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Every public comment by Mark Zuckerberg cataloged in new archive

Every public comment by Mark Zuckerberg cataloged in new archive

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Mark Zuckerberg Facebook Stock
Mark Zuckerberg Facebook Stock

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is one of the biggest proponents of living more and more of your life in the public, and a new website is ensuring that Zuckerberg himself does just that. On Friday, researchers from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee launched The Zuckerberg Files, a scholarly website dedicated to collecting every word that Zuckerberg has ever publicly spoken. The intent isn't to follow him around, but rather to collect interviews, statements, talks, and presentations that he's made, and then to create transcripts of every one of them.

Only scholars can access the archive

The Zuckerberg Files has already assembled over 100 transcripts and nearly 50 videos for its archive, which it says makes up all publicly available speech and writing from Zuckerberg. Only researchers will be given access to them, however, as the site is meant to help critically engage Facebook's approach to privacy — not to bluntly expose the company's CEO.

But while the archive respects Zuckerberg's privacy in that sense, its administrator is by no means thrilled with how his company treats its customers. The Zuckerberg Files' administrator, Michael Zimmer, co-authored an op-ed in The Huffington Post three years ago that called Facebook's method of introducing new features "Machiavellian" because of the way that it seemingly follows the same script of casually listening to users' outrage every time. The idea is that by using Zimmer's new site, researchers may be able to notice similar behavior from Zuckerberg himself.