Scarlett Ingrid Johansson (born November twenty two, 1984) is associate degree yank thespian and singer. She was among the world’s highest-paid actresses from 2014 to 2016, has created multiple appearances within the Forbes Celebrity a hundred, and incorporates a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Born and raised in Manhattan, the big apple town, she aspired to be associate degree thespian from a young age, associate degreed initial appeared on stage in an off-Broadway play as a baby. Johansson created her film debut within the fantasy comedy North (1994) associate degreed was appointive for an freelance Spirit Award for Manny & Lo (1996). She gained additional recognition for her add The Horse utterer (1998) and Ghost World (2001).

Johansson shifted to adult roles in 2003 along with her performances in Lost in Translation (for that she won a BAFTA Award for Best Actress) and woman with a Pearl jewelry. She was appointive for four Golden Globe Awards for these films, associate degreed for taking part in an unloved stripling within the drama A Love Song for policeman Long (2004), and a seductress within the psychological adventure story point (2005). different films throughout this era embrace the mystery adventure story The status (2006) and therefore the comedy-drama Vicky Cristina metropolis (2008). She conjointly free 2 albums- anyplace I Lay My Head (2008) and divide (2009), each of that charted on the sign two hundred.

In 2010, Johansson debuted on Great White Way in a very revival of A read from the Bridge, that won her a Tony Award for Best Featured thespian. Later that year, she began representational process Latrodectus mactans within the Marvel medium Universe. She voiced associate degree intelligent pc OS within the 2013 comedy-drama Her, associate degreed compete an alien within the 2013 fantasy film below the Skin, and a girl with paranormal skills within the 2014 fantasy action Australopithecus afarensis. She was the highest-grossing thespian of 2016, and is additionally, as of might 2017, the highest-grossing thespian of all time in North America in nominal dollar terms.

As a figure, Johansson is taken into account a Hollywood sex image. She could be a distinguished celebrity whole endorser, and conjointly supports numerous charities and causes. She has been married doubly, to the Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds from 2008 to 2011 and therefore the French bourgeois Romain Dauriac (with whom she incorporates a daughter) from 2014 to 2017.

Early life

Scarlett Ingrid Johansson was born within the Manhattan borough of latest House of York town, New York. Her father, Karsten Olaf Johansson, is associate degree designer originally from Kobenhavn, Denmark, and her paternal grandad, Ejner Johansson, was associate degree historiographer, scriptwriter and film maker, whose own father was Swedish. Scarlett’s mother, Melanie Sloan, a producer, comes from associate degree Israelite Jewish family, from Polska and Russia. She has associate degree older sister, Vanessa, conjointly associate degree actress; associate degree older brother, Adrian; and a twin brother, Hunter. Johansson conjointly has associate degree older stepbrother, Christian, from her father’s 1st wedding. She holds each yankee and Danish citizenship. The thespian may be a maternal niece of Phil Schlamberg, the last far-famed combat death of warfare II, WHO was the airplane pilot to Captain Krauthead Yellin.

Johansson attended postscript forty-one, associate degree school in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. Her folks single once she was thirteen. Johansson was notably on the point of her maternal grannie, Dorothy Sloan, a comptroller and schoolteacher; they typically stayed along and Johansson thought-about Sloan her succor. fascinated by a career within the spotlight from associate degree early age, she typically placed on song-and-dance routines for her family. She was notably keen on musical and jazz hands. She took lessons in faucet dance, and states that her folks were corroboratory of her career selection. She describes her childhood as terribly normal.

As a child, Johansson practiced acting by staring within the mirror till she created herself cry, eager to be Garland in American stateet Me in St. Louis. At age seven, she was blasted once a agent signed one in all her brothers rather than her, however she later determined to become associate degree thespian anyway. She listed at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, and commenced auditioning for commercials, however shortly lost interest- “I did not need to push marvel Bread.” She shifted her focus to film and theater, creating her 1st stage look within the city district play false belief with Ethan Hawke, within which she had 2 lines. Around now, she began learning at skilled Children’s college (PCS), a non-public institution for aspiring kid actors in Manhattan. At age 9, Johansson created her film debut as John Ritter’s female offspring within the fantasy comedy North (1994). She says that once she was on the film set, she knew intuitively what to try and do. Johansson later vie minor roles together with because the female offspring of Sean Connery and Kate Capshaw’s characters within the mystery adventure story simply Cause (1995), associate degreed an pupil in If Lucy Fell (1996).

Acting career

Early roles (1996–2002)

Johansson’s 1st leading role was as Amanda, the younger sister of a pregnant adolescent WHO runs off from her menage in Manny & Lo (1996) aboard Aleksa Palladino and her brother, Hunter. Her performance received positive reviews- one written for the port of entry Chronicle noted, ” grows on you, for the most part attributable to the charm of … Scarlett Johansson,” whereas critic Paddy LaSalle, writing for constant paper, commented on her “peaceful aura”, and believed, “If she will be able to get through pubescence therewith aura undisturbed, she might become a crucial actor.” Johansson attained a nomination for the freelance Spirit Award for Best Lead feminine for the role.

After showing in minor roles in Fall and residential Alone three (both 1997), Johansson attracted wider attention for her performance within the film The Horse verbaliser (1998), directed by player. The drama film, supported the 1995 novel of constant name by saint Evans, tells the story of a proficient trainer with a present for understanding horses, WHO is employed to assist associate degree burned adolescent contend by Johansson. The actor received associate degree “introducing” credit on this film, though it had been her seventh role. On Johansson’s maturity, thespian delineated her as “13 occurring 30”. Todd McCarthy of selection commented that Johansson “convincingly conveys the awkwardness of her age and therefore the inner pain of a carefree woman suddenly sick by atrocious happenstance”. For the film, she was appointed for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for many Promising actor. She believed that the film modified several things in her life, realizing that acting is that the ability to control one’s emotions. On finding smart roles as a young person, Johansson aforesaid it had been exhausting for her as adults wrote the scripts and that they “portray children like mall rats and not seriously … children and teenagers simply are not being depicted with any real depth”.

Johansson later appeared in My Brother the Pig (1999) and within the neo-noir, Coen brothers film the person WHO Wasn’t There (2001). Her breakthrough came taking part in a misanthropic outcast in Terry Zwigoff’s comedy Ghost World (2001), associate degree adaptation of Daniel Clowes’ graphic novel of same name. Johansson auditioned for the film via a tape from big apple, and Zwigoff believed her to be “a distinctive, flake, and right for that part”. The film premiered at the 2001 city International Film Festival; it had been a box workplace failure, however has since developed a cult standing. Johansson was attributable with “sensitivity associate degreed talent belie her age” by an capital of Texas Chronicle critic, and won a Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting actor for her performance.

With David Arquette, Johansson appeared within the horror comedy Eight legged Freaks (2002), a few assortment of spiders that ar exposed to waste, inflicting them to grow to mammoth proportions and start killing and harvest. once graduating from PCS that year, she applied to big apple University’s Tisch faculty of the Arts; she set to target her film career once she was rejected.

Transition to adult roles (2003–2004)

Johansson transitioned from young to adult roles with 2 films in 2003- the romantic comedy-drama Lost in Translation and therefore the drama lady with a Pearl jewellery. within the former, directed by Serdica film producer, she plays Charlotte, a listless and lonely young partner, opposite Bill Murray. film producer had 1st noticed Johansson in Manny & Lo, and compared her to a young Lauren Bacall; film producer based mostly the film’s story on the link between Bogart and Bacall within the huge Sleep (1946). Johansson found the expertise of operating with a feminine director completely different owing to Coppola’s ability to empathise along with her. created on a budget of $4 million, the film earned $119 million at the box workplace and received positive reviews. Roger Ebert was happy with the film and represented the lead performances as “wonderful”, and recreation Weekly wrote of Johansson’s “embracing, relaxing serenity”. The ny Times praised Johansson, then 18, for taking part in associate degree older character.

In Peter Webber’s lady with a Pearl jewellery, that is predicated on the novel of same name by role player Chevalier, Johansson compete Griet, a young 17th-century servant within the social unit of the Dutch painter Johannes old master (played by English actor Colin Firth). Webber interviewed a hundred and fifty actors before casting Johansson. Johansson found the character moving, however failed to scan the novel, as she thought it had been higher to approach the story with a opportunity. lady with a Pearl jewellery received positive reviews and was profitable. In his review for The American, Anthony Lane thought that her presence unbroken the film “alive”, writing, “She is usually mute and shut to plain onscreen, however await the ardor with that she will be able to summon a photo and bloom beneath its gaze; this can be her film, not Vermeer’s, all the approach.” Owen Gleiberman, of recreation Weekly noted her “nearly silent performance”, observing, “The interaction on her face of concern, ignorance, curiosity, and sex is extremely dramatic.” She was appointed for the BAFTA Award for Best role player in an exceedingly Leading Role and Golden Globe Awards for Best role player for each films in 2003, winning the previous for Lost in Translation.

In Variety’s opinion, Johansson’s roles in Lost in Translation and lady with a Pearl jewellery established her as among the foremost versatile actresses of her generation. Johansson had 5 releases in 2004, 3 of which—the young heist film the proper Score, the drama A Love Song for police officer Long, and therefore the drama a decent Woman—were essential and business failures. Co-starring with John Travolta, Johansson compete a restless and suspicious adolescent in an exceedingly Love Song for police officer Long, that is predicated on the novel Off Magazine Street by Ronald Everett Capps. Variety’s David Rooney wrote that Johansson’s and Travolta’s portrayals reclaimed the film. Johansson earned a Golden Globe Award for Best role player in an exceedingly Drama nomination for the film.

In her fourth unharness in 2004, the live-action animated comedy The SpongeBob SquarePants moving-picture show, Johansson voiced blue blood Mindy, the girl of King Neptune. She took the half owing to her love for cartoons and therefore the Ren & Stimpy Show. The film was her most commercially victorious work that year. She followed it with In smart Company, a comedy-drama during which she complicates the lifetime of his father once she dates his a lot of younger boss. Reviews of the film were usually positive, describing it as “witty and charming”. Roger Ebert was affected with Johansson’s portrayal, writing that she “continues to use the attractive force pull of quiet fascination”.

Films with Woody Allen (2005–2009)

Johansson vie Nola, associate aspiring histrion World Health Organization begins associate affair with a partner (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) in Woody Allen’s drama point in 2005. when commutation Kate Winslet with Johansson for the role, Allen modified the character’s position from British to yankee. As a lover of Allen’s films, Johansson likeable the concept of operating with him, however felt nervous her 1st day on the set. The ny Times was affected with Johansson and Rhys Meyers’ performances, and Mick Rene-Robert Cavelier, writing within the point of entry Chronicle, aforementioned that Johansson “is a powerhouse from the word go”, with a performance that “borders on astonishing”. The film, a box workplace success, attained Johansson nominations for the Golden Globe and therefore the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting histrion. conjointly that year, Johansson underwent a cutting out, when that she asterisked with Ewan McGregor in archangel Bay’s fantasy film The Island, in twin roles as wife Jordan and her clone, Jordan 2 Delta. Johansson found her photography schedule exhausting- she had to plan fourteen hours on a daily basis, and she or he hit her head and hurt herself. The film received mixed reviews and grossed $163 million against a $126 million budget.

Two of Johansson’s films in 2006 explored the planet of stage magicians, each opposite Hugh Jackman. Allen forged her opposite Jackman and himself within the film Scoop (2006), during which she vie a journalism student. The film was a modest worldwide box workplace success, however polarized critics. Ebert was crucial of the film, however found Johansson “lovely as always”, and Mick Rene-Robert Cavelier noted the freshness she delivered to her half. She conjointly appeared in Brian DE Palma’s The Black Dahlia pinnata, a movie noir shot in l. a. and Balkan nation. Johansson later aforementioned she was a devotee of DE Palma and had wished to figure with him on the film, however thought that she was unsuitable for the half. Anne Billson of The Daily Telegraph likewise found her cast. However, CNN aforementioned that she “takes to the nonwoody amount atmosphere as if it were oxygen”.

Also in 2006, Johansson asterisked within the short film once the Deal Goes right down to accompany Bob Dylan’s song “When the Deal Goes Down…” from the album times. Johansson had a supporting role of assistant and lover of Jackman’s character, associate blue magician, in St. Christopher Nolan’s mystery adventure story The status (2006). Nolan thought Johansson possessed “ambiguity” and “a protected quality”. She was fascinated with Nolan’s directive ways and likeable operating with him. The film was a crucial and box workplace success, suggested by the l. a. Times as “an adult, provocative piece of work”. Some critics were skeptical of her performance- Anne Billson found her cast, and Dan Jolin in Empire magazine criticized her English accent.

Johansson’s solely add 2007 was within the critically panned comedy-drama The Nanny Diaries aboard Chris Evans and Laura Linney, wherever she plays a university graduate operating as a nanny. Reviews of her performance were mixed; selection wrote, ” essays a fascinating heroine”, and therefore the New Yorker criticized her for trying “merely confused” whereas “trying to administer the fabric a plausible emotional center”. In 2008, Johansson asterisked, with Natalie Portman and Eric Bana, within the alternative Boleyn lady, that conjointly attained mixed reviews. Promoting the film, Johansson and Portman appeared on the duvet of W, discussing with the magazine the public’s reception of them. In Rolling Stone, Pete Travers criticized the film for ” in frustrating herks and jerks”, however thought that the couple were the sole positive facet of the assembly. selection attributable the forged as “almost perfect … at the highest of its game”, citing “Johansson’s quieter Madonna … because the emotional center”.

In her third collaboration with film producer, the romantic comedy-drama Vicky Cristina metropolis (2008), that was recorded in Kingdom of Spain, Johansson plays one among the love interests of Javier Bardem’s character aboard Penélope Cruz. The film was one among Allen’s most profitable and received favorable reviews. A reviewer in selection delineate Johansson as “open and malleable” compared to the opposite actors. She conjointly vie the Delilah slick Floss within the Spirit, supported the newspaper drawing of an equivalent name by can Eisner. It received poor reviews from critics, World Health Organization deemed it melodramatic, unoriginal, and sexist. Johansson’s solely role in 2009 was as Pakistani monetary unit Marks, a yoga educator, within the ensemble comedy-drama he is simply Not That Into You (2009). The film was discharged to lukewarm reviews, however was a box workplace success.

Marvel Cinematic Universe and stage roles (2010–2013)

Johansson had aspired to look on Broadway since her childhood. She created her debut in a very 2010 revival of Arthur Miller’s drama A read from the Bridge. Set within the Nineteen Fifties, in AN Italian-American neighborhood in the big apple, it tells the tragic tale of Eddie (played by Liev Schreiber), World Health Organization has AN inappropriate love for his wife’s orphan kinswoman, Catherine (played by Johansson). once some reservations regarding enjoying a young character, Johansson united to the play once an acquaintance convinced her to require on the half. mountain Brantley of The the big apple Times wrote of Johansson’s performance that she “melts into her character thus totally that her nimbus of celebrity disappears”. Variety’s David Rooney was affected with the play and Johansson especially, describing her because the chief entertainer. She won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured player in a very Play. Some critics and Broadway actors criticized the award committee’s call to reward the work of thought Hollywood actors, together with Johansson. In response, she aforesaid that she understood the frustration, however had worked arduous for her accomplishments.

Johansson vie Latrodectus mactans in Jon Favreau’s Iron Man a pair of (2010), an area of the Marvel medium Universe (MCU). Before she secured the role, she coloured her hair red to win over Favreau that she was right for the half, and undertook stunt and strength coaching to organize for the role. Johannsson aforesaid the character resonated along with her, and he or she loved the superhero’s human traits. The film earned $623.9 million against its $200 million budget, and received typically positive reviews from critics, however she was principally criticized for her performance. Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph and Matt Reuben Lucius Goldberg thought that she had very little to try and do however look engaging. In 2011, Johansson vie the role of Kelly, a zookeeper within the family film we have a tendency to Bought a menagerie aboard Matt friend. The film got principally favorable reviews, and Anne Billson praised Johansson for transportation depth to a rather uninteresting character. Johansson earned an adolescent selection Award for selection picture Actress- Drama nomination for her performance.

Johansson learned some Russian from a former teacher on the phone for her role of Latrodectus mactans within the Avengers (2012), another entry from the MCU. The film received principally positive reviews and poor several box workplace records, changing into the third highest-grossing film each within the u. s. and worldwide. For her performance, she was nominative for 2 teenaged selection Awards and 3 People’s selection Awards. Later that year, Johansson delineated the player Janet Leigh in Sacha Gervasi’s Hitchcock, a under-the-table drama regarding the creating of Alfred the Great Hitchcock’s 1960 film sick person. Roger Ebert wrote that Johansson didn’t look very like Leigh, however sent her spunk, intelligence, and sense of humor.

In Gregorian calendar month 2013, Johansson asterisked in a very Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Rob Ashford. Set within the Mississippi Delta, it examines the relationships among the family of massive dada (played by Ciarán Hinds), primarily between his son Brick (played by Benjamin Walker) and Maggie (played by Johansson). Her performance received mixed reviews. recreation Weekly’s Thom Geier wrote, “Scarlett Johansson brings a fierce fighting spirit” to her half, however Joe Dziemianowicz from Daily News referred to as her performance “alarmingly one-note”. The 2013 Sundance festival hosted the premiere of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s directorial debut, Don Jon. during this romantic comedy-drama, she plays a girl metagrabolised by the pornography-addicted title character. Gordon-Levitt wrote the role for Johansson, World Health Organization had antecedently loved his acting work. The film received positive reviews and Johansson’s performance was highlighted by critics. Claudia Puig of USA these days thought-about it one in every of her best performances.

In 2013, Johansson voiced the character Samantha, AN intelligent pc software system, in Spike Jonze’s film Her, exchange Samantha Ferdinand Joseph La Menthe Morton within the role. The film premiered at the eighth Rome International festival, wherever Johansson won Best player; she was conjointly nominative for the Critics’ selection picture Award for Best Supporting Actress. Johansson was intimidated by the role’s quality, and regarded her recording sessions for the role difficult however liberating. Peter Travers believed Johansson’s voice within the film was “sweet, sexy, caring, artful, chilling award-worthy”. Time magazine’s Richard Corliss referred to as her performance “seductive and winning”, and Her was rated mutually of the most effective films of 2013. Johansson was forged within the role of AN alien World Health Organization preys on men in European nation in dessert apple Glazer’s fantasy picture beneath the Skin (2013). The film, AN adaptation of Michel Faber’s novel of an equivalent name, took 9 years to complete. For the role, she learned to drive a van ANd speak with an English accent. Johansson impermanent conversations with non-professional actors on the road, World Health Organization didn’t understand they were being recorded. it absolutely was free to typically positive reviews, with explicit praise for Johansson. Erin Whitney, writing for HuffPost, thought-about it her best performance so far, and noted that it absolutely was her 1st totally nude role. It earned Johansson a BIFA Award for Best Performance by AN player in a very British freelance Film nomination.

Recent work (2014–present)

Continuing her add the MCU, Johansson reprised her role as spider in Captain America- The Winter Soldier (2014). within the film, she joins forces with the title character (Chris Evans) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) to uncover a conspiracy among S.H.I.E.L.D., whereas facing a mysterious assassin called the Winter Soldier. Johansson and Evans wrote their own dialogue for many scenes that they had along. Johansson was drawn to her character’s method of doing her job, using her female wiles and not her physical attractiveness. The film was a essential and business success, grossing over $714 million worldwide. Critic Odie Henderson saw “a real emotional shorthand at work, particularly from Johansson, United Nations agency is superb here”. The role earned her a Saturn Award for Best Supporting histrion nomination.

Johansson compete a supporting role within the film cook (2014), aboard Henry M. Robert Downey, Jr., Sofía Vergara, and director Jon Favreau. It grossed over $45 million at the box workplace and was well received by critics. The Chicago Sun-Times author Richard Roeper found the film “funny, kinky and perceptive, with a bounty of attention-grabbing supporting characters”. In Luc Besson’s fantasy action film Lucy (2014), Johansson marked because the title character, United Nations agency gains paranormal talents once a nootropic drug is absorbed into her blood. Besson mentioned the role with many actresses, and forged Johansson supported her sturdy reaction to the script and her discipline. Critics typically praised the film’s themes, visuals, and Johansson’s performance; some found the plot nonsensical. IGN’s Jim Vejvoda attributed the film’s success to her acting and Besson’s vogue. The film grossed $458 million against a budget of $40 million to become the eighteenth highest-grossing film of 2014.

In 2015 and 2016, Johansson once more compete spider within the MCU films Avengers- Age of Ultron and Captain America- warfare. throughout cinematography of the previous, a combination of close-ups, concealing costumes, stunt doubles and visual effects were accustomed hide her maternity. each films earned over $1.4 billion, ranking among the highest-grossing films of all time. For Captain America- warfare, Johansson earned her second nomination for Critics’ selection flick Award for Best histrion in associate Action flick and her fourth for Saturn Award for Best Supporting histrion. Earlier in 2016, Johansson had featured within the Coen brothers’ well-received comedy film Hail, Caesar! a couple of “fixer” operating within the classical Hollywood cinema, {trying|making associate attempt|attempting} to find what happened to a forged member United Nations agency nonexistent throughout the cinematography of a biblical epic; Johansson plays an histrion United Nations agency becomes pregnant whereas her film is in production. She conjointly voiced the character Kaa in Disney’s live-action remake of The Jungle Book, and Ash within the animated play film Sing (both 2016).

