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How accurate is The Social Network?

Mark Zuckerberg

The Social Network was the biographical film on the inception of Facebook, which took liberties in the portrayal of the characters and events, to arguably tell a compelling story. 

In 2010, The Social Network was released to much critical and commercial success. The David Fincher directed film told the story of the inception of popular social media platform, Facebook, which was co-founded by billionaire Mark Zuckerberg.

While the film enjoyed critical and commercial success following the release, it did receive backlash for the liberties it took with the manner it portrayed its characters and the events that led to the creation of Facebook.

Arguably, the embellishments aimed to make the story more compelling as a viewing experience, but the film did take liberties.

What is The Social Network about?

The Social Network is based on the biographical novel by Ben Mezrich titled The Accidental Billionaires, which is a non-fictional book detailing how Facebook came to be.

Aaron Sorkin is credited with writing the screenplay adaptation based on the book by Mezrich.

According to IMDb, the premise of the film is about Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg, who “creates the social networking site that would become known as Facebook, he is sued by the twins who claimed he stole their idea, and by the co-founder who was later squeezed out of the business.”

Jesse Eisenberg played the title role as Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew Garfield played Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin and Justin Timberlake portrayed Facebook president Sean Parker.

How accurate is The Social Network?

Considering that The Social Network is classified as a biographical film, it is understood that the events that take place in the film are regarded as factual. However, this is not the case.

While the story remained true to the main plot points which resulted in what Facebook is today, the story did take some liberties in the manner they portrayed their characters and some of the events that happened during the early days.

In a Q&A session, Mark Zuckerberg asserted that one of the few things that the film got right was in creating the sets and costuming. Specifically, with the creation of the earl offices and the styling of Eisenberg as Zuckerberg in the film.

However, on the matter of his portrayal as a party freak earlier on, he denied asserting that most of the time was spent building and coding Facebook. Below are three other facts that the story got wrong.

Zuckerberg’s motivation for Facebook

In the film, it is made to look like Zuckerberg created Facebook after being dumped, which resulted in him creating his first app, Facemash, which rated the attractiveness of female students at Harvard.

Thereafter, he was approached by the Winklevoss twins to create an app, which then inspired Zuckerberg to create Facebook.

However, this motivation has been rubbished as Facemash is alleged to have rated the attractiveness of both male and female students.

Moreover, Zuckerberg denied creating the Facemash app as an attempt to get women, as at the time he was reportedly already dating his now wife, Priscilla Chan.

The portrayal of Eduardo Saverin

In the film, co-founder Eduardo Saverin is portrayed as a victim that was hard done by Zuckerberg when he realised the promising success of the app.

This is despite Saverin providing the initial capital to help create Facebook. However, in reality, the story is more complicated than that.

It is alleged that at the time, Saverin started partying in New York and neglecting his responsibilities, which resulted in Zuckerberg seeking financial help from family to keep the business afloat.

Moreover, Saverin allegedly used the platform to promote his side businesses, without consultation. Therefore, he was not completely without blame, as the film made him out to be.

Mark Zuckerberg and Sean Parker’s friendship

The Social Network suggests that Mark Zuckerberg and former Facebook president, Sean Parker’s relationship ended when Sean was arrested for possession of cocaine, which resulted in him being fired from Facebook.

However, in reality, following Parker being held by the police, and not arrested, Zuckerberg’s hand was forced by the company’s shareholders to fire Parker.

Furthermore, the two have maintained their mentor and mentee relationship and friendship to this day, even after Parker was fired from the company.

Final thoughts

The Social Network is regarded as one of the best films to have been released between the start of the 2000s and the turn to the 2010s. A year after its release, it went on to win three awards at the Oscars, including a nod for Sorkin’s writing of the screenplay.

However, despite being labelled a biographical film, the story did take liberties in terms of the characterisation and the events that took place during the early days of Facebook’s inception.

This was done, arguably, to make for a more compelling watch for viewers rather than malice.