Status update

Meta has real world problems

On February 4, 2004, a little website was set up by a group of friends at Harvard University. Its premise was simple: Students at the university could create a brief and basic profile and upload their photographs. They could then message one another publicly (on a “wall”) or privately. Within a few years, Facebook became a globe-spanning social network; and, another few years later, it turned capable of shaking governments and distorting election campaigns. Twenty years on, from the first profile photograph being uploaded to what was then “thefacebook.com”, Facebook has become “Meta”, with a stable of products that includes