Johansson compete Motoko Kusanagi in Prince Rupert Sanders’s 2017 film adaptation of the Ghost within the Shell franchise. The film was praised for its visual vogue, acting, and photography, however was polemical for whitewashing the forged, notably Johansson’s character, a lady|machine} United Nations agency was meant to carry the recollections of a Japanese woman. Responding to the criticism, she aforesaid she would ne’er play an individual of another race, however needed to require the rare chance to star in a very franchise with a feminine protagonist. The film grossed $169.8 million worldwide against a production budget of $110 million. In March 2017, Johansson hosted weekday Night Live for the fifth time, creating her the seventeenth person, and also the fourth girl, to enter the NBC sketch comedy’s prestigious Five-Timers Club. Johansson’s next 2017 film was comedy Rough Night, wherever she compete Jess Thayer, one in all the 5 friends—alongside Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell, Ilana glass-cutter, and Zoë Kravitz—whose bachelorette party goes wrong once a male stripper dies. The film had a mixed essential reception and moderate box workplace returns.

In 2018, Johansson voiced show dog Nutmeg in Wes Anderson’s stop-motion animated film island of Dogs, discharged in March, and reprised her MCU role as spider in Avengers- time War, that followed ensuing month.

Upcoming projects

In October 2014, it had been proclaimed that Johansson can star in, and govt turn out, the coming eight-episode amount series The Custom of the Country, supported Edith Wharton’s 1913 novel of a similar name. She is about to play water nymph Spragg, a young lady from the Middle West United Nations agency tries to climb her far the big apple town social ladder. Johansson can star aboard Adam Driver in Noah Baumbach’s presently untitled film, regular to be discharged in Nov 2018. she’s going to conjointly play spider in associate Untitled Avengers film, the fourth within the series, regular for might 2019.

Music career

In 2006, Johansson American ginseng the track “Summertime” for surprising Dreams – Songs From the celebs, a non-profit assortment of songs recorded by Hollywood actors. She performed with the Deliverer and Madonna Chain for a Coachella reunion show in Indio, California, in April 2007. the subsequent year, Johansson appeared because the actress in Justin Timberlake’s music video, for “What Goes Around… Comes Around”, that was appointed for Associate in Nursing MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year.

In might 2008, Johansson discharged her debut album anyplace I Lay My Head, that consists of 1 original song and 10 cowl versions of Tom Waits songs, and options David pioneer and members from the yea yea Yeahs and Celebration. Reviews of the album were mixed. Spin wasn’t notably affected with Johansson’s singing. Some critics found it to be “surprisingly alluring”, “a courageously eccentric selection”, and “a sensible album” with “ghostly magic”. NME named the album the “23rd best album of 2008”, and it peaked at range 126 on the sign two hundred. Johansson started paying attention to Waits once she was eleven or twelve years recent, and same of him, “His melodies square measure thus stunning, his voice is thus distinct and that i had my very own manner of doing Tom Waits songs.”

In Gregorian calendar month 2009, Johansson and singer-songwriter Pete Yorn discharged a cooperative album, Break Up, galvanized by textile Gainsbourg’s duets with Brigitte Bardot. The album reached range forty-one within the North American nation. In 2010, Steel Train discharged Terrible Thrills Vol. 1, which has their favorite feminine artists singing songs from their self-titled album. Johansson is that the initial creative person on the album, singing “Bullet”. Johansson American ginseng “One Whole Hour” for the 2011 sound recording of the documentary Wretches & Jabberers (2010). and in 2012 American ginseng on a J. Ralph track entitled “Before My Time” for the tip credits of the climate documentary Chasing Ice (2012)

In Gregorian calendar month 2015, Johansson shaped a band referred to as the Singles with Este Haim from HAIM, Holly Miranda, Kendra Morris, and Julia Haltigan. The group’s initial single was referred to as “Candy”. Johansson was issued a stop and refrain order from the lead singer of the Los Angeles-based rock group the Singles, exigent she stop victimisation their name. In 2016, she performed “Trust in Me” for The Jungle Book sound recording and “The Promise & The Prize,” “Universal Fanfare”, “Set It All Free” and “I do not Wanna” for Sing- Original show sound recording.

Personal life

Johansson is Jewish and celebrates each Christmas and Feast of the Dedication. She has explicit that she dislikes it once celebrities give thanks God or the Nazarene in their award acceptance speeches. whereas attending PCS, Johansson dated acquaintance Jack Antonoff from 2001 to 2002. She dated her Black flower co-star rag Hartnett for regarding 2 years till the top of 2006; Hartnett aforementioned they split as a result of their busy schedules unbroken them apart. Johansson began a relationship with Canadian actor Ryan painter in 2007; they became engaged in could 2008, married in Sep 2008, separated in December 2010, and unmarried in Gregorian calendar month 2011.

In Nov 2012, Johansson started geological dating Frenchman Romain Dauriac, the owner of AN advertising agency; they became engaged the subsequent Sep. The couple divided their time between big apple town and Paris. In 2014, she gave birth to their girl, Rose Dorothy Dauriac. Johansson and Dauriac married that Gregorian calendar month in Philipsburg, Montana. They separated in mid-2016, and unmarried in Sep 2017. Johansson has criticized the media for promoting a picture that causes unhealthy diets and ingestion disorders among girls. In one article she wrote for HuffPost, she inspired the reader to take care of a healthy body. She appeared nude on the quilt of the March 2006 issue of life-style aboard role player Keira Knightley and absolutely clothed dressmaker Tom Ford. This caused some dispute because it was believed the ikon incontestible that girls ar forced to flaunt their physiological property a lot of usually than men. In Sep 2011, nude pictures of Johansson hacked from her telephone were printed on-line. Following AN law enforcement agency investigation, the hacker was in remission, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to ten years in jail. Johansson aforementioned the photos had been sent to her then-husband, Reynolds, 3 years before the incident. In 2014, Johansson won a case against French publisher JC Lattès for slanderous statements regarding her relationships within the novel the primary issue we glance At by Grégoire Delacourt. Johansson was awarded $3,400; she had claimed $68,000.

It was confirmed in December 2017 that Johansson had begun a relationship with Saturday Night Live co-head author and “Weekend Update” star Colin Jost.

Public image

Johansson has been known as “ScarJo” by the media and fans, however dislikes the nickname, finding it lazy, frivolous and insulting. She is represented as a sex image by the media, that considers her lips, green eyes, and voice among her emblems. The state capital Morning Herald describes Johansson as “the embodiment of male fantasy”. throughout the picture taking of point, director thespian commented on her attractiveness. In 2014, American film critic Anthony Lane wrote that “she is plain, and fruitfully, alert to her hot weather, and of what proportion, right down to the last in., it contributes to the contours of her name.” Johansson same that she unlikeable being sexualized, which a preoccupation with a personality’s attractiveness doesn’t last. She lost the lead role within the lady with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) as its director David Fincher thought she was “too sexy” for the half.

Johansson ranks extremely in many beauty listings. Maxim enclosed her in their Hot one hundred from 2006 to 2014. She has been named “Sexiest lady Alive” doubly by Esquire (2006 and 2013), and has been enclosed in similar listings by pleasure seeker (2007), comfort station Health (2011), and FHM (since 2005). She was named GQ’s child of the Year in 2010. madam Tussauds ny repository put in a wax sculpture of her in 2015.

Johansson was invited to affix the Academy of flick Arts and Sciences in Gregorian calendar month 2004. In 2006, Johansson appeared on Forbes’ Celebrity one hundred, and once more in 2014 and 2015. Johansson received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in could 2012. In 2014, 2015, and 2016, she was one among the highest-paid actresses, with annual earnings of $17 million, $35.5 million, and $25 million, severally. She was the highest-grossing actor of 2016, with a complete of $1.2 billion. As a result, IndieWire praised her for absorbing risky roles. As of could 2017, Johansson is that the highest-grossing player of all time in North America, together with her films creating over $3.6 billion.

Johansson has appeared in advertising campaigns for designer, Dolce & Gabbana, L’Oréal, and Joe Louis Vuitton, and has delineate the Spanish complete Mango since 2009. Johansson was the primary Hollywood celebrity to represent a champagne producer, showing in advertisements for Moët & Chandon. In Jan 2014, the Israeli company SodaStream, that makes home-carbonation product, employed Johansson as its 1st international complete ambassador, a relationship that commenced with a tv industrial throughout Super Bowl forty-eight on Groundhog Day, 2014. This tested polemic, as SodaStream relies in Israeli-occupied territory within the geographic region.

Other ventures

Philanthropy

Johansson has supported numerous charitable organizations, together with Aid Still needed, Cancer analysis UK, rise up To Cancer, Too many ladies (which works against breast cancer), and USA Harvest, that provides food for individuals in want. In 2005, Johansson became a worldwide ambassador for the help and development agency Oxfam. In 2007, Johansson took half within the anti-poverty campaign ONE, that was organized by U2’s lead singer Bono. In March 2008, a UK-based bidder paid £20,000 on associate eBay auction to learn Oxfam, winning a hair and makeup treatment, a combine of tickets, and a chauffeured trip to accompany Johansson on a 20-minute date to the planet premiere of he is simply Not That Into You.

In January 2014, Johansson resigned from her Oxfam position once criticism of her promotion of SodaStream, whose main mill was based mostly in Mishor Adumim, associate Israeli settlement within the West Bank; Oxfam opposes all trade with such Israeli settlements. Oxfam explicit that it absolutely was glad for her contributions in raising funds to fight poorness. beside her Avengers costars, Johansson raised $500,000 for the victims of cyclone Maria. In 2018, she collaborated with three hundred ladies in Hollywood to line up the Time’s Up initiative to safeguard ladies from harassment and discrimination.
Politics

Johansson was registered as associate freelance, a minimum of through 2008, and campaigned for Democratic candidate John Kerry within the 2004 u. s. presidential election. once Saint George W. Bush was reelected in 2004, she aforementioned she was defeated.

In January 2008, Johansson’s campaign for Democratic candidate Barack Obama enclosed appearances in Iowa targeted at younger voters, associate look at Cornell school, and a speaking engagement at Carleton school in Northfield, Minnesota, on Super weekday, 2008. Johansson appeared within the music video for rapper can.i.am’s song, “Yes we tend to Can” (2008), directed by Jesse Dylan; the song was galvanized by Obama’s speech once the 2008 New Hampshire primary. In Gregorian calendar month 2012, Johansson and Pakistani monetary unit Wintour hosted a fashion launch of pro-Obama covering, bags, and accessories, whose take visited the President’s re-election campaign. She self-addressed voters at the Democratic National Convention in Gregorian calendar month 2012, line for Obama’s election and for a lot of engagement from young voters. She inspired ladies to vote for Obama and condemned Mitt Romney for his opposition to Planned adulthood.

Johansson in public supported and supported Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s 2013 endure ny town accountant by hosting a series of fundraisers. To encourage individuals to select the United States election of 2016, Johansson appeared in a very industrial aboard her Marvel medium Universe co-star Henry M. Robert Downey, Jr., and god Whedon. In 2017, she spoke at the Women’s move on Washington, addressing Donald Trump’s presidency and stating that she would support him if he’s employed for women’s rights and stops retreating federal funding for Planned adulthood.

Referance – wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarlett_Johansson

Ryan Rodney Sir Joshua painter (born Oct twenty 3, 1976) may be a Canadian actor, filmmaker, and screenwriter. variety of his superlative roles ar Billy Simpson at intervals the YTV Canadian young series facet (1991), Michael metropolis on the primary principle programme two Guys and a lady (1998–2001), and varied magazine characters along side Marvel Comics superheroes Hannibal King in Blade- Trinity (2004), and Wade Wilson / Deadpool in X-Men Origins- Wolverine (2009), Deadpool (2016), and Deadpool 2 (2018); the latter role attained him a Golden Globe Award nomination. He delineate the Hal Jordan incarnation of the DC Comics superhero inexperienced lamp at intervals the 2011 film of an analogous name. he is married to actor painter spirited.

Reynolds has put together marked in films admire National Lampoon’s Van Wilder (2002), The Amityville Horror (2005), Definitely, maybe (2008), The Proposal (2009), Buried (2010), The Croods (2013), The Voices (2014), Mississippi Grind (2015) and lady in Gold (2015).

He reprised his role as Deadpool in Deadpool 2 (2018), that he put together co-wrote, equally as readjustment the titular character at intervals the forthcoming image Detective Pikachu (2019).

Early life of Ryan Reynolds

Ryan Rodney painter was born on Gregorian calendar month twenty three, 1976, in Vancouver, Canadian province. His father, James Chester “Jim” painter, was a food middleman, and his mother, Tammy, a retail employee. he’s of Irish ancestry and was raised as a Roman Catholic. The youngest of 4 brothers, he graduated from Kitsilano middle school in Vancouver in 1994. He attended Kwantlen engineering school University, conjointly in Vancouver, till throwing in the towel. 2 of his elder brothers work as law enforcement officials in Canadian province, one in every of whom could be a Royal Canadian Mounted Police member.

Career

1991–2004

Reynolds’ career began in 1991, once he marked as Billy Simpson within the Canadian-produced adolescent serial slope, distributed within the u. s. by jukebox as Fifteen. In 1996, he had a supporting role as Jay “Boom” DeBoom in ”Syzygy”, the thirteenth episode of season 3 of the X-Files, and co-starred with genus Melissa Joan Hart within the TV moving picture Sabrina the teenaged Witch. As associate adult, painter marked within the yankee tv series 2 Guys, a woman and a dish Place, taking part in medico Michael “Berg” metropolis, and within the National Lampoon moving picture Van Wilder. In 1993–94, he had a continual role within the Odyssey as Macro. He conjointly cameoed in Harold & Kumar visit White Castle as a nurse, appeared within the In-Laws with Michael The Little Giant and Albert Francis Charles Augustus Emmanuel Brooks, also as within the Canadian production Foolproof. He conjointly appeared within the TV show The Outer Limits episode “ Origin of the Species” that originally appeared on November fourteen, 1998.

2005–2015

In 2005, he compete a waiter named Monty in Waiting…, and as music govt Chris Brander within the romantic comedy simply Friends aboard Amy sensible and Pakistani monetary unit Faris. Reynolds compete the protagonist within the 2008 film undoubtedly, Maybe. He has additionally appeared within the second-season finale of the tv series Scrubs. In 2007, Reynolds guest-starred as Brendan’s friend Hams within the episode “Douchebag within the City” of the TBS programme My Boys. In 2009, he pictured saint designer, prima opposite Sandra Bullock, within the Proposal, and electro-acoustic transducer Connell in Adventureland.

Although he has performed primarily in comedies, Reynolds underwent intense physical coaching to play associate action role because the character of Hannibal King within the 2004 film Blade- Trinity. Reynolds compete martyr Lutz within the 2005 remake of the 1979 horror film The Amityville Horror. to boot, he compete associate government agent aboard Ray Liotta within the 2006 crime action film Smokin’ Aces.

In a March 2005 interview, Reynolds spoke of his interest and involvement in an exceedingly potential film adaptation of Deadpool with film writer David S. Goyer, in addition because the chance of enjoying the incarnation of The Flash referred to as saphead West in associate adaption of the popular DC Comics character in associate future pic project. Reynolds pictured Wade Wilson / Weapon XI in an exceedingly supporting role within the prequel X-Men film, X-Men Origins- Wolverine (2009); a job that he would later play in an exceedingly by-product film supported the character free in 2016.

In 2010, Reynolds marked within the Spanish and yank heroic tale Buried, that screened at the Sundance festival. In June 2010, Reynolds was invited to hitch the Academy of flick Arts and Sciences. Reynolds pictured the Hal Jordan version of superhero inexperienced lamp in Warner Bros.’ film inexperienced lamp, free on June seventeen, 2011 in 3D. although the film did not fare well each financially and critically, this role created him one among the few actors to headline in films supported each Marvel and DC characters. In 2011 he co-starred within the comedy, The pitch, in addition as being the utterer for the docudrama The Whale. In 2012, he pictured associate agent in sanctuary, aboard Denzel Washington. He then had prima roles in 2 Dreamworks Animation feature films; The Croods and Turbo, each free in 2013. His next role was in portrayal Nick Walker within the Universal photos film adaptation of Dark Horse Comics’ R.I.P.D. (Rest in Peace Department), that was free in 2013. Reynolds went on to star in inexpensive films, The Voices (2014), The Captive (2014), and Mississippi Grind (2015); before having a supporting role within the financially victorious history film, lady in Gold (2015). Reynolds came to the heroic tale genre with Self/Less (2015) wherever he compete a twin role (something he had done before in his career).

2016–present

In 2016, Reynolds found essential and business success with Deadpool, a show that had been in development as early as 2000. when depicting Wade Wilson / Weapon XI, while not the name Deadpool, in X-Men Origins- Wolverine, he became heavily concerned within the development of a Deadpool film. Deadpool featured a bring up of the character, ignoring the events of X-Men Origins- Wolverine, and establishing a replacement backstory for the character that was nearer to the Marvel Comics supply material. The film takes place at intervals the larger X-Men film universe, being created attainable by the reset timeline in X-Men- Days of Future Past. Deadpool created many box-office records, including- a worldwide gap of $264.9 million from sixty two markets, that is that the biggest of 2016, the most important for associate R-rated film, and therefore the second biggest for Fox, solely behind Star Wars- Episode III – Revenge of the Sith ($303.9 million). It conjointly recorded the most important IMAX second worldwide gap of all time with $27.4 million from 606 IMAX theatres, eclipsing The Dark Knight Rises ($23.8 million). The film’s monetary and important success crystal rectifier the studio to maneuver forward with a sequel. conjointly that year, Reynolds had a supporting role within the Ariel Vromen-directed adventure story Criminal.

On Dec fifteen, 2016, Reynolds received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6801 Hollywood street. Reynolds co-starred with Jake Gyllenhaal and Rebecca Ferguson within the phantasy adventure story Life (2017), that reunited him with sanctuary director Daniel Espinosa.

Reynolds began photography Deadpool a pair of in June 2017, that is ready to premiere in might eighteen, 2018. He also will star because the titular character in a very film adaptation of the Detective Pikachu computer game. In Gregorian calendar month 2018, Reynolds signed a three-year initial look trot out Fox, beginning development on a live-action adaptation of the parlour game Clue, to be confined by Deadpool writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick.

In the media

In October 2008, painter wrote for The Huffington Post relating to his conceive to run the ny town Marathon for his father WHO, at the time, suffered from Parkinson’s disease. painter appeared in People’s Sexiest Man Alive lists in 2008 and 2009, and was awarded the highest honour in 2010.

On day, 2012, painter appeared on the BBC’s prime Gear because the Star in a very Reasonably-Priced automobile. He announce a time of 1-43.7.

On May 13, 2018, painter had a special performance on the South Korea MBC TV’s King of Mask Singer (episode 153’s opening).

Personal life of Ryan Reynolds

In 2002, painter began chemical analysis Canadian singer Alanis Morissette. They proclaimed their engagement in June 2004. In Feb 2007, representatives for Morissette and painter proclaimed they’d reciprocally set to finish their engagement. Morissette aforementioned her album Flavors of trap was created out of her grief once the break-up. The song “Torch” was written regarding painter.

Soon once the top of his relationship with Morissette in 2007, painter began chemical analysis yank histrion Scarlett Johansson. The couple proclaimed their engagement in could 2008, and married on Gregorian calendar month twenty seven, 2008, in an exceedingly quiet ceremony close to Tofino, Canadian province. On Gregorian calendar month fourteen, 2010, painter and Johansson proclaimed that they’d separated. painter filed for divorce in la on Gregorian calendar month twenty three, 2010; Johansson filed her response at the same time. The divorce was finalized on legal holiday, 2011.

Reynolds 1st met William Blake spirited in early 2010 whereas photography inexperienced lamp, during which she co-starred. In Gregorian calendar month 2011, Hollyscoop reported they were chemical analysis. The couple married on Gregorian calendar month nine, 2012, at mountain man Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant, South geographical area. they need 2 daughters- James (born 2014) and Inez (born 2016).

Reynolds has brazenly spoken regarding his life-time struggle with anxiety, noting in 2018 that he carries out several interviews within the character of Deadpool, to alleviate his fears.

