The Social Network

In the fall of 2003, Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg, recently heartbroken after a breakup, spends a drunken night hacking into the university’s computer systems and creating a controversial website. Called Facemash, the site places photos of female students side by side and asks users to decide who is more attractive. The website spreads across campus at an astonishing speed, eventually overwhelming Harvard’s network and sparking controversy over privacy, copyright, computer security, and its openly provocative treatment of women. What begins as a reckless experiment soon becomes the foundation for something far more significant. Mark goes on to create thefacebook.com, a social networking site that rapidly expands from Harvard to other Ivy League schools and eventually reaches people around the world. But as the platform grows, disputes emerge over how the idea was created and who deserves credit for its success. The conflict puts friendships under enormous strain and eventually turns into a legal battle, forcing everyone involved to confront the personal cost of creating something that changes the world.