it was of unclear truth—and the claim that FaceMash was somehow connected to the development of Facebook–it isn’t, it wasn’t.”

“Just coincidental? The timing was the same, right? Just coincidental?” Long jumped in.

“It was in 2003… I took it down… it actually has nothing to do with Facebook,” he responded.

“You put up pictures of two women and decide which one was the better, more attractive of the two, is that right?” Long asked.

After a beat, Zuckerberg continued:

“Congressman, that is an accurate description of the prank website that I made when I was a sophomore in college.”

Long responded by saying Zuckerberg had come “a long way” from FaceMash.

The internet clearly enjoyed the fact that FaceMash was brought up during a congressional hearing.

https://twitter.com/poniewozik/status/984117079522635776

https://twitter.com/TVietor08/status/984120883110281217

No lawmaker has yet to ask Zuckerberg about “poking” people on Facebook.

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*First Published: Apr 11, 2018, 8:04 pm CDT

Andrew Wyrich

Andrew Wyrich is the newsletter editor at the Daily Dot. He previously served as the deputy tech editor. Andrew has written for USA Today, NorthJersey.com, and other newspapers and websites. His work has been recognized by the Society of the Silurians, Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE), and the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ).

Andrew Wyrich