Filmography of Ryan Reynolds

Main article- Ryan Reynolds filmography
Awards and nominations

Critics’ Choice Movie Awards

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result	Ref(s)
2016	Deadpool	Best Actor in an Action Movie	Nominated
		Best Actor in a Comedy	Won

Entertainment Weekly Entertainer of the Year Award

Year	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref
2016	Entertainer of the Year		Won

Golden Globe Awards

Year	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref
2017	Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy	Deadpool	Nominated
	Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy		Nominated

Gotham Awards

Year	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref
2009	Best Ensemble Cast	Adventureland	Nominated

Goya Awards

Year	Category	Nominated work	Result
2010	Best Actor	Buried	Nominated

Hollywood Walk of Fame

Year	Category	Address	Result	Ref
2017	Motion pictures	6801 Hollywood Blvd.	Inducted

MTV Movie Awards

Year	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref
2003	Breakthrough Male Performance	Van Wilder	Nominated
2010	Best Comedic Performance	The Proposal	Nominated
	Best Kiss	The Proposal (shared with Sandra Bullock)	Nominated
	Best Fight	X-Men Origins: Wolverine (shared with Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber)	Nominated
2011	Best Scared-As-S**t Performance	Buried	Nominated
2016	Best Male Performance	Deadpool	Nominated
	Best Action Performance	Deadpool	Nominated
	Best Kiss	Deadpool (shared with Morena Baccarin)	Nominated
	Best Comedic Performance	Deadpool	Won
	Best Fight	Deadpool (shared with Ed Skrein)	Won

People’s Choice Awards

Year	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref
2010	Favorite Comedy Star	The Proposal	Nominated
	Favorite Movie Actor		Nominated
	Favorite On-Screen Team		Nominated
		X-Men Origins: Wolverine	Nominated
2012	Favorite Movie Superhero	Green Lantern	Won
	Favorite Action Movie Star		Won
	Favorite Comedic Movie Star	The Change-Up	Nominated
	Favorite Movie Actor	Green Lantern	Nominated
2017	Favorite Movie Actor	Deadpool	Won
	Favorite Action Movie Actor		Nominated

Producers Guild of America

Year	Category	Nominated Work	Result	Ref
2017	Best Theatrical Motion Picture	Deadpool (shared with Simon Kinberg and Lauren Shuler Donner)	Nominated

San Diego Film Critics Society Awards

Year	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref
2016	Best Comedic Performance	Deadpool	Nominated

Saturn Awards

Year	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref
2011	Best Actor	Buried	Nominated
2017	Best Actor	Deadpool	Won

Teen Choice Awards

Year	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref
2005	Choice Movie Scary Scene	The Amityville Horror	Won
2009	Choice Summer Movie Star	The Proposal	Nominated
2010	Choice Movie Actor: Romantic Comedy		Nominated
	Choice Movie: Chemistry		Nominated
	Choice Movie: Liplock		Nominated
2011	Choice Movie Actor: Sci-Fi/Fantasy	Green Lantern	Nominated
2016	Choice Movie Actor: Action	Deadpool	Nominated
	Choice Movie: Hissy Fit		Won

Miscellaneous awards

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref
1993	Young Artist Awards	Best Young Actor Co-starring in a Cable Series	Hillside	Nominated
2003	Young Hollywood Awards	Next Generation – Male		Won
2017	Hasty Pudding’s Man of the Year	Man of the Year		Won

Referance – wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Reynolds

Facebook is an American online social media and social networking service company based in Menlo Park, California. Its website was launched on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg, along with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes.

The founders initially limited the website’s membership to Harvard students. Later they expanded it to higher education institutions in the Boston area, the Ivy League schools, and Stanford University. Facebook gradually added support for students at various other universities, and eventually to high school students. Since 2006, anyone who claims to be at least 13 years old has been allowed to become a registered user of Facebook, though variations exist in this requirement, depending on local laws. The name comes from the face book directories often given to American university students. Facebook held its initial public offering (IPO) in February 2012, and began selling stock to the public three months later, reaching an original peak market capitalization of $104 billion, a new record. Facebook makes most of its revenue from advertisements that appear onscreen.

Facebook can be accessed from a large range of devices with Internet connectivity, such as desktop computers, laptops and tablet computers, and smartphones. After registering, users can create a customized profile indicating their name, occupation, schools attended and so on. Users can add other users as “friends”, exchange messages, post status updates, share photos, videos and links, use various software applications (“apps”), and receive notifications of other users’ activity. Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups organized by workplace, school, hobbies or other topics, and categorize their friends into lists such as “People From Work” or “Close Friends”. Additionally, users can report or block unpleasant people.

Facebook has more than 2.2 billion monthly active users as of January 2018. Its popularity has led to prominent media coverage for the company, including significant scrutiny over privacy and the psychological effects it has on users. In recent years, the company has faced intense pressure over the amount of fake news, hate speech and depictions of violence prevalent on its services, all of which it is attempting to counteract.

On May 1, 2018, Facebook announced its plans to launch a new dating service. According to Mark Zuckerberg- “There are 200 million people on Facebook that list themselves as single, so clearly there’s something to do here”. In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data mining scandal, the service is being developed with privacy features, and friends will be unable to view one’s dating profile.

History of Facebook

2003–2006- Thefacebook, Thiel investment, and name change

Zuckerberg wrote a program called “Facemash” in 2003 while attending Harvard University as a sophomore (second year student). According to The Harvard Crimson, the site was comparable to Hot or Not and used “photos compiled from the online facebooks of nine Houses, placing two next to each other at a time and asking users to choose the “hotter” person”. Facemash attracted 450 visitors and 22,000 photo-views in its first four hours online. The Facemash site was quickly forwarded to several campus group list-servers, but was shut down a few days later by the Harvard administration. Zuckerberg faced expulsion and was charged by the administration with breach of security, violating copyrights, and violating individual privacy. Ultimately, the charges were dropped. Zuckerberg expanded on this initial project that semester by creating a social study tool ahead of an art history final exam. He uploaded all art images to a website, each of which was featured with a corresponding comments section, then shared the site with his classmates, and people started sharing notes.

A “face book” is a student directory featuring photos and basic information. In 2003, there were no universal online facebooks at Harvard, with only paper sheets distributed and private online directories. Zuckerberg told the Crimson that “Everyone’s been talking a lot about a universal face book within Harvard. I think it’s kind of silly that it would take the University a couple of years to get around to it. I can do it better than they can, and I can do it in a week.” In January 2004, Zuckerberg began writing code for a new website, known as “TheFacebook”, with the inspiration coming from an editorial in the Crimson about Facemash, stating that “It is clear that the technology needed to create a centralized Website is readily available … the benefits are many.” On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched “TheFacebook”, originally located at thefacebook.com.

Six days after the site launched, Harvard seniors Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra accused Zuckerberg of intentionally misleading them into believing that he would help them build a social network called HarvardConnection.com. They claimed that he was instead using their ideas to build a competing product. The three complained to The Harvard Crimson and the newspaper began an investigation. They later filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg, subsequently settling in 2008 for 1.2 million shares (worth $300 million at Facebook’s IPO).

Membership was initially restricted to students of Harvard College; within the first month, more than half the undergraduates at Harvard were registered on the service. Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, Andrew McCollum, and Chris Hughes joined Zuckerberg to help manage the growth of the website. In March 2004, Facebook expanded to the universities of Columbia, Stanford, and Yale. It later opened to all Ivy League colleges, Boston University, New York University, MIT, Washington and gradually most universities in the United States and Canada.

In mid-2004, entrepreneur Sean Parker—an informal advisor to Zuckerberg—became the company’s president. In June 2004, Facebook moved its operations base to Palo Alto, California. It received its first investment later that month from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. In 2005, the company dropped “the” from its name after purchasing the domain name facebook.com for US$200,000. The domain facebook.com belonged to AboutFace Corporation before the purchase. This website last appeared on April 8, 2005; from April 10, 2005, to August 4, 2005, this domain gave a 403 error.

In May 2005, Accel Partners invested $12.7 million in Facebook, and Jim Breyer added $1 million of his own money. A high-school version of the site was launched in September 2005, which Zuckerberg called the next logical step. (At the time, high-school networks required an invitation to join.) Facebook also expanded membership eligibility to employees of several companies, including Apple Inc. and Microsoft.

2006–2012- Public access, Microsoft alliance and rapid growth

On September 26, 2006, Facebook was opened to everyone at least 13 years old with a valid email address. In late 2007, Facebook had 100,000 business pages (pages which allowed companies to promote themselves and attract customers). These started as group pages, but a new concept called company pages was planned. Pages began rolling out for businesses in May 2009. On October 24, 2007, Microsoft announced that it had purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million, giving Facebook a total implied value of around $15 billion. Microsoft’s purchase included rights to place international advertisements on the social networking site.

In October 2008, Facebook announced that it would set up its international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. Almost a year later, in September 2009, Facebook said that it had turned cash flow positive for the first time. A January 2009 Compete.com study ranked Facebook the most used social networking service by worldwide monthly active users. Entertainment Weekly included the site on its end-of-the-decade “best-of” list saying, “How on earth did we stalk our exes, remember our co-workers’ birthdays, bug our friends, and play a rousing game of Scrabulous before Facebook?”

Traffic to Facebook increased steadily after 2009. The company announced 500 million users in July 2010, and according to its data, half of the site’s membership used Facebook daily, for an average of 34 minutes, while 150 million users accessed the site by mobile. A company representative called the milestone a “quiet revolution.” In November 2010, based on SecondMarket Inc. (an exchange for privately held companies’ shares), Facebook’s value was $41 billion. The company had slightly surpassed eBay to become the third largest American web company after Google and Amazon.com.

In early 2011, Facebook announced plans to move its headquarters to the former Sun Microsystems campus in Menlo Park, California. In March 2011, it was reported that Facebook was removing about 20,000 profiles every day for violations such as spam, graphic content, and underage use, as part of its efforts to boost cyber security. Statistics by DoubleClick showed that Facebook reached one trillion page views in the month of June 2011, making it the most visited website tracked by DoubleClick. According to a Nielsen study, Facebook had in 2011 become the second-most accessed website in the U.S. behind Google.

2012–2013- IPO, lawsuits and one-billionth user

Facebook eventually filed for an initial public offering on February 1, 2012. Facebook held an initial public offering on May 17, 2012, negotiating a share price of US$38. The company was valued at $104 billion, the largest valuation to date for a newly listed public company. Facebook began selling stock to the public and trading on the NASDAQ on May 18, 2012. Based on its 2012 income of $5 billion, Facebook joined the Fortune 500 list for the first time in May 2013, ranked in position 462.

Facebook filed their S1 document with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 1, 2012. The company applied for a $5 billion IPO, one of the biggest offerings in the history of technology. The IPO raised $16 billion, making it the third-largest in U.S. history.

The shares began trading on May 18; the stock struggled to stay above the IPO price for most of the day, but set a record for the trading volume of an IPO (460 million shares). The first day of trading was marred by technical glitches that prevented orders from going through; only the technical problems and artificial support from underwriters prevented the stock price from falling below the IPO price on the day. In March 2012, Facebook announced App Center, a store selling applications that operate via the website. The store was to be available on iPhones, Android devices, and mobile web users.

On May 22, 2012, the Yahoo! Finance website reported that Facebook’s lead underwriters, Morgan Stanley (MS), JP Morgan (JPM), and Goldman Sachs (GS), cut their earnings forecasts for the company in the middle of the IPO process. The stock had begun its freefall by this time, closing at 34.03 on May 21 and 31.00 on May 22. A “circuit breaker” trading curb was used in an attempt to slow down the stock price’s decline. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro, and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Chairman Rick Ketchum, called for a review of the circumstances surrounding the IPO.

Facebook’s IPO was consequently investigated, and was compared to a “pump and dump” scheme. A class-action lawsuit was filed in May 2012 because of the trading glitches, which led to botched orders. Lawsuits were filed, alleging that an underwriter for Morgan Stanley selectively revealed adjusted earnings estimates to preferred clients.

The other underwriters (MS, JPM, GS), Facebook’s CEO and board, and NASDAQ also faced litigation after numerous lawsuits were filed, while SEC and FINRA both launched investigations. It was believed that adjustments to earnings estimates were communicated to the underwriters by a Facebook financial officer, who used the information to cash out on their positions while leaving the general public with overpriced shares. By the end of May 2012, Facebook’s stock lost over a quarter of its starting value, which led The Wall Street Journal to label the IPO a “fiasco”. Zuckerberg announced to the media at the start of October 2012 that Facebook had passed the monthly active users mark of one billion. The company’s data also revealed 600 million mobile users, 219 billion photo uploads, and 140 billion friend connections.

2013–2014- Site developments, A4AI and 10th anniversary

On January 15, 2013, Facebook announced Facebook Graph Search, which provides users with a “precise answer”, rather than a link to an answer by leveraging the data present on its site. Facebook emphasized that the feature would be “privacy-aware”, returning results only from content already shared with the user. On April 3, 2013, Facebook unveiled Facebook Home, a user-interface layer for Android devices offering greater integration with the site. HTC announced the HTC First, a smartphone with Home pre-loaded.

On April 15, 2013, Facebook announced an alliance across 19 states with the National Association of Attorneys General, to provide teenagers and parents with information on tools to manage social networking profiles. On April 19, 2013, Facebook officially modified its logo to remove the faint blue line at the bottom of the “F” icon. The letter F moved closer to the edge of the box.

Following a campaign by 100 advocacy groups, Facebook agreed to update its policy on hate speech. The campaign highlighted content promoting domestic and sexual violence against women, and used over 57,000 tweets and more than 4,900 emails that caused withdrawal of advertising from the site by 15 companies, including Nissan UK, House of Burlesque and Nationwide UK. The social media website initially responded by stating that “while it may be vulgar and offensive, distasteful content on its own does not violate our policies”. It decided to take action on May 29, 2013, after it “become clear that our systems to identify and remove hate speech have failed to work as effectively as we would like, particularly around issues of gender-based hate”.

On June 12, 2013, Facebook announced on its newsroom that it was introducing clickable hashtags to help users follow trending discussions, or search what others are talking about on a topic. A July 2013 Wall Street Journal article identified the Facebook IPO as the cause of a change in the U.S.’ national economic statistics, as the local government area of the company’s headquarters, San Mateo County, California, became the top wage-earning county in the country after the fourth quarter of 2012. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the average weekly wage in the county was US$3,240, 107% higher than the previous year. It noted the wages were “the equivalent of $168,000 a year, and more than 50% higher than the next-highest county, New York County (better known as Manhattan), at $2,107 a week, or roughly $110,000 a year.”

Facebook was blocked by the Chinese government in 2009. In September 2013, the South China Morning Post announced that the block would lifted in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone “to welcome foreign companies to invest and to let foreigners live and work happily in the free-trade zone”. However, a few days later, the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China, dismissed the earlier report, reiterating the block on Facebook.

Facebook was announced as a member of The Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) in October 2013, when the A4AI was launched. The A4AI is a coalition of public and private organizations that includes Google, Intel and Microsoft. Led by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the A4AI seeks to make Internet access more affordable so that access is broadened in the developing world, where only 31% of people are online. Google will help to decrease Internet access prices so that they fall below the UN Broadband Commission’s worldwide target of 5% of monthly income. A Reuters report, published on December 11, 2013, stated that Standard & Poor’s announced the placement of Facebook on its S&P 500 index “after the close of trading on December 20”. Facebook announced Q4 2013 earnings of $523 million (20 cents per share), an increase of $64 million from the previous year, as well as 945 million mobile users.

The company celebrated its 10th anniversary during the week of February 3, 2014. In each of the first three months of 2014, over one billion users logged into their Facebook account on a mobile device. As part of the company’s second quarter results, Facebook announced in late July 2014 that mobile accounted for 62% of its advertising revenue, which is an increase of 21% from the previous year. By September 2014, Facebook’s market capitalization had risen to over $200 billion.

Alongside other American technology figures like Jeff Bezos and Tim Cook, Zuckerberg hosted visiting Chinese politician Lu Wei, known as the “Internet czar” for his influence in the enforcement of China’s online policy, at Facebook’s headquarters on December 8, 2014. The meeting occurred after Zuckerberg participated in a Q&A session at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, on October 23, 2014, where he attempted to converse in Mandarin—although Facebook is banned in China, Zuckerberg is highly regarded among the people and was at the university to help fuel the nation’s burgeoning entrepreneur sector. A book of Chinese president Xi Jinping found on Zuckerberg’s office desk attracted a great deal of attention in the media, after the Facebook founder explained to Lu, “I want them to understand socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

2015–present- Combating fake news and other ventures

As of January 21, 2015, Facebook’s algorithm is programmed to filter out false or misleading content, such as fake news stories and hoaxes, and will be supported by users who select the option to flag a story as “purposefully fake or deceitful news”. According to Reuters, such content is “being spread like a wildfire” on the social media platform. Facebook maintained that “satirical” content, “intended to be humorous, or content that is clearly labeled as satire”, will be taken into account and should not be intercepted. The algorithm, however, has been accused of maintaining a “filter bubble”, where both material the user disagrees with and posts with a low level of likes, will also not be seen. In November 2015, Zuckerberg prolonged period of paternity leave from 4 weeks to 4 months.

On April 12, 2016, Zuckerberg revealed a decade-long plan for Facebook in a keynote address. His speech outlined his vision, which rested on three main pillars- artificial intelligence, increased connectivity around the world and virtual and augmented reality. In June 2016 Facebook announced Deep Text, a natural language processing AI which will learn user intent and context in 20 languages.

In July 2016, a US$1 billion lawsuit was filed against the company alleging that it permitted the Hamas group to use it to perform assaults that ended the lives of four people. Facebook released the blueprints of Surround 360 camera on GitHub under open-source license. In September 2016, it won an Emmy for its Visual animated short “Henry”.

In October 2016, Facebook announced a fee-based communications tool called Workplace that aims to “connect everyone” while at work. Users can create profiles, see updates from co-workers on their news feed, stream live video and participate in secure group chats. Facebook annually has an Oculus Connect conference. Following the 2016 presidential election, Facebook announced that it would further combat the spread of fake news by using fact checkers from sites like FactCheck.org and Associated Press (AP), making reporting hoaxes easier through crowdsourcing, and disrupting financial incentives for spammers.

On January 17, 2017, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg planning to open Station F, a startup incubator campus in Paris, France. On a six-monthly cycle, Facebook will work with ten to 15 data-driven startups in the location to help them develop their businesses. On April 18, 2017, Facebook announced the beta launch of Facebook Spaces at Facebook’s annual F8 developer conference in San Francisco. Facebook Spaces, a virtual reality app version of Facebook for the Facebook-owned Oculus VR goggles. In a virtual and shared space, users can access a curated selection of 360-degree photos and videos using their avatar, with the support of the controller. Users can also access their own photos and videos, and any media shared on their Facebook newsfeed. The beta app is currently available in the Oculus Store.

In September 2017, Facebook announced it would be spending up to US$1 billion on original shows for its Facebook Watch platform. On October 16, 2017, Facebook acquired the anonymous compliment social media app tbh for an undisclosed amount, announcing intentions to leave the app independent, similar to Instagram and WhatsApp. In May 2018, at its annual F8 developers conference in San Jose, California, Facebook announced it would make its own dating service. Shares in the dating business Match Group fell by 22% following the announcement.

Corporate affairs of facebook

Management

Facebook’s key management personnel consists of Mark Zuckerberg (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer), Sheryl Sandberg (Chief Operating Officer), David Wehner (Chief Financial Officer), Mike Schroepfer (Chief Technology Officer), and Chris Cox (Chief Product Officer). As of June 30, 2017, Facebook has 20,658 employees.

Revenue

Most of Facebook’s revenue comes from advertising. Facebook generally has a lower clickthrough rate (CTR) for advertisements than most major websites. According to BusinessWeek.com, banner advertisements on Facebook have generally received one-fifth the number of clicks compared to those on the Web as a whole, although specific comparisons can reveal a much larger disparity. For example, while Google users click on the first advertisement for search results an average of 8% of the time (80,000 clicks for every one million searches), Facebook’s users click on advertisements an average of 0.04% of the time (400 clicks for every one million pages). Successful advertising campaigns on the site can have clickthrough rates as low as 0.05% to 0.04%, and CTR for ads tend to fall within two weeks.

The cause of Facebook’s low CTR has been attributed to younger users enabling ad blocking software and their adeptness at ignoring advertising messages, as well as the site’s primary purpose being social communication rather than content viewing. According to digital consultancy iStrategy Labs in mid-January 2014, three million fewer users aged between 13 and 17 years were present on Facebook’s Social Advertising platform compared to 2011. However, Time writer and reporter Christopher Matthews stated in the wake of the iStrategy Labs results-

A big part of Facebook’s pitch is that it has so much information about its users that it can more effectively target ads to those who will be responsive to the content. If Facebook can prove that theory to be true, then it may not worry so much about losing its cool cachet.

A portion of Facebook revenue comes from the “firehose” access, bulk access to the social media data sold to the third parties. In December 2014, a report from Frank N. Magid and Associates found that the percentage of teens aged 13 to 17 who used Facebook fell to 88% in 2014, down from 94% in 2013 and 95% in 2012. Zuckerberg, alongside other Facebook executives, have questioned the data in such reports; although, a former Facebook senior employee has commented- “Mark is very willing to recognize the strengths in other products and the flaws in Facebook.”

On pages for brands and products, however, some companies have reported CTR as high as 6.49% for Wall posts. A study found that, for video advertisements on Facebook, over 40% of users who viewed the videos viewed the entire video, while the industry average was 25% for in-banner video ads.

The company released its own set of revenue data at the end of January 2014 and claimed- Revenues of US$2.59 billion were generated for the three months ending December 31, 2013; earnings per share were 31 cents; revenues of US$7.87 billion were made for the entirety of 2013; and Facebook’s annual profit for 2013 was US$1.5 billion. During the same time, independent market research firm eMarketer released data in which Facebook accounted for 5.7 per cent of all global digital ad revenues in 2013 (Google’s share was 32.4 per cent). Revenue for the June 2014 quarter rose to $2.68 billion, an increase of 67 per cent over the second quarter of 2013. Mobile advertising revenue accounted for around 62 per cent of advertising revenue, an increase of approximately 41 per cent over the comparable quarter of the previous year. In December 2017, the company announced that it would no longer route all of its revenues through its Ireland headquarters, but rather record revenue locally in each of the countries where it is generated.

Number of advertisers

In February 2015, Facebook announced that it had reached two million active advertisers with most of the gain coming from small businesses. An active advertiser is an advertiser that has advertised on the Facebook platform in the last 28 days. In March 2016, Facebook announced that it reached three million active advertisers with more than 70% from outside the US.

Mergers and acquisitions

On November 15, 2010, Facebook announced it had acquired the domain name fb.com from the American Farm Bureau Federation for an undisclosed amount. On January 11, 2011, the Farm Bureau disclosed $8.5 million in “domain sales income”, making the acquisition of FB.com one of the ten highest domain sales in history.

In February 2014, Facebook announced that it would be buying mobile messaging company WhatsApp for US$19 billion in cash and stock.

In November 2016 Facebook acquired CrowdTangle, a social analytics company that tracks how content spreads online. CrowdTangle confirmed the acquisition in a message at their website, but company didn’t disclosed financial terms of the deal.

Offices

In early 2011, Facebook announced plans to move to its new headquarters, the former Sun Microsystems campus in Menlo Park. All users outside of the US and Canada have a contract with Facebook’s Irish subsidiary “Facebook Ireland Limited”. This allows Facebook to avoid US taxes for all users in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and South America. Facebook is making use of the Double Irish arrangement which allows it to pay just about 2–3% corporation tax on all international revenue. In 2010, Facebook opened its fourth office, in Hyderabad and the first in Asia.

Facebook, which in 2010 had more than 750 million active users globally including over 23 million in India, announced that its Hyderabad center would house online advertising and developer support teams and provide round-the-clock, multilingual support to the social networking site’s users and advertisers globally. With this, Facebook joins other giants like Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Dell, IBM and Computer Associates that have already set up shop. In Hyderabad, it is registered as ‘Facebook India Online Services Pvt Ltd’.

Though Facebook did not specify its India investment or hiring figures, it said recruitment had already begun for a director of operations and other key positions at Hyderabad, which would supplement its operations in California, Dublin in Ireland as well as at Austin, Texas. A custom-built data center with substantially reduced (“38% less”) power consumption compared to existing Facebook data centers opened in April 2011 in Prineville, Oregon. In April 2012, Facebook opened a second data center in Forest City, North Carolina, US. In June 2013, Facebook opened a third data center in Luleå, Sweden. In November 2014, Facebook opened a fourth data center in Altoona, Iowa, US. In September 2016, Facebook announced a coming datacenter in Los Lunas, New Mexico in 2018 powered by renewable energy.

On October 1, 2012, CEO Zuckerberg visited Moscow to stimulate social media innovation in Russia and to boost Facebook’s position in the Russian market. Russia’s communications minister tweeted that Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev urged the social media giant’s founder to abandon plans to lure away Russian programmers and instead consider opening a research center in Moscow. Facebook has roughly 9 million users in Russia, while domestic analogue VK has around 34 million.

The establishment of a woodworking facility on the Menlo Park campus was announced at the end of August 2013. The facility, opened in June 2013, provides equipment, safety courses and a woodworking learning course. Employees are required to purchase materials at the in-house store. A Facebook spokesperson explained that the intention of setting up the facility is to encourage employees to think in an innovative manner because of the different environment; it also serves as an attractive perk for prospective employees. On November 21, 2016 Facebook announced that it will open its new London headquarters next year and create another 500 jobs in the UK. New headquarters will be in Fitzrovia in central London at a site that is currently undergoing redevelopment. Facebook’s London-based executive, Nicola Mendelsohn said “The UK remains one of the best places to be a tech company”. In August 2017, Facebook announced the opening of a new office in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2018. Facebook will occupy the top three floors of 100 Binney St in Kendall Square and share the building with the pharmaceutical employees from Bristol-Myers Squibb. The offices will be home to Facebook’s “Connectivity Lab”, a group focused on bringing Internet access and technology to 4 billion people who do not have access to the Internet.

Tax affairs

Like Apple, Google and Microsoft (and other US technology multinationals), Facebook has an office in Ireland (Facebook Ireland), with circa 2,000 employees, through which it manages 1.9bn global Facebook accounts (86% of all Facebook accounts), representing all of its non-US accounts (i.e. not just European). Facebook Ireland is the 9th largest Irish company (by 2017 revenues, see here).

Facebook Ireland uses a basic double Irish tax structure to pay effective tax rates of <1% on the Irish business, which is a similar outcome for Apple and Google in Ireland.

Under pressure from the EU, the Irish Government closed the double Irish to new schemes in 2015, however, existing users, like Facebook, have until 2020 to find alternatives. On foot of their EU Commission €13bn tax fine (for period 2004-2014, the largest tax fine in history), Apple has restructured their double Irish structure (Apple Sales International), into an Irish capital allowances for intangibles tax scheme (see leprechaun economics). However Microsoft has opted for a variation of the double Irish called the single malt, which relies on specific wording in the Ireland-Malta tax treaty.

To create a double Irish tax structure, a large quantum of intellectual property (or “IP”) must be owned in a low-tax location, which the double Irish will then charge out to all non-US locations as a royalty payment (to relocate profits to the low-tax location). The US IRS is challenging Facebook Inc. on the valuation it used when it transferred IP from the US to Facebook Ireland in 2010 (which Facebook Ireland then revalued higher before charging out), as it was building it’s double Irish. The case is ongoing and the IRS have noted that the potential quantum of fine is $3-5bn.

The US Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 changes Facebook’s global tax calculations. Facebook Ireland will now be subject to the US GILTI tax of 10.5% on global intangible profits (i.e. Irish profits). On the basis that Facebook Ireland is paying some tax, the effective minimum US tax for Facebook Ireland will be circa 11%. In contrast, Facebook Inc. would incur a special IP tax rate of 13.125% (the FDII rate) if it’s Irish business was relocated back to the US. Higher tax relief in the US (21% vs. Irish at the GILTI rate) and accelerated capital expensing, would make this effective US rate circa 12%.

The closeness of the net effective tax costs of having Facebook Ireland, in Ireland, or relocated back to the US, was shown when Reuters revealed that Facebook Ireland is going to move 1.5bn non-EU accounts back to the US to limit exposure to the EU Commission’s May 2018 GDPR. To irrevocably limit financial exposure to the EU’s GDPR, these 1.5bn non-EU accounts (and their commercial processing) must be moved to the US. Facebook said that this move “did not carry tax implications”, a statement which was mistakenly interpreted as implying that processing would stay in Ireland.

Website

Technical aspects

The website’s primary color is blue as Zuckerberg is red-green colorblind, a realization that occurred after a test undertaken around 2007; he explained in 2010- “blue is the richest color for me—I can see all of blue.” Facebook is built in PHP which is compiled with HipHop for PHP, a “source code transformer” built by Facebook engineers that turns PHP into C++. The deployment of HipHop reportedly reduced average CPU consumption on Facebook servers by 50%.

Facebook is developed as one monolithic application. According to an interview in 2012 with Chuck Rossi, a build engineer at Facebook, Facebook compiles into a 1.5 GB binary blob which is then distributed to the servers using a custom BitTorrent-based release system. Rossi stated that it takes about 15 minutes to build and 15 minutes to release to the servers. The build and release process has zero downtime and new changes to Facebook are rolled out daily.

Facebook uses a combination platform based on HBase to store data across distributed machines. Using a tailing architecture, new events are stored in log files, and the logs are tailed. The system rolls these events up and writes them into storage. The user interface then pulls the data out and displays it to users. Facebook handles requests as AJAX behavior. These requests are written to a log file using Scribe (developed by Facebook).

Data is read from these log files using Ptail, an internally built tool to aggregate data from multiple Scribe stores. It tails the log files and pulls data out (thus the name). Ptail data are separated out into three streams so they can eventually be sent to their own clusters in different data centers (Plugin impression, News feed impressions, Actions (plugin + news feed)). Puma is used to manage periods of high data flow (Input/Output or IO). Data is processed in batches to lessen the number of times needed to read and write under high demand periods (A hot article will generate a lot of impressions and news feed impressions which will cause huge data skews). Batches are taken every 1.5 seconds, limited by memory used when creating a hash table.

After this, data is output in PHP format (compiled with HipHop for PHP). The backend is written in Java and Thrift is used as the messaging format so PHP programs can query Java services. Caching solutions are used to make the web pages display more quickly. The more and longer data is cached the less realtime it is. The data is then sent to MapReduce servers so it can be queried via Hive. This also serves as a backup plan as the data can be recovered from Hive. Raw logs are removed after a period of time.

On March 20, 2014, Facebook announced a new open-source programming language called Hack. Before public release, a large portion of Facebook was already running and “battle tested” using the new language.

Facebook uses the Momentum platform from Message Systems to deliver the enormous volume of emails it sends to its users every day.

History of Facebook

On July 20, 2008, Facebook introduced “Facebook Beta”, a significant redesign of its user interface on selected networks. The Mini-Feed and Wall were consolidated, profiles were separated into tabbed sections, and an effort was made to create a cleaner look. After initially giving users a choice to switch, Facebook began migrating all users to the new version starting in September 2008. On December 11, 2008, it was announced that Facebook was testing a simpler signup process.

User profile/personal timeline

Each registered user on Facebook gets their own personal profile that shows their posts and content. The format of individual user pages was revamped in September 2011 and became known as “Timeline”, a chronological feed of a user’s stories, including status updates, photos, interactions with apps, and events. The new layout also let users add a “cover photo”, a large header image at the top of the Timeline. Along with the new layout, users were also given more privacy settings to control the content on the Timeline. In 2007, Facebook launched Facebook Pages for brands and celebrities to interact with their fanbase, with more 100,000 Pages launched in November. In June 2009, Facebook introduced a “Usernames” feature, allowing users to choose a unique nickname used in the URL for their personal profile, for easier sharing.

In February 2014, Facebook expanded the options for a user’s gender setting, adding a custom input field that allows users to choose from a wide range of gender identities. Users can also set which set of gender-specific pronoun should be used in reference to them throughout the site. In May 2014, Facebook introduced a feature to allow users to ask for information not disclosed by other users on their profiles. If a user does not provide key information, such as location, hometown, or relationship status, other users can use a new “ask” button to send a message asking about that item to the user in a single click.

News Feed

On September 6, 2006, News Feed was announced, which appears on every user’s homepage and highlights information including profile changes, upcoming events, and birthdays of the user’s friends. This enabled spammers and other users to manipulate these features by creating illegitimate events or posting fake birthdays to attract attention to their profile or cause. Initially, the News Feed caused dissatisfaction among Facebook users; some complained it was too cluttered and full of undesired information, others were concerned that it made it too easy for others to track individual activities (such as relationship status changes, events, and conversations with other users). In response, Zuckerberg issued an apology for the site’s failure to include appropriate customizable privacy features. Since then, users have been able to control what types of information are shared automatically with friends. Users are now able to prevent user-set categories of friends from seeing updates about certain types of activities, including profile changes, Wall posts, and newly added friends.

On February 23, 2010, Facebook was granted a patent on certain aspects of its News Feed. The patent covers News Feeds in which links are provided so that one user can participate in the same activity of another user. The patent may encourage Facebook to pursue action against websites that violate its patent, which may potentially include websites such as Twitter. One of the most popular applications on Facebook is the Photos application, where users can upload albums and photos. Facebook allows users to upload an unlimited number of photos, compared with other image hosting services such as Photobucket and Flickr, which apply limits to the number of photos that a user is allowed to upload. During the first years, Facebook users were limited to 60 photos per album. As of May 2009, this limit has been increased to 200 photos per album.

Privacy settings can be set for individual albums, limiting the groups of users that can see an album. For example, the privacy of an album can be set so that only the user’s friends can see the album, while the privacy of another album can be set so that all Facebook users can see it. Another feature of the Photos application is the ability to “tag”, or label, users in a photo. For instance, if a photo contains a user’s friend, then the user can tag the friend in the photo. This sends a notification to the friend that she has been tagged, and provides a link to see the photo. On June 7, 2012, Facebook launched its App Center to its users. It will help the users in finding games and other applications with ease. Since the launch of the App Center, Facebook has seen 150M monthly users with 2.4 times the installation of apps. The sorting and display of stories in a user’s News Feed is governed by the EdgeRank algorithm.

On May 13, 2015, Facebook in association with major news portals launched a program “Instant Articles” to provide rich news experience. Instant articles provides users, access to articles on Facebook news feed without leaving the site. According to the technology news web site Gizmodo on May 9, 2016, Facebook curators routinely suppress or promote news that is deemed to meet a political agenda. For example, articles about Black Lives Matter would be listed even if they did not meet the trending criteria of News Feed. Likewise positive news about conservative political figures were regularly excised from Facebook pages. In January 2017, Facebook launched Facebook Stories for iOS and Android in Ireland. The feature, following the format of Snapchat and Instagram stories, allows users to upload photos and videos that appear above friends’ and followers’ News Feeds and disappear after 24 hours.

On October 11, 2017, Facebook introduced the 3D Posts feature to allow for uploading interactive 3D assets in the News Feed. On January 11, 2018, Facebook announced that it would be changing its News Feed algorithm to prioritize what friends and family share and de-emphasize content from media companies. The change was intended to maximize the “meaningful interactions” that people have with content on Facebook.

Like button

The “like” button, stylized as a “thumbs up” icon, was first enabled on February 9, 2009, and enables users to easily interact with status updates, comments, photos and videos, links shared by friends, and advertisements. Once clicked by a user, the designated content appears in the News Feeds of that user’s friends, and the button also displays the number of other users who have liked the content, including a full or partial list of those users. The like button was extended to comments in June 2010. After extensive testing and years of questions from the public about whether it had an intention to incorporate a “Dislike” button, Facebook officially rolled out “Reactions” to users worldwide on February 24, 2016, letting users long-press on the like button for an option to use one of five pre-defined emotions, including “Love”, “Haha”, “Wow”, “Sad”, or “Angry”. Reactions were also extended to comments in May 2017.

Instant messaging

Facebook Messenger is an instant messaging service and software application. Originally developed as Facebook Chat in 2008, the company revamped its messaging service in 2010, and subsequently released standalone iOS and Android apps in August 2011. Over the years, Facebook has released new apps on a variety of different operating systems, launched a dedicated website interface, and separated the messaging functionality from the main Facebook app, requiring users to download the standalone apps.

Facebook Messenger lets Facebook users send messages to each other. Complementing regular conversations, Messenger lets users make voice calls and video calls both in one-to-one interactions and in group conversations. Its Android app has integrated support for SMS and “Chat Heads”, which are round profile photo icons appearing on-screen regardless of what app is open, while both apps support multiple accounts, conversations with optional end-to-end encryption, and playing “Instant Games”, which are select games built into Messenger. Some features, including sending money and requesting transportation, are limited to the United States. In 2017, Facebook has added “Messenger Day”, a feature that lets users share photos and videos in a story-format with all their friends with the content disappearing after 24 hours; Reactions, which lets users tap and hold a message to add a reaction through an emoji; and Mentions, which lets users in group conversations type @ to give a particular user a notification.

In March 2015, Facebook announced that it would start letting businesses and users interact through Messenger with features such as tracking purchases and receiving notifications, and interacting with customer service representatives. It also announced that third-party developers could integrate their apps into Messenger, letting users enter an app while inside Messenger and optionally share details from the app into a chat. In April 2016, it introduced an API for developers to build chatbots into Messenger, for uses such as news publishers building bots to give users news through the service, and in April 2017, it enabled the M virtual assistant for users in the U.S., which scans chats for keywords and suggests relevant actions, such as its payments system for users mentioning money. Additionally, Facebook expanded the use of bots, incorporating group chatbots into Messenger as “Chat Extensions”, adding a “Discovery” tab for finding bots, and enabling special, branded QR codes that, when scanned, take the user to a specific bot.

Following

On September 14, 2011, Facebook added the ability for users to provide a “Subscribe” button on their page, which allows users to subscribe to public postings by the user without needing to add him or her as a friend. In conjunction, Facebook also introduced a system in February 2012 to verify the identity of certain accounts. In December 2012, Facebook announced that because of user confusion surrounding its function, the Subscribe button would be re-labeled as a “Follow” button—making it more similar to other social networks with similar functions.

Comparison with Myspace

The media often compares Facebook to Myspace, but one significant difference between the two Web sites is the level of customization. Another difference is Facebook’s requirement that users give their true identity, a demand that MySpace does not make. MySpace allows users to decorate their profiles using HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), while Facebook allows only plain text. Facebook has a number of features with which users may interact. They include the Wall, a space on every user’s profile page that allows friends to post messages for the user to see; Pokes, which allows users to send a virtual “poke” to each other (a notification then tells a user that he or she has been poked); Photos, that allows users to upload albums and photos; and Status, which allows users to inform their friends of their whereabouts and actions. Facebook also allows users to tag various people in photographs. Depending on privacy settings, anyone who can see a user’s profile can also view that user’s Wall. In July 2007, Facebook began allowing users to post attachments to the Wall, whereas the Wall was previously limited to textual content only. Facebook also differs from Myspace in the form of advertising used. Facebook uses advertising in the form of banner ads, referral marketing, and games. Myspace, on the other hand, uses Google and AdSense. There is also a difference in the userbase of each site. MySpace, initially, was much more popular with high school students, while Facebook was more popular among college students. A study by the American firm Nielsen Claritas showed that Facebook users are more inclined to use other professional networking sites, such as LinkedIn, than Myspace users.

Privacy

Facebook enables users to choose their own privacy settings and choose who can see specific parts of their profile. The website is free to its users and generates revenue from advertising, such as banner ads. Facebook requires a user’s name and profile picture (if applicable) to be accessible by everyone. Users can control who sees other information they have shared, as well as who can find them in searches, through their privacy settings. On November 6, 2007, Facebook launched Facebook Beacon, which was a part of Facebook’s advertisement system until it was discontinued in 2009. Its purpose was to allow targeted advertisements and allowing users to share their activities with their friends.

In 2010, Facebook’s security team began expanding its efforts to reduce the risks to users’ privacy, but privacy concerns remain. Since 2010, the US National Security Agency has been taking publicly posted profile information from Facebook, among other social media services, user profiles to discover who they interact with.

On November 29, 2011, Facebook settled Federal Trade Commission charges that it deceived consumers by failing to keep privacy promises. In August 2013 High-Tech Bridge published a study showing that links included in Facebook messaging service messages were being accessed by Facebook. In January 2014 two users filed a lawsuit against Facebook alleging that their privacy had been violated by this practice.

In April 2018, in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal, and refuting a report to the contrary by Reuters, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would implement additional privacy “controls and settings” worldwide. These settings were originally intended for deployment in Europe in order to comply with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which take effect in May. In the lead-up to its implementation, Facebook also changed its terms of service and privacy policy to specify that that users within the European Union are served by Facebook Ireland, Ltd., while users outside of the EU are served by Facebook Inc., which is subject to U.S. jurisdiction. Previously, all users outside of Canada and the United States were served by Facebook Ireland, Ltd., which would make an additional 1.5 billion users subject to EU law in their use of Facebook than legally needed.

In the aftermath of the breach, Facebook withdrew its opposition to the California Consumer Privacy Act. Facebook, Google, Comcast, AT&T and Verizon had previously donated $200,000 each to a $1 million fund dedicated to opposing of the ballot measure. The Committee to Protect California jobs, which opposed the ballot question and is sponsored by the California Chamber of Commerce told Ars Technica that “”Facebook has NOT dropped its opposition to the measure”. According to the Committee Facebook “simply formally dropped their participation in the ‘no’ campaign.”

Facebook Bug Bounty Program

On July 29, 2011, Facebook announced its Bug Bounty Program in which security researchers will be paid a minimum of $500 for reporting security holes on Facebook’s website. Facebook’s Whitehat page for security researchers says- “If you give us a reasonable time to respond to your report before making any information public and make a good faith effort to avoid privacy violations, destruction of data, and interruption or degradation of our service during your research, we will not bring any lawsuit against you or ask law enforcement to investigate you.”

Facebook started paying researchers who find and report security bugs by issuing them custom branded “White Hat” debit cards that can be reloaded with funds each time the researchers discover new flaws. “Researchers who find bugs and security improvements are rare, and we value them and have to find ways to reward them,” Ryan McGeehan, former manager of Facebook’s security response team, told CNET in an interview. “Having this exclusive black card is another way to recognize them. They can show up at a conference and show this card and say ‘I did special work for Facebook.'”

India, which has the second largest number of bug hunters in the world, tops the Facebook Bug Bounty Program with the largest number of valid bugs. “Researchers in Russia earned the highest amount per report in 2013, receiving an average of $3,961 for 38 bugs. India contributed the largest number of valid bugs at 136, with an average reward of $1,353. The U.S. reported 92 issues and averaged $2,272 in rewards. Brazil and the UK were third and fourth by volume, with 53 bugs and 40 bugs, respectively, and average rewards of $3,792 and $2,950”, Facebook quoted in a post.

Reception of facebook

User growth

CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in August 2008 that Facebook had passed 100 million registered users. This increased to 150 million “active” users in January 2009. Stan Schroeder of Mashable questioned how the measurement of “active” was made, though acknowledging that “it probably means that users who’ve just created an account which sits idle for a long period of time aren’t included”. The number of users continued to grow, reaching 250 million in July 2009, 300 million in September 2009, 400 million in February 2010, and 500 million in July 2010. According to the company’s data at the July 2010 announcement, half of the site’s membership used Facebook daily, for an average of 34 minutes, while 150 million users accessed the site by mobile. A company representative called the milestone a “quiet revolution.”

Mark Zuckerberg announced to the media at the start of October 2012 that Facebook had passed the monthly active users mark of one billion. The company’s data also revealed 600 million mobile users, 219 billion photo uploads, and 140 billion friend connections. This continued to grow, reaching 1.19 billion monthly active users in October 2013, 1.44 billion users in April 2015, of which 1.25 billion were mobile users, 1.71 billion users in July 2016, 1.94 billion users in March 2017, and ultimately 2 billion users in June 2017.

Early in 2015, it was reported that teenagers preferred competing web sites such as Instagram and Snapchat. The estimated number of teens leaving Facebook was a million per year.

In November 2015, after skepticism about the accuracy of its “monthly active users” measurement, Facebook changed its definition of an “active user”, now defining it as a logged-in member who visits the Facebook site through the web browser or mobile app, or uses the Facebook Messenger app, in the last 30 days of the date of measurement. This excludes the use of third-party services with Facebook integration, which was previously counted.

Statistics

According to analytics firm comScore, Facebook is the leading social networking site based on monthly unique visitors, having overtaken main competitor MySpace in April 2008. comScore reported that Facebook attracted over 130 million unique visitors in May 2010, an increase of 8.6 million people. According to third-party web analytics providers, Alexa and SimilarWeb, Facebook is ranked second and first globally respectively, it is the highest-read social network on the Web, with over 20 billion visitors per month, as of 2015. SimilarWeb, Quantcast, and Compete.com all rank the website 2nd in the U.S. in traffic. The website is the most popular for uploading photos, cumulatively with 50 billion uploaded. In 2010, Sophos’s “Security Threat Report 2010” polled over 500 firms, 60% of which responded that they believed Facebook was the social network that “posed the biggest threat to security”, well ahead of MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Facebook is the most popular social networking site in several English-speaking countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. However, Facebook still receives limited adoption in countries such as Japan, where domestically created social networks are still largely preferred. In regional Internet markets, penetration on Facebook is highest in North America (69 percent), followed by Middle East-Africa (67 percent), Latin America (58 percent), Europe (57 percent), and Asia-Pacific (17 percent). Some of the top competitors were listed in 2007 by Mashable.

Awards and recognition

The website has won awards such as placement into the “Top 100 Classic Websites” by PC Magazine in 2007, and winning the “People’s Voice Award” from the Webby Awards in 2008. In a 2006 study conducted by Student Monitor, a company specializing in research concerning the college student market, Facebook was named the “second most popular thing among undergraduates,” tied with beer and only ranked lower than the iPod.

In 2010, Facebook won the Crunchie “Best Overall Startup Or Product” award for the third year in a row. However, in a July 2010 survey performed by the American Customer Satisfaction Index, Facebook received a score of 64 out of 100, placing it in the bottom 5% of all private-sector companies in terms of customer satisfaction, alongside industries such as the IRS e-file system, airlines, and cable companies. The reasons why Facebook scored so poorly include privacy problems, frequent changes to the website’s interface, the results returned by the News Feed, and spam.

In December 2008, the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory ruled that Facebook is a valid protocol to serve court notices to defendants. It is believed to be the world’s first legal judgement that defines a summons posted on Facebook as legally binding. In March 2009, the New Zealand High Court associate justice David Gendall allowed for the serving of legal papers on Craig Axe by the company Axe Market Garden via Facebook. Employers have also used Facebook as a means to keep tabs on their employees and have even been known to fire them over posts they have made.

By 2005, the use of Facebook had already become so ubiquitous that the generic verb “facebooking” had come into use to describe the process of browsing others’ profiles or updating one’s own. In 2008, Collins English Dictionary declared “Facebook” as its new Word of the Year. In December 2009, the New Oxford American Dictionary declared its word of the year to be the verb “unfriend”, defined as “To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook”.

Criticisms and controversies of Facebook

Facebook’s market dominance has led to international media coverage and significant reporting of its shortcomings. Notable issues include Internet privacy, such as its widespread use of a “like” button on third-party websites tracking users, possible indefinite records of user information, automatic facial recognition software, and its role in the workplace, including employer-employee account disclosure. In a 2014 Huffington Post blog article entitled “Facebook- The World’s Biggest Waste of Time?”, Bill Robinson stated that going on Facebook was not a productive use of time and he raised concerns about its addictive qualities. Timothy A Pychyl wrote in Psychology Today about his concerns that Facebook is leading to “technological time wasting” and procrastination.

The use of Facebook can have psychological effects, including feelings of jealousy and stress, a lack of attention, and social media addiction, in some cases comparable to drug addiction.

Facebook’s company tactics have also received prominent coverage, including electricity usage, tax avoidance, real-name user requirement policies, censorship, and its involvement in the United States PRISM surveillance program.

Due to allowing users to publish material by themselves, Facebook has come under scrutiny for the amount of freedom it gives users, including copyright and intellectual property infringement, hate speech, incitement of rape and terrorism, fake news, and crimes, murders and violent incidents live-streamed through its Facebook Live functionality.

Facebook worked on special censorship software so it could potentially accommodate censorship demands in Communist-controlled China.

The company has also been subject to multiple litigation cases over the years, with its most prominent case concerning allegations that CEO Mark Zuckerberg broke an oral contract with Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra to build the then-named “HarvardConnection” social network in 2004, instead allegedly opting to steal the idea and code to launch Facebook months before HarvardConnection began. The original lawsuit was eventually settled in 2009, with Facebook paying approximately $20 million in cash and 1.25 million shares. A new lawsuit in 2011 was dismissed.

On November 5, 2017, the Paradise Papers, a set of confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investment, revealed that Russian state organizations with ties to Vladimir Putin pursued between 2009 and 2011 large investments in Facebook and Twitter via an intermediary—Russian-American entrepreneur Yuri Milner, who befriended Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and was a business associate of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law. According to The Express Tribune, Facebook is among the corporations that “avoided billions of dollars in tax using offshore companies”. A subsidiary of the Kremlin-controlled Gazprom funded an investment company that partnered with DST Global, an investment firm part of Mail.ru, to buy shares in Facebook, reaping millions when the social media giant went public in 2012. Four days after the Facebook IPO, a DST Global subsidiary sold more than 27 million shares of Facebook for roughly $1 billion.

On March 6, 2018, BlackBerry sued Facebook and its Instagram and WhatsApp subdivision for ripping off key features of its messaging app. According to BlackBerry, it invented the core concepts in mobile messaging app which were copied by Facebook and its subsidiaries. According to the Facebook Deputy General Counsel, Paul Grewal, BlackBerry abandoned its effort to innovate and it is now looking to tax the innovation of others.

Shadow profiles

“Shadow profile” has become a catch all term for data that is outside the scope of a user’s official profile or voluntarily shared content. This includes data that Facebook collects on non-users that may be collected by the Facebook analytics Pixel or location data from a mobile phone. During his 2018 Congressional testimony, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that while users have control over data collection for advertising purposes, “On security, there may be specific things about how you use Facebook, even if you’re not logged in, that we keep track of to make sure you’re not abusing the systems.” Zuckerberg also stated that he was not familiar with the term “shadow profile”, though he did confirm that Facebook gathers data on individuals who have not signed up for Facebook accounts.

Cambridge Analytica

In March 2018, whistleblowers revealed that personal information from over 50 million Facebook users was sold to Cambridge Analytica, a political data analysis firm that had worked for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. The data was collected using an app created by Global Science Research. While approximately 270,000 people volunteered to use the app, Facebook’s API also permitted data collection from the friends of app users. When the information was first reported Facebook tried to downplay the significance of the breach, and attempted to suggest that the stolen data was no longer available to Cambridge Analytica. However, with increasing scrutiny, Facebook issued a statement expressing alarm and suspended Cambridge Analytica, while review of documents and interviews with former Facebook employees suggested that Cambridge Analytica was still in possession of the data. This is a violation of the consent decree entered into law by Facebook with the Federal Trade Commission, and violations of the consent decree could carry a penalty of $40,000 per violation, meaning that if news reports that the data of 50 million people were shared proves true, the company’s possible exposure runs into the trillions of dollars.

According to The Guardian reporter Carole Cadwalladr who broke the story, both Facebook and Cambridge Analytica threatened to sue the newspaper if it published the story and continually tried to prevent its publication. After the story was published anyway, Facebook claimed that it had been “lied to”. Cadwalladr said that Facebook was trying to shift the blame onto a third party. Nick Thompson of Wired and CBS News pointed out that Cambridge Analytica obtained all the personal data without having to “breach” Facebook, and that “It didn’t work because somebody hacked in and broke stuff, it worked because Facebook has built the craziest most invasive advertising model in the history of the world and someone took advantage of it.” On March 23, 2018, The English High Court granted an application by the Information Commissioner’s Office for a warrant to search Cambridge Analytica’s London offices ending a standoff between Facebook’s data team and the Information Commissioner over who is responsible for the forensic searching of the company’s servers.

On March 25, Zuckerberg placed a newspaper ad in UK and US newspapers apologising over a “breach of trust”; newspapers included Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday, Observer, Sunday Mirror and Sunday Express.

You may have heard about a quiz app built by a university researcher that leaked Facebook data of millions of people in 2014. This was a breach of trust, and I’m sorry we didn’t do more at the time. We’re now taking steps to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

We’ve already stopped apps like this from getting so much information. Now we’re limiting the data apps get when you sign in using Facebook.

We’re also investigating every single app that had access to large amounts of data before we fixed this. We expect there are others. And when we find them, we will ban them and tell everyone affected.

Finally, we’ll remind you which apps you’ve give access to your information – so you can shut off the ones you don’t want anymore.

Thank you for believing in this community. I promise to do better for you.

On March 26, the Federal Trade Commission opened an investigation into Facebook regarding the use of its data by Cambridge Analytica, causing stocks to temporarily drop by more than 5 percent.

Public apologies

In early March 2018, a U.K.-based newspaper called The Observer reported that a “political consultancy” known as Cambridge Analytica had been provided access to the personal data of about 50 million Americans by Facebook. On March 21, 2018, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg issued the company’s first public statement since this information was publicly disclosed. However, another article was published on April 4 by Wired that reports a statement made by Facebook regarding the number of people affected. Mike Schroepfer – Facebook’s chief technology officer – disclosed that the amount is closer to 87 million via a blog post. The earlier announcement discussed modification to the way that “third-party applications” could access data from Facebook. An app downloaded by 270,000 people has been claimed to have led to the crisis. When users downloaded this app – called “thisisyourdigitallife” – information regarding the users’ preferred Facebook content as well as their “home town” could then be accessed by the app. This was than used to acquire similar information of the user’s contacts and continued to affect approximately 50 million people in total. It has also been claimed that pre-existing policies around access to personal information of Facebook users by “third-party app developers” are foundational to the “crisis”. The company has received significant backlash following the disclosure of the use of private data by other entities. This backlash has also taken the form of demands for legal accountability, including the opening of an investigation into the company by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Others such as Elon Musk, who has deleted his Facebook pages for SpaceX and Tesla, have publicly expressed their decision to terminate their use of the media platform for their purposes.

According to a study done by Jeffery Child and Shawn Starcher in 2015, Facebook is a social media platform where “both known and unknown audiences can gain access to posted context, increasing the possibility for privacy breakdowns”. The company has a history of making efforts of rapprochement for such privacy crises. Past apologies of Facebook started in 2009, when Facebook first launched their site worldwide. In the hopes of making it easier for users to share or keep their information private, the company ended up modifying the entire site and publicizing a subsequent apology for the situation. For years, Facebook has been giving advertisers the option of having targeted ads based on data collecting companies like Acxiom Corp and Experian PLC. In March 2016, Facebook first acknowledged that user data had been mishandled back in 2014 when a third-party app was linked back to Cambridge Analytica. This was the same company that was hired by the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump. The media platform has also been accessed by individuals in addition to corporate entities for varying purposes. The site has been used to determine the eligibility for students to be employed or charged with a form of retribution in some cases, based on what they share or post.

In response to criticism and outrage, different media outlets were used by the company to issue a public apology. On March 25, 2018, U.K. newspapers The Observer, The Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday, Sunday Mirror, Sunday Express and Sunday Telegraph contained full-page ads depicting a personal apology from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. In the United States, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal also contained the same page-length ads. In addition to the use of newspaper outlets, Mark Zuckerberg issued a verbal apology on CNN. and took part in interviews with other news organizations such as Recode. Zuckerberg has also made multiple other apologies over the course of the years regarding Facebook. In May 2010, Zuckerberg issued a public apology over discrepancies in the privacy settings in The Washington Post via an Op-Ed article. Similarly, the CEO has also made apologies via blog posts as well as through the Facebook platform itself.

In an effort to earn back public trust, Facebook ended its partnerships with several data brokers who aid advertisers in targeting people on the social network. The company has also adjusted the privacy settings again for its user base as well. Previously, Facebook had its privacy settings spread out over 20 pages, and has now put all of its privacy settings on one page, which makes it harder for third-party apps to access the user’s personal information. In addition to publicly apologizing, Facebook has said that it will be reviewing and auditing thousands of apps that display “suspicious activities” in an effort to ensure that this breach of privacy doesn’t happen again. In a 2010 report regarding privacy, a research project stated that not a lot of information is available regarding the consequences of what people disclose online so often what is available are just reports made available through popular media. In 2017, a former Facebook executive went on the record to discuss how social media platforms have contributed to the unraveling of the “fabric of society”.

Impact

Media impact

In April 2011, Facebook launched a new portal for marketers and creative agencies to help them develop brand promotions on Facebook. The company began its push by inviting a select group of British advertising leaders to meet Facebook’s top executives at an “influencers’ summit” in February 2010. Facebook has now been involved in campaigns for True Blood, American Idol, and Top Gear. News and media outlets such as The Washington Post, Financial Times and ABC News have used aggregated Facebook fan data to create various infographics and charts to accompany their articles. In 2012, beauty pageant Miss Sri Lanka Online was run exclusively using Facebook.

Economic impact

Facebook, Inc. has utilized growing internet markets using a social media platform to expand its user base while generating billions of dollars in revenue from Facebook’s companies. Through empirical findings, economists have been able to identify key areas where Facebook has been able to stimulate economic activity by offering a free public good in that one user will not reduce the amount available to another, while also generating positive externalities. Thus, mobile phone manufactures and carriers have been beneficiaries of Facebook’s spillover effect. Three distinct areas have been found to add the most economic impact- platform competition, the marketing place, and user behavior data.

Facebook’s platform is efficient because it lowers barriers to entry and lowers costs for businesses to rapidly innovate new ideas. Scalability is accomplished with less wasted resources and monetized by collecting user behavior and usage data for targeted advertising. Facebook advertising allows firms to reasonably scale up operations to reach Facebook users. Facebook’s daily active users have increased 18% year-over-year and burgeoning from 1 million users in 2004, to over 1.9 billion in 2017. Facebook is a leader among tech companies who continues to improve their carbon impact through more efficient data centers and clean renewable energy.

By the end of 2016, Facebook’s total revenue earnings were $27.638 billion, gross profit was $23.849 billion and a net income for the year was $10.188 billion.

Facebook provides a development platform for many social gaming, communication, feedback, review, and other applications related to online activities. This open platform of Facebook has spawned many new businesses and added thousands of jobs to the economy. Zynga Inc., a leading company in social gaming app development, is an example of those businesses. An econometric analysis studied the impact of Facebook on the economy in terms of the number of jobs created and the economic value of those jobs. The conservative estimate was that the app development platform of Facebook added more than 182,000 jobs in the U.S. economy in 2011. The total economic value of the added employment was about $12 billion.

Social impact

Facebook has affected the social life and activity of people in various ways. Facebook allows people using computers or mobile phones to continuously stay in touch with friends, relatives and other acquaintances wherever they are in the world, as long as there is access to the Internet. It has reunited lost family members and friends. It allows users to trade ideas, stay informed with local or global developments, and unite people with common interests and/or beliefs through open, closed and private groups and other pages.

Facebook’s social impact has also changed how people communicate. Rather than having to reply to others through email, Facebook allows users to broadcast or share content to others, and thereby to engage others or be engaged with others’ posts.

Facebook has been successful and more socially impactful than many other social media sites. David Kirkpatrick, technology journalist and author of The Facebook Effect, believes that Facebook is structured in a way that is not easily replaceable. He challenges users to consider how difficult it would be to move all the relationships and photos to an alternative. Facebook has let people participate in an atmosphere with the “over the backyard fence quality” of a small town, despite the move to larger cities. As per Pew Research Center survey, 44 percent of the overall US population gets news through Facebook.

Emotional health impact

Facebook, and social media in general, has received significant media coverage for negative emotional health impacts. Studies have shown that Facebook causes negative effects on self-esteem by triggering feelings of envy, with vacation and holiday photos proving to be the largest resentment triggers. Other prevalent causes of envy include posts by friends about family happiness and images of physical beauty—such envious feelings leave people lonely and dissatisfied with their own lives. A joint study by two German universities discovered that one out of three people were more dissatisfied with their lives after visiting Facebook, and another study by Utah Valley University found that college students felt worse about their own lives following an increase in the amount of time spent on Facebook.

In a presentation by California State University psychology professor Larry D. Rosen, he notes that teenagers using Facebook exhibit more narcissistic tendencies, while young adults show signs of antisocial behavior, mania, and aggressiveness. However, he also found positive effects from Facebook use, including signs of “virtual empathy” towards online friends and helping introverted persons learn social skills. He said that “While nobody can deny that Facebook has altered the landscape of social interaction, particularly among young people, we are just now starting to see solid psychological research demonstrating both the positives and the negatives”.

In a blog post in December 2017, the company pointed to research that has shown “passively consuming” the News Feed, as in reading but not interacting, does indeed leave users with negative feelings afterwards, whereas interacting with messages points to improvements in well-being. TechCrunch noted that CEO Mark Zuckerberg had said in a recent earnings call that “Time spent is not a goal by itself. We want the time people spend on Facebook to encourage meaningful social interactions”.

Political impact

In February 2008, a Facebook group called “One Million Voices Against FARC” organized an event in which hundreds of thousands of Colombians marched in protest against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known as the FARC (from the group’s Spanish name). In August 2010, one of North Korea’s official government websites and the official news agency of the country, Uriminzokkiri, joined Facebook.

During the Arab Spring many journalists made claims that Facebook played a major role in generating the 2011 Egyptian revolution. On January 14, the Facebook page of “We are all khaled Said” was started by Wael Ghoniem Create Event to invite the Egyptian people to “peaceful demonstrations” on January 25. According to Mashable, in Tunisia and Egypt, Facebook became the primary tool for connecting all protesters and led the Egyptian government of Prime Minister Nazif to ban Facebook, Twitter and another websites on January 26 then ban all mobile and Internet connections for all of Egypt at midnight January 28. After 18 days, the uprising forced President Mubarak to resign.

In Bahrain uprising which started on February 14, 2011, Facebook was utilized by the Bahraini regime as well as regime loyalists to identify, capture and prosecute citizens involved in the protests. A 20-year-old woman named Ayat Al Qurmezi was identified as a protester using Facebook, taken from her home by masked commandos and put in prison.

In 2011, Facebook filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to form a political action committee under the name FB PAC. In an email to The Hill, a spokesman for Facebook said “Facebook Political Action Committee will give our employees a way to make their voice heard in the political process by supporting candidates who share our goals of promoting the value of innovation to our economy while giving people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.”

During the Syrian civil war, the YPG, a libertarian army for Rojava has recruited westerners through Facebook in its fight against ISIL. Dozens have joined its ranks for various reasons from religious to ideological. The Facebook page’s name “The Lions of Rojava” comes from a Kurdish saying which translates as “A lion is a lion, whether it’s a female or a male”, reflecting the organization’s feminist ideology.

United States

Facebook’s role in the American political process was demonstrated in January 2008, shortly before the New Hampshire primary, when Facebook teamed up with ABC and Saint Anselm College to allow users to give live feedback about the “back to back” January 5 Republican and Democratic debates. Facebook users took part in debate groups on specific topics, voter registration, and message questions.

Over a million people installed the Facebook application “US Politics on Facebook” in order to take part, and the application measured users’ responses to specific comments made by the debating candidates. This debate showed the broader community what many young students had already experienced- Facebook as a popular and powerful new way to interact and voice opinions. A poll by CBS News, UWIRE and The Chronicle of Higher Education claimed to illustrate how the “Facebook effect” has affected youth voting rates, support by youth of political candidates, and general involvement by the youth population in the 2008 election.

The new social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, made use first of the personal computer and the Internet, and after 2010 of the smart phones to connect hundreds of millions of people, especially those under age 35. By 2008, politicians and interest groups were experimenting with systematic use of social media to spread their message among much larger audiences than they had previously reached.

Facebook is having an impact on local government as well. Justin Smith, a Colorado sheriff uses Facebook to disseminate his ideas on matters relating to local, state, and national concerns. He also publicizes crimes, particularly those that his department solves. He has seven thousand followers on the social medium, considered a large number. Smith said that he rarely goes out in public “when I don’t get feedback from folks. … Facebook is an interesting tool because I think it holds candidates and elected officials more accountable. Voters know where someone stands.”

According to the Investor’s Business Daily, “In 2012, the Obama campaign encouraged supporters to download an Obama 2012 Facebook app that, when activated, let the campaign collect Facebook data both on users and their friends.” Carol Davidsen, the Obama for America (OFA) former director of integration and media analytics, wrote that “Facebook was surprised we were able to suck out the whole social graph, but they didn’t stop us once they realised that was what we were doing.”

As American political strategists turn their attention to the 2016 presidential contest, they identify Facebook as an increasingly important advertising tool. Recent technical innovations have made possible more advanced divisions and subdivisions of the electorate. Most important, Facebook can now deliver video ads to small, highly targeted subsets. Television, by contrast, shows the same commercials to all viewers, and so cannot be precisely tailored.

2016 United States elections

A Russian company bought more than $100,000 worth of Facebook ads during the 2016 presidential election. Special Council Robert Mueller, contacted Facebook subsequently to the company’s disclosure that it sold ads to a Russian Spy Agency-linked company (Internet Research Agency), and the Menlo Park-based company has pledged full cooperation in Mueller’s investigation, and began with providing all information about the advertisement buys by the Russian government, including the identities of the individuals and companies who made the purchases. The Daily Beast reports that Russia Used Facebook Events to Organize Anti-Immigrant Rallies on U.S. Soil. Facebook has concluded that a 225,000-member anti-immigrant group that attempted to organize anti-Clinton rallies in Texas during the 2016 presidential campaign was “likely operated out of Russia”, Business Insider reports. Russians also staged anti-Trump rallies in November 2016 and bought a Black Lives Matter Facebook ad during the 2016 campaign. Pro-Publica also reported on how Facebook Enabled Advertisers to Reach ‘Jew Haters.’ Facebook enabled advertisers to direct their pitches to the news feeds of almost 2,300 people who expressed interest in the topics of “Jew hater,” “How to burn jews,” or, “History of ‘why jews ruin the world.’”

As of mid-September 2017 Facebook still does not know the extent of Russia’s advertisement purchases during the 2016 election — or whether these unidentified ad buys are still on the site. A Facebook spokesman told CNN that there was “no sales support”. A company representative would not elaborate when asked by Business Insider if it plans to change its ad sales policy.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Facebook shared copies of ads and account information related to the Russian ad purchases on its platform with Robert Mueller that go beyond what it shared with Congress last week. Facebook’s unusual compliance was in response to Search Warrants issued by Mueller’s Federal Grand Jury. The Financial Times reports that United States Senate Intelligence committee seeks further information about Russia links with Facebook, and are stepping up the pressure on Facebook as concerns rise about the role the social media network played in Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. CNN reports that Facebook handed Russia-linked ads over to Mueller under search warrant.

Congressional Committees have said Facebook is withholding key information that could illuminate the shape and extent of a Russian propaganda campaign aimed at tilting the U.S. presidential election. The Financial Times reports US lawmakers with access to sensitive intelligence have expressed fears that Russia’s campaign to influence US politics via Facebook is continuing today even as American investigators probe Moscow’s use of social media in the 2016 election.

“Being Patriotic”, a Facebook group uncovered by The Daily Beast, is the first evidence of suspected Russian provocateurs explicitly mobilizing Trump supporters in real life. The Washington Post reports Russian operatives used Facebook ads to exploit divisions over black political activism and Muslims. The Russians took advantage of Facebook’s ability to simultaneously send contrary messages to different groups of users based on their political and demographic characteristics and also sought to sow discord among religious groups. Other ads highlighted support for Democrat Hillary Clinton among Muslim women. The ads suggest that Russian operatives worked off of evolving lists of racial, religious, political and economic themes. They used these to create pages, write posts and craft ads that would appear in users’ news feeds—with the apparent goal of appealing to one audience and alienating another. Mark Zuckerberg responds to Trump, regrets he dismissed election concerns. The Daily Beast reports Russians Impersonated Real American Muslims to Stir Chaos on Facebook and Instagram. The Daily Beast reports that Mark Zuckerberg Blew Off Russian Troll Warnings Before the Attack on America.

On November 5, 2017, The New York Times reported that Russian-American Billionaire Yuri Milner, who befriended Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had between 2009 and 2011 strong Kremlin backing for his investments in Facebook and Twitter.

On March 17, 2018, The New York Times and The Observer of London reported the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica data breach in which Cambridge Analytica collected personal information from Facebook users as a basis of crafting political campaigns for whomever purchased their services. As a result, Facebook banned Cambridge Analytica from advertising on its platform. The Guardian reported further that Facebook has known about this security breach for two years, but has done nothing to protect its users.

Bans and censorship

In many countries the social networking sites and mobile apps have been blocked temporarily or permanently, including China, Iran, and North Korea. Facebook has been banned by Syria, China, and Iran.

Scientific impact

In January 2018, Facebook launched a new unit of time, the flick, equivalent to 1/705600000 of a second, exactly.

In popular culture

• Author Ben Mezrich published a book in July 2009 about Zuckerberg and the founding of Facebook, titled The Accidental Billionaires- The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal.
• In 2009, My Facebook song from Gigi was released in Indonesia. The song is in Indonesian, telling about a guy that met his ex-girlfriend via Facebook. This song soon became popular in Indonesia, having high airplay on radio stations.
• The Social Network, a drama film directed by David Fincher and adapted from Mezrich’s book, was released October 1, 2010. The film is a fictional re-telling of the creation of Facebook, and the legal battles associated with it. People portrayed in the movie, including Zuckerberg, criticized its accuracy.
• In response to the Everybody Draw Mohammed Day controversy and the banning of the website in Pakistan, an Islamic version of the website was created, called MillatFacebook.
• The site was parodied in “You Have 0 Friends”, an April 2010 episode of the American animated comedy series South Park.
• In July 2014, after Shakira became the first celebrity to cross over 100 million likes, Mark Zuckerberg posted a congratulatory message on the artist’s wall. Cristiano Ronaldo is the second to reach 100 million likes, ahead of Rihanna and Eminem, who had 98 million and 89 million likes respectively. On March 15, 2015, Cristiano Ronaldo surpassed Shakira to become the most liked person on Facebook.

Referance – wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook

The Infinity Gems, originally referred to as Soul Gems and later referred to as Infinity Stones, are six immensely powerful fictional gems appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Whoever holds and uses all six Gems gains omnipotence and omniscience. The six primary Gems are the Mind Gem, the Soul Gem, the Space Gem, the Power Gem, the Time Gem and the Reality Gem. In later storylines, crossovers and other media, a seventh Gem is sometimes added.

The Gems play a prominent role in the first three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in which they are known as the Infinity Stones.

Publication history of Infinity Gems

The first Infinity Gem appeared in the Marvel Universe comics in 1972, in Marvel Premiere #1 (which also introduced the character Adam Warlock), and was originally called a “Soul Gem”. Five years later, two more “Soul Gems” were introduced in a Warlock crossover with Spider-Man, and the full set of six appeared as the death-obsessed villain Thanos attempted to use them to extinguish every star in the universe. In a 1988 storyline in Silver Surfer, the Elders of the Universe try to use the Soul Gems to steal the energy of the world-eating entity Galactus.

In the 1990 limited series The Thanos Quest, Thanos refers to the entire set as “Infinity Gems” for the first time, and the gems began to take a more prominent role in the Marvel Universe. In this storyline, Thanos steals the gems and inserts them into a gold glove known as the Infinity Gauntlet. Thanos reveals the Gems to be the last remains of an omnipotent being. In the miniseries The Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos uses the Gems to become nearly omnipotent himself. He wields his power to kill half the population of the universe as a gift to his love, the cosmic embodiment of Death. Though he easily repels an attack by Earth’s heroes and other cosmic entities, the Gauntlet is stolen from him by Nebula, who undoes his mass killings. Adam Warlock recovers the Gauntlet in turn and divides the Gems a group he calls “the Infinity Watch”, consisting of himself; the superheroes Gamora, Pip the Troll, Drax the Destroyer, and Moondragon; and his former adversary Thanos. This group’s adventures in defending the gems appeared in the ongoing series Warlock and the Infinity Watch (1992- 1995).

The Gems are next gathered by Warlock’s evil alter ego, the Magus, in The Infinity War, a 1992 limited series. The Magus is defeated by Warlock and Earth’s heroes. In 1993, a third limited series, The Infinity Crusade, described the attempts of Warlock’s “Good” side, the Goddess, to destroy evil in the universe by destroying free will; the Gems are once more retrieved by the Infinity Watch.

Following the cancellation of the Infinity Watch series, the one-shot title Rune/Silver Surfer depicts the Gems being stolen by the extradimensional vampire Rune and dispersed throughout the Ultraverse. The Asgardian god Loki subsequently enters the Ultraverse, collects the Gems, and discovers the existence of a seventh Gem, “Ego”. The Ego Gem, possessing the Avenger Sersi, merges with the other Gems to reform Nemesis–the original omnipotent being whose essence formed the Gems–and battles the Avengers and Ultraforce before being dissipated once again.

In a story arc of the Thanos ongoing series (2003-2004), Galactus gathers the six Gems, but accidentally allows an interdimensional parasite, named Hunger, access into the Earth-616 universe. Thanos and Galactus banish the entity, and the Gems are scattered again with the exception of the Soul Gem, which Thanos retains for its customary custodian, Adam Warlock. In New Avengers- Illuminati, a 2007-2008 limited series, a cabal of Earth’s heroes gather the Gems and attempt to wish them out of existence, but discover that they must exist as part of the cosmic balance. Instead, the Illuminati divide and hide the Gems.

In a 2010 Avengers storyline, the human criminal known as the Hood steals several Gems, but is defeated by use of the remaining Gems; the Illuminati attempt to hide them again. Later, the Illuminati wield the Gems to stop another universe from collapsing into their own, but the Gems are shattered in the effort. Afterwards, the previously vanished Time Gem appears to Captain America and some of the Avengers and transports them into future realities, shattering throughout time in the process.

As a result of the Incursions, the entire Multiverse is destroyed. However, Doctor Doom combines fragments of several alternate realities into Battleworld. Doctor Strange gathers Infinity Gems from various realities into a new Infinity Gauntlet, which he leaves hidden until the surviving heroes of Earth-616 return. The Gauntlet is subsequently claimed by T’Challa, who uses it to keep the Beyonder-enhanced Doom occupied until Mister Fantastic can disrupt his power source.

Following the destruction of the entire Multiverse and its restoration, the destroyed Infinity Gems are recreated and scattered across the universe, with their colors switched and some taking on uncut ingot forms. In Marvel Legacy #1, the Space Gem (now colored blue) appears on Earth where a Frost Giant working for Loki steals it from a S.H.I.E.L.D. storage facility, however he is intercepted and defeated by Wolverine. Star-Lord discovers an extra-large Power Stone (now colored purple) being protected by the Nova Corps, and an alternate universe Peter Quill named Starkill has the Reality Stone (now colored red). A future version of Ghost Rider is revealed to possess a shard of the Time Stone (now colored green), while in the present the complete stone restores the ruined planet of Sakaar and is claimed by the Super-Skrull. The Mind Stone (now colored yellow) is found on Earth in the hands of petty crook Turk Barrett, and the Soul Stone (now colored orange) is mentioned to Adam Warlock to be in the hands of his dark aspect the Magus; however, Ultron is able to claim it after ambushing and killing him.

Description of Infinity Gems

Each Gem is shaped like a small oval. Each Gem is named after, and represents, a different characteristic of existence, and possessing any single Gem grants the user the ability to command whatever aspect of existence the Gem represents. The Gems are not immutable. On two occasions, one or more of the Gems have appeared as deep pink spheres several feet in diameter. On other occasions, the Gems have appeared in their small oval shape but with different coloring (i.e. the Soul Gem being red colored when worn by the Gardener). In the Ultraverse, after merging into their original form of Nemesis, the Gems were again separated after a battle with Ultraforce and the Avengers. As part of the Marvel Legacy initiative, the Infinity Gems (now known as the Infinity Stones), had their colors altered to match the colors of the Infinity Stones from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The six Infinity Gems include-

Name	Original color (1972–2016)	Marvel Legacycolor (2017–present)	Powers and capabilities	Known owners
Soul	Green	Orange	Allows the user to steal, control, manipulate, and alter living and dead souls. The Soul Gem is also the gateway to an idyllic pocket universe. At full potential, the Soul Gem grants the user control over all life in the universe.	High Evolutionary; Adam Warlock; Gardener; In-Betweener; Thanos; Nebula; Count Abyss; Magus; Rune; Gemini; Loki; Syphonn; Galactus; Doctor Strange; Magus; Ultron
Time	Orange	Green	Allows the user to see into the past and the future; stop, slow down, speed up or reverse the flow of time; travel through time; change the past and the future; age and de-age beings; and trap people or entire universes in unending loops of time. At full potential, the Time Gem grants the user omniscience and total control over the past, present, and future.	Gardener; Thanos; Nebula; Adam Warlock; Gamora; Doctor Strange; Maxam; Magus; Rune; Hardcase; Loki; Galactus; Namor; Thor; Mister Fantastic; Iron Man; Black Widow; Kl’rt
Space	Purple	Blue	Allows the user to exist in any location; move any object anywhere throughout reality; warp or rearrange space; teleport themselves and others; increase their speed; and alter the distance between objects contrary to the laws of physics. At full potential, the Space Gem grants the user omnipresence.	Runner; Thanos; Nebula; Adam Warlock; Pip the Troll; Magus; Rune; Loki; Galactus; Iron Man; Hood; Namor; Black Panther; Wolverine; Black Widow
Mind	Blue	Yellow	Allows the user to enhance their mental and psionic abilities and access the thoughts and dreams of other beings. At full potential, when backed by the Power Gem, the Mind Gem can access all minds in existence simultaneously. The Mind Gem is also the manifestation of the universal subconscious.	Grandmaster; Thanos; Nebula; Adam Warlock; Moondragon; Magus; Rune; Primaeval; Loki; Galactus; Professor X; Hood; Ms. Marvel; Beast; Mr. Turk
Reality	Yellow	Red	Allows the user to fulfill their wishes, even if the wish is in direct contradiction with scientific laws, and do things that would normally be impossible; and create any type of alternate reality the user wishes. At full potential, when backed by the other Gems, the Reality Gem allows the user to alter reality on a universal scale.	Stranger; Collector; Thanos; Nebula; Adam Warlock; Rune; Night Man; Loki; Galactus; Black Bolt; Hood; Iron Man; Black Widow; Vision; Carol Danvers
Power	Red	Purple	Allows the user to access and manipulate all forms of energy; enhance their physical strength and durability; enhance any superhuman ability; and boost the effects of the other five Gems. At full potential, the Power Gem grants the user omnipotence.	Champion of the Universe; Thanos; Nebula; Adam Warlock; Drax the Destroyer; Thor; Magus; Rune; Lord Pumpkin; Loki; Galactus; She-Hulk; Titania; Mister Fantastic; Hood; Red Hulk; Xiambor; Namor; The Juggernaut; Nova Corps

Additional Gems have appeared in crossover media and alternate universes outside the Marvel Universe.

Name	Color	Powers and capabilities	Known owners
Ego	White	The Ego Gem contains the consciousness of the cosmic entity Nemesis and recreates her when united with the other six Gems. The Ego Gem is found in the Ultraverse when the Asgardian god Loki attempts to steal the other six Gems.	Sersi; Nemesis
Rhythm	Pink	In the Marvel Super Hero Squad universe and related media, a seventh Rhythm Gem exists. The acquisition of the Infinity Gems is the main focus of The Super Hero Squad Show’s second season as well as the Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet video game. The Rhythm Gem is revealed to be a fake Gem created by Loki as part of a scheme.	Loki; Enchantress; Thanos
Build	Red	In the Lego Marvel Super Heroes – Guardians of the Galaxy: The Thanos Threat animated film, a seventh Build Stone exists. Thanos seeks to possess the Build Stone in order to build a weapon.

Other versions

Council of Reeds

The Reed Richards of Earth-616, in an attempt to “solve everything”, meets with a council of alternate universe Reeds. Three of them wear Infinity Gauntlets, which only work in concert with their respective universes.

New Avengers

During the “Incursion” storyline, the Avengers travel to a parallel Earth where a pastiche on the Justice League have replaced this Earth’s Avengers who all died in a previous cataclysm. Here the Gems are all square planes which are assembled into the “Wisher’s Cube”, a composite of the concepts of the Infinity Gems and the Cosmic Cube.

Secret Wars

After various alternate universes are combined into Battleworld, Doctor Strange gathers Infinity Gems from other universes into a new Infinity Gauntlet that works in the area where Doom has built his palace. Strange leaves the Gauntlet hidden until he has access to someone he can trust it with; after his death, the Gauntlet is claimed by T’Challa, who uses it against Doom in the final battle.

A separate section of Battleworld known as New Xandar also has a Gauntlet fought over by multiple factions until the majority of the Stones, except the Reality Stone, were taken by Thanos. Thanos eventually tracks the missing Stone to Nova Corps member Anwen Bakian. When Thanos confronts her to get the Stone, Anwen gives him a duplicate of the Reality Stone she created called the ‘Death Stone’. When used along with the other five Stones, the Death Stone corrupts Thanos with black matter and turns him to dust.

Ultimate Marvel

In the Ultimate Marvel universe, an Infinity Gauntlet is seen in Project Pegasus. The Mind Gem (stolen by Hydra) is used by Modi (Thor’s son) to control both Director Flumm and Cassie Lang, but are stopped by the Ultimates. The Power Gem is later revealed to be in the possession of former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Sayuri Kyota, while a second Infinity Gauntlet is recovered from an A.I.M. base by Thor and Susan Storm. Kang the Conqueror later allies himself with the Hulk, Reed Richards and Quicksilver as part of a plan to steal the two Gauntlets, which results in the destruction of the Triskelion. Quicksilver recovers two additional Gems allowing the villains to teleport away. Richards is later able to recover another of the Gems, which is found lodged in Tony Stark’s brain. He informs Stark that the Infinity Gems are needed to save the world from a coming cataclysm that will destroy the entire universe. After brainwashing Johnny Storm and forcing him to travel to the Earth’s core, the Dark Ultimates are able to recover the final gem, but are defeated by the Ultimates. The gems then shatter, rendering the Gauntlets useless.

What If?

In a reality where Doctor Doom retained the power of the Beyonder, he acquired the Infinity Gems from the Elders of the Universe and used them to defeat the Celestials in a 407-year-long war before finally forsaking his power.

In an alternate reality where the original Fantastic Four died, a new Fantastic Four — consisting of Spider-Man, Hulk, Wolverine and Ghost Rider — was formed. With Iron Man replacing Ghost Rider, they were the only heroes available to fight Thanos when he initially assembled the Infinity Gauntlet. Despite Iron Man’s use of Negative Zone–enhanced Celestial armor, Thanos still easily defeated the team until Wolverine tricked Thanos into erasing Mephisto from existence before cutting off Thanos’s left arm, and therefore the Infinity Gauntlet. With Thanos powerless, Spider-Man used the gauntlet to undo the events of Thanos’s godhood.

Contest of Champions

In the Contest of Champions miniseries, an alternate version of Tony Stark uses the Reality Gem to win the superhero civil war and affect the outcome of a presidential election. When he tries to use the Gem on Battleworld, he is killed by the Maestro, who says the Gems do not work in any universe other than their own.

In other media

Television

The Infinity Gauntlet and the Infinity Gems appear in The Super Hero Squad Show television show.
The Infinity Gauntlet and the Infinity Gems appear in Avengers Assemble. In this show, there are only five Infinity Gems and the Soul Stone is not present.

Film

The Infinity Stones are significant in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, playing important roles in several films. Director James Gunn created the backstory for the Stones in the film Guardians of the Galaxy, where the Collector explains they are the remnants of six singularities that existed before the Big Bang, which were compressed into stones after the universe began. In the film Avengers- Infinity War, it is further explained by Wong and Doctor Strange to Tony Stark that each stone embodies and controls a fundamental aspect of existence.

In order of introduction, they are-

• Space Stone (Blue)-
  Housed in the Tesseract, it first appears briefly in the Thor post-credits scene. In Captain America- The First Avenger, it is used by the Red Skull to power weaponry developed by Hydra, and in The Avengers it is shown to be capable of generating wormholes, which Loki uses to transport the Chitauri to New York City in an attempt to conquer Earth. After the Avengers repel the invasion, it is returned to Asgard for safekeeping. In November 2013, producer Kevin Feige confirmed that the Tesseract is the Space Stone. Loki steals the Tesseract before Asgard’s destruction at the end of Thor- Ragnarok and gives it to Thanos in Avengers- Infinity War to save Thor’s life.
• Mind Stone (Yellow)-
  In The Avengers, Thanos gives Loki a scepter that allows him to control people’s minds and to project energy. The scepter falls into the hands of Hydra leader Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, who is shown in the mid-credits scene of Captain America- The Winter Soldier to have been using it to experiment on humans. The only surviving subjects of those experiments are Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, in whom superhuman abilities were unlocked. In Avengers- Age of Ultron, the scepter is revealed to contain the Mind Stone, and has an artificial intelligence that grants sentience to the computer program Ultron, who then incorporates the stone into his “Vision”, an android. The Mind Stone can also enhance the user’s intelligence, grants the user immense knowledge, and can create new life. In Avengers- Infinity War, Vision is injured by Thanos’ children trying to get the Mind Stone and is taken to Wakanda to have it removed, in the hope that he can live without it. When the operation to remove the Stone is interrupted, Wanda Maximoff is forced to destroy Vision and the Stone, only for Thanos to use the Time Stone to repair and collect it while killing Vision again.
• Reality Stone (Red)-
  Formed by the Dark Elf Malekith into a fluid-like weapon called the Aether, it is said to be able to destroy the Nine Realms and return the universe to its pre-Big Bang state. The Asgardians entrust the Aether to the Collector at the end of Thor- The Dark World to separate it from the Tesseract, as they consider it unwise to have multiple Stones close together. The Aether, when bonded with a host, can turn anything into dark matter, and is capable of sucking the life force out of humans and other mortals. In Avengers- Infinity War, Thanos lays waste to Knowhere and takes the Reality Stone from the Collector.
• Power Stone (Purple)-
  The Power Stone is contained within an orb that Ronan the Accuser seeks to find for Thanos in Guardians of the Galaxy. It is capable of destroying entire civilizations, and Ronan tries to use it to destroy the planet Xandar. The Guardians of the Galaxy stop him and entrust the stone to the Nova Corps for safekeeping. Before the events of Avengers- Infinity War, the Power Stone is the first to be obtained by Thanos, as Thor informs the Guardians that his army has decimated Xandar.
• Time Stone (Green)-
  The Time Stone was encased in the Eye of Agamotto by Earth’s first sorcerer, Agamotto. A Master of the Mystic Arts can use the Stone to alter and manipulate time. Thousands of years later, in Doctor Strange, Dr. Stephen Strange learns to use the Eye and uses it to save the Earth from Dormammu by trapping the demon in a time loop until he abandons his plans for Earth. The Masters of the Mystic Arts retain possession of the Eye in their secret compound Kamar-Taj in Kathmandu, Nepal. During the events of Avengers- Infinity War, Strange uses the Time Stone to look into future timelines; viewing millions of possible outcomes of their conflict with Thanos. Strange later surrenders the stone to Thanos in exchange for him sparing Tony Stark’s life.
• Soul Stone (Orange)-
  The Soul Stone is first seen in Avengers- Infinity War. Some time prior to Guardians of the Galaxy, Thanos asked Gamora to locate the Soul Stone, because unlike the other Infinity Stones, there was little record of its existence. Gamora found it hidden on the planet Vormir. Thanos takes Gamora to recover it, where they discover that the Red Skull guards the Soul Stone. Red Skull warns Thanos that he must sacrifice something he loves to acquire it. Thanos tearfully throws Gamora off a cliff and gains the Soul Stone.
  A right-handed gauntlet appears in the film Thor, where it is stored in Odin’s vault; this gauntlet was later revealed to be a fake in Thor- Ragnarok. In the mid-credits scene of Avengers- Age of Ultron, Thanos is seen wearing a left-handed gauntlet.

Gaming

• The Infinity Gems are featured in the video games Marvel Super Heroes In War of the Gems (based on the “Infinity Gauntlet” saga) and Marvel Super Heroes.
• In Marvel vs. Capcom 2- New Age of Heroes, Thanos uses Power, Soul, Reality, and Space for his Supers.
• The Infinity Gems, including the Infinity Sword, appear as a driving part of the Marvel Super Hero Squad- The Infinity Gauntlet video game.
• The Infinity Stones play a major role in the fighting game Marvel vs. Capcom- Infinite. During gameplay, using an Infinity Stone will grant player characters a specific enhancement based on the stone being used. In the game’s story, Ultron and Sigma use two of the stones to become “Ultron Sigma” and merge the worlds into one under their control, and the heroes must retrieve the other four stones to stop them. The Infinity Stones in the game use the naming and color scheme of the Stones from the Marvel Cinematic Universe rather than the naming and color scheme of the Infinity Gems from previous Marvel video games. The Collector’s Edition of the game comes with a replica of the Infinity Stones housed in a small box with an LED display.
• From January to August 2012, Wizkids presented the Infinity Gauntlet program at stores that host HeroClix tournaments. An Infinity Gauntlet prop was released, followed by a different Gem each month. Each Gem can be added the Gauntlet, increasing its power in game. The Gems can be displayed on a stand that comes with the Gauntlet or on each Elder that Thanos encountered in the story Thanos Quest.
• Replica Infinity Gauntlets were given out as trophies at Ultimate Fighting Game Tournament 8, a 2012 Road to Evo tournament.
• In a tie-in with the film Avengers- Infinity War, Marvel and Epic Games announced the “Infinity Gauntlet Limited Time Mashup” mode for Fortnite Battle Royale, where players can find the Infinity Gauntlet hidden on the game map and become Thanos with added abilities.

Referance- wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinity_Gems

Elon Musk (born June 28, 1971) is a South African-born American business magnate, investor and engineer. He is the founder, CEO, and lead designer of SpaceX; co-founder, CEO, and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; and co-founder and CEO of Neuralink. In December 2016, he was ranked 21st on the Forbes list of The World’s Most Powerful People. As of February 2018, he has a net worth of $20.8 billion and is listed by Forbes as the 53rd-richest person in the world.

Born in Pretoria, South Africa, Musk taught himself computer programming at the age of 12. He moved to Canada when he was 17 to attend Queen’s University. He transferred to the University of Pennsylvania two years later, where he received an economics degree from the Wharton School and a degree in physics from the College of Arts and Sciences. He began a PhD in applied physics and material sciences at Stanford University in 1995, but dropped out after two days to pursue an entrepreneurial career. He subsequently co-founded Zip2, a web software company, which was acquired by Compaq for $340 million in 1999. Musk then founded X.com, an online payment company. It merged with Confinity in 2000 and became PayPal, which was bought by eBay for $1.5 billion in October 2002.

In May 2002, Musk founded SpaceX, an aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company, of which he is CEO and lead designer. He co-founded Tesla, Inc., an electric vehicle and solar panel manufacturer, in 2003, and operates as its CEO and product architect. In 2006, he inspired the creation of SolarCity, a solar energy services company that is now a subsidiary of Tesla, and operates as its chairman. In 2015, Musk co-founded OpenAI, a nonprofit research company that aims to promote friendly artificial intelligence. In July 2016, he co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology company focused on developing brain–computer interfaces, and is its CEO. In December 2016, Musk founded The Boring Company, an infrastructure and tunnel-construction company.

In addition to his primary business pursuits, Musk has envisioned a high-speed transportation system, known as the Hyperloop, and has proposed a vertical take-off and landing supersonic jet electric aircraft with electric fan propulsion, known as the Musk electric jet. Musk has stated that the goals of SpaceX, Tesla and SolarCity revolve around his vision to change the world and humanity. His goals include reducing global warming through sustainable energy production and consumption, and reducing the “risk of human extinction” by establishing a human colony on Mars.

Early life of Elon Musk

Early childhood

Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa, the son of Maye Musk (née Haldeman), a model and dietitian from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, and Errol Musk, a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, and sailor. He has a younger brother, Kimbal (born 1972), and a younger sister, Tosca (born 1974). His paternal grandmother was British, and he also has Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. His maternal grandfather was American, from Minnesota. After his parents divorced in 1980, Musk lived mostly with his father in the suburbs of Pretoria, which Musk chose two years after his parents split up, but now says was “not a good idea”. As an adult, Musk has severed relations with his father. He has a half sister, and half brother.

During Musk’s childhood, he was an avid reader. At age 10, he developed an interest in computing with the Commodore VIC-20. He taught himself computer programming at the age of 12, sold the code of a BASIC-based video game he created called Blastar, to a magazine called PC and Office Technology, for approximately $500. A web version of the game is available online. His childhood reading included Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series from which he drew the lesson that “you should try to take the set of actions that are likely to prolong civilization, minimize the probability of a dark age and reduce the length of a dark age if there is one.”

Musk was severely bullied throughout his childhood, and was once hospitalized when a group of boys threw him down a flight of stairs and then beat him until he lost consciousness.

Musk attended Waterkloof House Preparatory School, and Bryanston High School before graduating from Pretoria Boys High School. He moved to Canada in June 1989, just before his 18th birthday, after obtaining Canadian citizenship through his Canadian-born mother.

Education

At the age of 17, Musk was accepted into Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, for undergraduate study. In 1992, after spending two years at Queen’s University, Musk transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, where in May 1997 he received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from its College of Arts and Sciences, and a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from its Wharton School of Business. Musk extended his studies for one year to finish the second bachelor’s degree. While at the University of Pennsylvania, Musk and fellow Penn student Adeo Ressi rented a 10-bedroom fraternity house, using it as an unofficial nightclub.

In 1995, at age 24, Musk moved to California to begin a PhD in applied physics and materials science at Stanford University, but left the program after two days to pursue his entrepreneurial aspirations in the areas of the internet, renewable energy and outer space. In 2002, he became a U.S. citizen.

Career of Elon Musk

Zip2

In 1995, Musk and his brother, Kimbal, started Zip2, a web software company, with money raised from a small group of angel investors. The company developed and marketed an Internet “city guide” for the newspaper publishing industry. Musk obtained contracts with The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune and persuaded the board of directors to abandon plans for a merger with CitySearch. While at Zip2, Musk wanted to become CEO; however, none of the board members would allow it. Compaq acquired Zip2 for US$307 million in cash and US$34 million in stock options in February 1999. Musk received US$22 million for his 7 percent share from the sale.

X.com and PayPal

In March 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services and e-mail payment company, with US$10 million from the sale of Zip2. One year later, the company merged with Confinity, which had a money-transfer service called PayPal. The merged company focused on the PayPal service and was renamed PayPal in 2001. PayPal’s early growth was driven mainly by a viral marketing campaign where new customers were recruited when they received money through the service. Musk was ousted in October 2000 from his role as CEO (although he remained on the board) due to disagreements with other company leadership, notably over his desire to move PayPal’s Unix-based infrastructure to Microsoft Windows. In October 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for US$1.5 billion in stock, of which Musk received US$165 million. Before its sale, Musk, who was the company’s largest shareholder, owned 11.7% of PayPal’s shares.

In July 2017, Musk purchased the domain x.com from PayPal for an undisclosed amount stating that it has “great sentimental value” to him.

SpaceX

In 2001, Musk conceptualized “Mars Oasis,” a project to land a miniature experimental greenhouse on Mars, containing food crops growing on Martian regolith, in an attempt to regain public interest in space exploration. In October 2001, Musk travelled to Moscow with Jim Cantrell (an aerospace supplies fixer), and Adeo Ressi (his best friend from college), to buy refurbished Dnepr Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that could send the envisioned payloads into space. The group met with companies such as NPO Lavochkin and Kosmotras; however, according to Cantrell, Musk was seen as a novice and was consequently spat on by one of the Russian chief designers, and the group returned to the United States empty-handed. In February 2002, the group returned to Russia to look for three ICBMs, bringing along Mike Griffin. Griffin had worked for the CIA’s venture capital arm, In-Q-Tel, as well as NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and was just leaving Orbital Sciences, a maker of satellites and spacecraft. The group met again with Kosmotras, and were offered one rocket for US$8 million; however, this was seen by Musk as too expensive; Musk consequently stormed out of the meeting. On the flight back from Moscow, Musk realized that he could start a company that could build the affordable rockets he needed. According to early Tesla and SpaceX investor Steve Jurvetson, Musk calculated that the raw materials for building a rocket actually were only 3 percent of the sales price of a rocket at the time. It was concluded that theoretically, by applying vertical integration and the modular approach from software engineering, SpaceX could cut launch price by a factor of ten and still enjoy a 70-percent gross margin. Ultimately, Musk ended up founding SpaceX with the long-term goal of creating a “true spacefaring civilization.”

With US$100 million of his early fortune, Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, in May 2002. Musk is chief executive officer (CEO) and chief technology officer (CTO) of the Hawthorne, California-based company. SpaceX develops and manufactures space launch vehicles with a focus on advancing the state of rocket technology. The company’s first two launch vehicles are the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets (a nod to Star Wars’ Millennium Falcon), and its first spacecraft is the Dragon (a nod to Puff the Magic Dragon). In seven years, SpaceX designed the family of Falcon launch vehicles and the Dragon multipurpose spacecraft. In September 2008, SpaceX’s Falcon 1 rocket became the first privately funded liquid-fueled vehicle to put a satellite into Earth orbit. On May 25, 2012, the SpaceX Dragon vehicle berthed with the ISS, making history as the first commercial company to launch and berth a vehicle to the International Space Station.

In 2006, SpaceX was awarded a contract from NASA to continue the development and test of the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft in order to transport cargo to the International Space Station, followed by a US$1.6 billion NASA Commercial Resupply Services program contract on December 23, 2008, for 12 flights of its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to the Space Station, replacing the US Space Shuttle after it retired in 2011. Astronaut transport to the ISS is currently handled solely by the Soyuz, but SpaceX is one of two companies awarded a contract by NASA as part of the Commercial Crew Development program, which is intended to develop a US astronaut transport capability by 2018. On December 22, 2015, SpaceX successfully landed the first stage of its Falcon rocket back at the launch pad. This was the first time in history such a feat had been achieved by an orbital rocket and is a significant step towards rocket reusability lowering the costs of access to space. This first stage recovery was replicated several times in 2016 by landing on an autonomous spaceport drone ship, an ocean-based recovery platform, and by the end of 2017, SpaceX had landed and recovered the first stage on 16 missions in a row where a landing and recovery were attempted, including all 14 attempts in 2017. 20 out of 42 first stage Falcon 9 boosters have been recovered overall since the Falcon 9 maiden flight in 2010. In the most recent full year—2017—SpaceX launched 18 successful Falcon 9 flights, more than doubling their highest previous year of 8.

On February 6, 2018, SpaceX successfully launched the Falcon Heavy, the fourth-highest capacity rocket ever built (after Saturn V, Energia and N1) and the most powerful rocket in operation as of 2018. The inaugural mission carried a Tesla Roadster belonging to Musk as a dummy payload.

SpaceX is both the largest private producer of rocket engines in the world, and holder of the record for highest thrust-to-weight ratio for a rocket engine (the Merlin 1D). SpaceX has produced more than 100 operational Merlin 1D engines. Each Merlin 1D engine can vertically lift the weight of 40 average family cars. In combination, the 9 Merlin engines in the Falcon 9 first stage produce anywhere from 5.8 to 6.7 MN (1.3 to 1.5 million pounds) of thrust, depending on altitude.

Musk was influenced by Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series and views space exploration as an important step in preserving and expanding the consciousness of human life. Musk said that multiplanetary life may serve as a hedge against threats to the survival of the human species.

An asteroid or a super volcano could destroy us, and we face risks the dinosaurs never saw- an engineered virus, inadvertent creation of a micro black hole, catastrophic global warming or some as-yet-unknown technology could spell the end of us. Humankind evolved over millions of years, but in the last sixty years atomic weaponry created the potential to extinguish ourselves. Sooner or later, we must expand life beyond this green and blue ball—or go extinct.

Musk’s goal is to reduce the cost of human spaceflight by a factor of 10. In a 2011 interview, he said he hopes to send humans to Mars’ surface within 10–20 years. In Ashlee Vance’s biography, Musk stated that he wants to establish a Mars colony by 2040, with a population of 80,000. Musk stated that, since Mars’ atmosphere lacks oxygen, all transportation would have to be electric (electric cars, electric trains, Hyperloop, electric aircraft). Musk stated in June 2016 that the first unmanned flight of the larger Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT) spacecraft is aimed for departure to the red planet in 2022, to be followed by the first manned MCT Mars flight departing in 2024. In September 2016, Musk revealed details of his architecture to explore and colonize Mars. By 2016, Musk’s private trust holds 54% of SpaceX stock, equivalent to 78% of voting shares.

In late 2017, SpaceX unveiled the design for its next-generation launch vehicle and spacecraft system—BFR—that would support all SpaceX launch service provider capabilities with a single set of very large vehicles- Earth-orbit, Lunar-orbit, interplanetary missions, and even intercontinental passenger transport on Earth, and totally replace the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Dragon vehicles in the 2020s. The BFR will have a 9-meter (30 ft) core diameter. Significant development on the vehicles began in 2017, while the new rocket engine development began in 2012.

Tesla

Tesla, Inc. (originally Tesla Motors) was incorporated in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, who financed the company until the Series A round of funding.

Both men played active roles in the company’s early development prior to Elon Musk’s involvement. Musk led the Series A round of investment in February 2004, joining Tesla’s board of directors as its chairman. Musk took an active role within the company and oversaw Roadster product design at a detailed level, but was not deeply involved in day-to-day business operations.

Following the financial crisis in 2008, Musk assumed leadership of the company as CEO and product architect, positions he still holds today. Tesla Motors first built an electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster in 2008, with sales of about 2,500 vehicles to 31 countries. Tesla began delivery of its four-door Model S sedan on June 22, 2012. It unveiled its third product, the Model X, aimed at the SUV/minivan market, on February 9, 2012; however, the Model X launch was delayed until September 2015. In addition to its own cars, Tesla sells electric powertrain systems to Daimler for the Smart EV, Mercedes B-Class Electric Drive and Mercedes A Class, and to Toyota for the RAV4 EV. Musk was able to bring in both companies as long-term investors in Tesla.

Musk observing an assembly demo at the reopening of the NUMMI plant, now known as the Musk has favored building a sub-US$30,000 compact Tesla model and building and selling electric vehicle powertrain components so that other automakers can produce electric vehicles at affordable prices without having to develop the products in-house; this led to the Model 3 that is planned to have a base price of US$35,000. Several mainstream publications have compared him with Henry Ford for his work on advanced vehicle powertrains.

In a May 2013 interview with All Things Digital, Musk said that to overcome the range limitations of electric cars, Tesla is “dramatically accelerating” its network of supercharger stations, tripling the number on the East and West coasts of the U.S. that June, with plans for more expansion across North America, including Canada, throughout the year. As of January 29, 2016, Musk owns about 28.9 million Tesla shares, which equates to about 22% of the company.

As of 2014, Musk’s annual salary is one dollar, similar to that of Steve Jobs and other CEOs; the remainder of his compensation is in the form of stock and performance-based bonuses.

In 2014, Musk announced that Tesla would allow its technology patents to be used by anyone in good faith in a bid to entice automobile manufacturers to speed up development of electric cars. “The unfortunate reality is electric car programs (or programs for any vehicle that doesn’t burn hydrocarbons) at the major manufacturers are small to non-existent, constituting an average of far less than 1% of their total vehicle sales,” Musk said.

In February 2016, Musk announced that he had acquired the Tesla.com domain name from Stu Grossman, who had owned it since 1992, and changed Tesla’s homepage to that domain.

In January 2018, Musk was granted a $2.6 billion award by the company, awarding him with 20.3 million shares and could raise Tesla’s market value to $650 billion. Majority shareholder approval is pending. The grant was also meant to end speculation about Musk’s potential departure from Tesla to devote more time to his other business ventures. A report by advisory firm Glass Lewis & Co. to clients argued against granting the award. Despite what the New York Post described as an “astronomical deal” in pay, Musk accepted $750 million in public funds from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo as part of the Buffalo Billion project, a plan to invest money to help the economy of the Buffalo, New York area. The money was used to build a factory and infrastructure for solar panel maker SolarCity, which Tesla acquired. As of March 2018, the plant employed “just a few hundred workers and its future remains uncertain.” (The Buffalo area actually lost nearly 5,000 jobs between December 2016 and December 2017).

SolarCity

Musk provided the initial concept and financial capital for SolarCity, which was then co-founded in 2006 by his cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive. By 2013, SolarCity was the second largest provider of solar power systems in the United States. SolarCity was acquired by Tesla, Inc. in 2016 and is currently a wholly owned subsidiary of Tesla.

The underlying motivation for funding both SolarCity and Tesla was to help combat global warming. In 2012, Musk announced that SolarCity and Tesla are collaborating to use electric vehicle batteries to smooth the impact of rooftop solar on the power grid, with the program going live in 2013.

On June 17, 2014, Musk committed to building a SolarCity advanced production facility in Buffalo, New York, that would triple the size of the largest solar plant in the United States. Musk stated the plant will be “one of the single largest solar panel production plants in the world,” and it will be followed by one or more even bigger facilities in subsequent years.

Hyperloop

On August 12, 2013, Musk unveiled a concept for a high-speed transportation system incorporating reduced-pressure tubes in which pressurized capsules ride on an air cushion driven by linear induction motors and air compressors. The mechanism for releasing the concept was an alpha-design document that, in addition to scoping out the technology, outlined a notional route where such a transport system might be built- between the Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area.

After earlier envisioning Hyperloop, Musk assigned a dozen engineers from Tesla and SpaceX who worked for nine months, establishing the conceptual foundations and creating the designs for the transportation system. An early design for the system was then published in a whitepaper posted to the Tesla and SpaceX blogs. Musk’s proposal, if technologically feasible at the costs he has cited, would make Hyperloop travel cheaper than any other mode of transport for such long distances. The alpha design was proposed to use a partial vacuum to reduce aerodynamic drag, which it is theorized would allow for high-speed travel with relatively low power, with certain other features like air-bearing skis and an inlet compressor to reduce freestream flow. The document of alpha design estimated the total cost of an LA-to-SF Hyperloop system at US$6 billion, but this amount is speculative.

In June 2015, Musk announced a design competition for students and others to build Hyperloop pods to operate on a SpaceX-sponsored mile-long track in a 2015–2017 Hyperloop pod competition. The track was used in January 2017, and Musk also started building a tunnel.

Hyperloop One, a company unaffiliated with Musk, had announced that it had done its first successful test run on its DevLoop track in Nevada on July 13, 2017. It was on May 12, 2017 at 12 a.m. and had lasted 5.3 seconds, reaching a top speed of 70 mph.

On July 20, 2017, Elon Musk announced that he had gotten “verbal government approval” to build a hyperloop from New York City to Washington D.C, stopping in both Philadelphia and Baltimore. However, the New York City Transit Authority, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, Maryland Transit Administration, United States Department of Homeland Security, as well as the mayors of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington D.C. stated that they are unaware of any such agreement.

OpenAI

In December 2015, Musk announced the creation of OpenAI, a not-for-profit artificial intelligence (AI) research company. OpenAI aims to develop artificial general intelligence in a way that is safe and beneficial to humanity.

By making AI available to everyone, OpenAI wants to “counteract large corporations who may gain too much power by owning super-intelligence systems devoted to profits, as well as governments which may use AI to gain power and even oppress their citizenry.” Musk has stated he wants to counteract the concentration of power. In 2018 Musk left the OpenAI board to avoid “potential future conflict” with his role as CEO of Tesla as Tesla increasingly becomes involved in AI.

Neuralink

In 2016, Musk co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology startup company, to integrate the human brain with artificial intelligence. The company, which is still in the earliest stages of existence, is centered on creating devices that can be implanted in the human brain, with the eventual purpose of helping human beings merge with software and keep pace with advancements in artificial intelligence. These enhancements could improve memory or allow for more direct interfacing with computing devices. Musk sees Neuralink and OpenAI as related- “OpenAI is a nonprofit dedicated to minimizing the dangers of artificial intelligence, while Neuralink is working on ways to implant technology into our brains to create mind-computer interfaces. … Neuralink allows our brains to keep up in the intelligence race. The machines can’t outsmart us if we have everything the machines have plus everything we have. At least, that is if you assume that what we have is actually an advantage.”

The Boring Company

On December 17, 2016, while stuck in traffic, Musk tweeted “Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging…” The company was named ‘The Boring Company’. On January 21, 2017, Musk tweeted “Exciting progress on the tunnel front. Plan to start digging in a month or so.” The first tunnel will start on the SpaceX campus, and will probably go to a nearby parking garage. As of January 26, 2017, discussions with regulatory bodies have begun, but no requests for permits to dig in the Los Angeles area had been filed with the California Department of Transportation by late January 2017.

In February 2017, the company began digging a 30-foot-wide, 50-foot-long, and 15-foot-deep “test trench” on the premises of Space X’s offices in Los Angeles, since the construction requires no permits. Musk has said that a 10-fold decrease in tunnel boring cost per mile is necessary for economic feasibility of the proposed tunnel network.

Thud

In 2018, Elon Musk announced a new comedic media venture, Thud, on his Twitter page. Musk has been the subject of headlines by satirical news website The Onion after the entrepreneur hired former Onion staffers. In 2014, Musk expressed interest in buying The Onion prior to Univision’s acquisition of the publication.

Political views

Politically, Musk has described himself as “half Democrat, half Republican.” In his own words- “I’m somewhere in the middle, socially liberal and fiscally conservative.” In December 2016, Musk became a member of two of then President-elect Donald Trump’s presidential advisory committees (the Strategic and Policy Forum and Manufacturing Jobs Initiative) but resigned from both in June 2017, in protest at Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Musk has described himself as “nauseatingly pro-American”. According to Musk, the United States is ” the greatest country that has ever existed on Earth,” describing it as “the greatest force for good of any country that’s ever been.” Musk believes outright that there “would not be democracy in the world if not for the United States,” arguing there were “three separate occasions in the 20th-century where democracy would have fallen with World War I, World War II and the Cold War, if not for the United States.” Musk also stated that he thinks “it would be a mistake to say the United States is perfect, it certainly is not. There have been many foolish things the United States has done and bad things the United States has done.”

Prompted by the emergence of self-driving cars and artificial intelligence, Musk has voiced support for a universal basic income.

Prior to the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, Musk criticized candidate Trump by saying- “I feel a bit stronger that he is probably not the right guy. He doesn’t seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States.” Following Donald Trump’s inauguration, Musk expressed approval of Trump’s choice of Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State and accepted an invitation to appear on a panel advising President Trump. Regarding his cooperation with Trump, Musk has subsequently commented- “The more voices of reason that the President hears, the better.”

Lobbying

In an interview with The Washington Post, Musk stated he was a “significant (though not top-tier) donor to Democrats,” but that he also gives heavily to Republicans. Musk further stated, “in order to have your voice be heard in Washington, you have to make some little contribution.”

A recent report from the Sunlight Foundation (a nonpartisan group that tracks government spending), found that “SpaceX has spent over US$4 million on lobbying Congress since it was established in 2002 and doled out more than US$800,000 in political contributions” to Democrats and Republicans. The same report noted that “SpaceX’s campaign to win political support has been systematic and sophisticated,” and that “unlike most tech-startups, SpaceX has maintained a significant lobbying presence in Washington almost since day 1.” The report further noted that “Musk himself has donated roughly US$725,000 to various campaigns since 2002. In 2004, he contributed US$2,000 to President George W. Bush’s reelection campaign, maxing out (over US$100,000) to Barack Obama’s reelection campaign and donated US$5,000 to Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who represents Florida, a state critical to the space industry. (…) All told, Musk and SpaceX gave out roughly US$250,000 in the 2012 election cycle.” Additionally, SpaceX hired former Republican Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott to represent the company, via the Washington-based lobbying group Patton Boggs LLP. Alongside Patton Boggs LLP, SpaceX uses several other outside lobbying firms, who work with SpaceX’s own lobbyists.

Musk had been a supporter of the U.S. political action committee (PAC) FWD.us, which was started by fellow high-profile entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg and advocates for immigration reform. However, in May 2013, Musk publicly withdrew his support in protest of advertisements the PAC was running that supported causes like the Keystone Pipeline. Musk and other members, including David O. Sacks, pulled out, criticizing the strategy as “cynical.” Musk further stated, “we shouldn’t give in to the politics. If we give in to that, we’ll get the political system we deserve.”

In December 2013, Sean Becker of the media/political website Mic called Musk a “complete hypocrite,” stating that ” the 2014 election cycle, Musk has contributed to the Longhorn PAC and the National Republican Congressional Committee – both of which have funded the campaigns of anti-science, anti-environment candidates such as Rep. Michelle Bachman (R-Minn.).” Musk has directly contributed to Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who has been accused of holding similar positions regarding climate change.

Subsidies

Musk has stated that he does not believe the U.S. government should provide subsidies to companies but should instead use a carbon tax to price in the negative externality of air pollution and discourage “bad behavior.” Musk argues that the free market would achieve the “best solution,” and that producing environmentally unfriendly vehicles should come with its own consequences.

Musk’s statements have been widely criticized, with Stanford University Professor Fred Turner noting that “if you’re an entrepreneur like Elon Musk, you will take the money where you can get it, but at the same time believe as a matter of faith that it’s entrepreneurship and technology that are the sources of social change, not the state. It is not quite self-delusion, but there is a habit of thinking of oneself as a free-standing, independent agent, and of not acknowledging the subsidies that one received. And this goes on all the time in Silicon Valley.” Author Michael Shellenberger argued that “in the case of Musk, it is hard not to read that as a kind of defensiveness. And I think there is a business reason for it. They are dealing with a lot of investors for whom subsidies are not the basis for a long-term viable business, and they often want to exaggerate the speed with which they are going to be able to become independent.” Shellenberger continues, “we would all be better off if these entrepreneurs were a bit more grateful, a bit more humble.” While journalist and author Jim Motavalli, who interviewed Musk for High Voltage, his 2011 book about the electric vehicle industry, speculated that “Elon is now looking at it from the point of view of a winner, and he doesn’t want to see other people win because they get government money – I do think there is a tendency of people, once they have succeeded, to want to pull the ladder up after them.”

In 2015, Musk’s statements were subject to further scrutiny when an LA Times article claimed that SpaceX, Tesla, SolarCity and buyers of their products had or were projected to receive together an estimated US$4.9 billion in government subsidies over twenty years. One example given is New York state, which is spending $750 million to build a solar panel factory in Buffalo which will be leased to SolarCity for $1 a year. The deal also includes no property taxes for a decade, an estimated $260 million valuation. Musk employs a former U.S. State Department official as the chief negotiator for Tesla.

Opinions

Destiny and religion

When asked whether he believed “there was some kind of destiny involved” in humanity’s transition to a multi-planetary species, rather than “just physics,” Musk responded-

Well, I do. Do I think that there’s some sort of master intelligence architecting all of this stuff? I think probably not because then you have to say- “Where does the master intelligence come from?” So it sort of begs the question. So I think really you can explain this with the fundamental laws of physics. You know it’s complex phenomenon from simple elements.

Musk has stated that he does not pray, or worship any being, although previously admitted to praying before an important Falcon 1 launch, asking “any entities that listening” to “bless launch.” When asked whether he believed “religion and science could co-exist,” Musk replied “probably not.”

Extraterrestrial life

Although Musk believes “there is a good chance that there is simple life on other planets,” he “questions whether there is other intelligent life in the known universe.” Musk later clarified his “hope that there is other intelligent life in the known universe,” and stated that it is “probably more likely than not, but that’s a complete guess.”

Musk has also considered the simulation hypothesis as a potential solution to the Fermi paradox-

The absence of any noticeable life may be an argument in favour of us being in a simulation…. Like when you’re playing an adventure game, and you can see the stars in the background, but you can’t ever get there. If it’s not a simulation, then maybe we’re in a lab and there’s some advanced alien civilization that’s just watching how we develop, out of curiosity, like mould in a petri dish…. If you look at our current technology level, something strange has to happen to civilizations, and I mean strange in a bad way. … And it could be that there are a whole lot of dead, one-planet civilizations.

Artificial intelligence

Musk has frequently spoken about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence, declaring it “the most serious threat to the survival of the human race.” During a 2014 interview at the MIT AeroAstro Centennial Symposium, Musk described AI as ” biggest existential threat,” further stating, “I’m increasingly inclined to think that there should be some regulatory oversight, maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish.” Musk described the creation of artificial intelligence as “summoning the demon”.

Despite this, Musk has previously invested in DeepMind, an AI firm, and Vicarious, a company working to improve machine intelligence. In January 2015, he donated $10 million to the Future of Life Institute, an organization focused on challenges posed by advanced technologies. He is the co-chairman of OpenAI, a nonprofit artificial intelligence research company.

Musk has said that his investments are, “not from the standpoint of actually trying to make any investment return… I like to just keep an eye on what’s going on with artificial intelligence.” Musk continued, “There have been movies about this, you know, like Terminator – there are some scary outcomes. And we should try to make sure the outcomes are good, not bad.”

In June 2016, Musk was asked whether he thinks humans live in a computer simulation, to which he answered-

The strongest argument for us probably being in a simulation I think is the following- 40 years ago we had Pong – two rectangles and a dot. That’s where we were. Now 40 years later we have photorealistic, 3D simulations with millions of people playing simultaneously and it’s getting better every year. And soon we’ll have virtual reality, we’ll have augmented reality. If you assume any rate of improvement at all, then the games will become indistinguishable from reality, just indistinguishable.

Elon Musk’s dark warnings over Artificial Intelligence has brought him some controversy. He and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg have clashed with the latter terming his warnings “irresponsible”. Musk responded to Mark’s censure by saying that he had discussed AI with Zuckerberg and found him to have only a “limited understanding” of the subject. In 2014 Slate’s Adam Elkus argued “our ‘smartest’ AI is about as intelligent as a toddler—and only when it comes to instrumental tasks like information recall. Most roboticists are still trying to get a robot hand to pick up a ball or run around without falling over.” Elkus goes on to argue that Musk’s “summoning the demon” analogy may be harmful because it could result in “harsh cuts” to AI research budgets.

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a Washington D.C. think-tank, awarded its Annual Luddite Award to “alarmists touting an artificial intelligence apocalypse”; its president, Robert D. Atkinson, complained that Musk and others say AI is the largest existential threat to humanity. Atkinson stated “That’s not a very winning message if you want to get AI funding out of Congress to the National Science Foundation.” Nature sharply disagreed with the ITIF in an April 2016 editorial, siding instead with Musk, and concluding- “It is crucial that progress in technology is matched by solid, well-funded research to anticipate the scenarios it could bring about… If that is a Luddite perspective, then so be it.” In a 2015 Washington Post editorial, researcher Murray Shanahan stated that human-level AI is unlikely to arrive “anytime soon,” but that nevertheless “the time to start thinking through the consequences is now.”

Public transport

At a Tesla event on the sidelines of the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems in December 2017, Musk stated that-

I think public transport is painful. It sucks. Why do you want to get on something with a lot of other people, that doesn’t leave where you want it to leave, doesn’t start where you want it to start, doesn’t end where you want it to end? And it doesn’t go all the time. It’s a pain in the ass. That’s why everyone doesn’t like it. And there’s like a bunch of random strangers, one of who might be a serial killer, OK, great.

Afterwards, he dismissed an audience member’s response that public transportation functioned effectively in Japan.

His comment sparked widespread criticism from both the public and transit experts. Urban planning expert Brent Toderian started the hashtag #GreatThingsThatHappenedonTransit which was widely adopted by Twitter users in order to dispel Musk’s notion that everybody hated public transport. Yonah Freemark, an urbanist and journalist specialising in planning and transportation, summarised Musk’s views on public transport as “It’s terrible. You might be killed. Japanese trains are awful. Individualized transport for everyone! Congestion? Induced demand? Climate change impacts? Unwalkable streets? Who cares!”

Jarrett Walker, a known public transport expert and consultant from Portland, said that “Musk’s hatred of sharing space with strangers is a luxury (or pathology) that only the rich can afford,” referring to the theory that planning a city around the preferences of a minority yields an outcome that usually does not work for the majority. Musk responded with “You’re an idiot,” later saying “Sorry Meant to say ‘sanctimonious idiot.'” The exchange received a significant amount of media attention and prompted Nobel laureate Paul Krugman to comment on the controversy, saying that apparently, “You’re an idiot” is Musk’s idea of a cogent argument.

Personal life

Musk owned a McLaren F1 supercar, which he crashed while it was uninsured. He also previously owned an Aero L-39, a Czech-made jet trainer aircraft.

The 1994 model Dassault Falcon 900 aircraft used in the 2005 film Thank You for Smoking was registered to Musk (N900SX), and Musk had a cameo as the pilot of his plane, opening the door for Robert Duvall and escorting Aaron Eckhart aboard. Musk owns Wet Nellie, the Lotus Esprit from the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. He plans to convert it into the functional car-submarine from the film.

Musk attended the Burning Man festival in 2004 and has said he first thought up the idea for SolarCity at the festival.

Tosca Musk, Elon’s sister, is a filmmaker. She is the founder of Musk Entertainment and has produced various movies.

Musk stated that he wants “to die on Mars, just not on impact.”

Philanthropy

Musk is chairman of the Musk Foundation, which focuses its philanthropic efforts on providing solar-power energy systems in disaster areas. In 2010, the Musk Foundation collaborated with SolarCity to donate a 25-kW solar power system to the South Bay Community Alliance’s hurricane response center in Coden, Alabama. In July 2011, the Musk Foundation donated US$250,000 towards a solar power project in Sōma, Japan, a city that had been recently devastated by a tsunami.

In July 2014, Musk was asked by cartoonist Matthew Inman and William Terbo, the grandnephew of Nikola Tesla, to donate US$8 million toward the construction of the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe. Ultimately, Musk agreed to donate US$1 million toward the project and additionally pledged to build a Tesla Supercharger in the museum car park.

Musk donated US$10 million to the Future of Life Institute in January 2015, to run a global research program aimed at keeping artificial intelligence beneficial to humanity.

As of 2015, Musk is a trustee of the X Prize Foundation and a signatory of The Giving Pledge.

Family

Musk met his first wife, Canadian author Justine Wilson, while both were students at Ontario’s Queen’s University. They married in 2000 and separated in 2008. Their first son, Nevada Alexander Musk, died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) at the age of 10 weeks. They later had five sons through in vitro fertilization – twins in 2004, followed by triplets in 2006. They share custody of all five sons.

In 2008, Musk began dating English actress Talulah Riley, and in 2010, the couple married. In January 2012, Musk announced that he had ended his four-year relationship with Riley, tweeting to Riley, “It was an amazing four years. I will love you forever. You will make someone very happy one day.” In July 2013, Musk and Riley remarried. In December 2014, Musk filed for a second divorce from Riley; however, the action was withdrawn. The media announced in March 2016 that divorce proceedings were again under way, this time with Riley filing for divorce from Musk. The divorce was finalized in late 2016.

Musk began dating American actress Amber Heard in 2016 but the two split up after one year due to their conflicting schedules. On May 7, 2018, Musk and Canadian musician Grimes revealed that they had begun dating.

Zolpidem usage

In an apparent admission of mixing zolpidem and alcohol, Musk tweeted in June 2017- “A little red wine, vintage record, some Ambien … and magic!” Musk gained media attention for mentioning the dangerous drug combination publicly on his social media.

Patents

Title	Application number	Grant number	Application date	Grant date	Original assignee
Funnel shaped charge inlet	13/549185	8579635	2012-07-13	2013-11-12	Tesla Motors, Inc.
Vehicle charge inlet	29/427056	D724031	2012-07-13	2015-03-10	Tesla Motors, Inc.
Vehicle	29/412833	D683268	2012-02-08	2013-05-28	Tesla Motors, Inc.
Vehicle door	29/412841	D678154	2012-02-08	2013-03-19	Tesla Motors, Inc.

Awards and recognition

• In 2006, Musk served as a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board.
• R&D Magazine Innovator of the Year for 2007 for SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity.
• Inc Magazine Entrepreneur of the Year award for 2007 for his work on Tesla and SpaceX.
  2007 Index Design award for his design of the Tesla Roadster. Global Green 2006 product design award for his design of the Tesla Roadster, presented by Mikhail Gorbachev.
• American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics George Low award for the most outstanding contribution in the field of space transportation in 2007/2008. Musk was recognized for his design of the Falcon 1, the first privately developed liquid-fuel rocket to reach orbit.
• National Wildlife Federation 2008 National Conservation Achievement award for Tesla and SolarCity. Other 2008 recipients include journalist Thomas Friedman, U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and Florida Governor Charlie Crist.
• The Aviation Week 2008 Laureate for the most significant achievement worldwide in the space industry.
• National Space Society’s Von Braun Trophy in 2008/2009, given for leadership of the most significant achievement in space. Prior recipients include Burt Rutan and Steve Squyres.
• Automotive Executive of the Year (worldwide) in 2010 for demonstrating technology leadership and innovation via Tesla. Prior awardees include Bill Ford Jr, Bob Lutz, Dieter Zetsche and Lee Iacocca. Musk is the youngest ever recipient of this award.
• Listed as one of Time’s 100 people who most affected the world in 2010.
• The world governing body for aerospace records, Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, presented Musk in 2010 with the highest award in air and space, the FAI Gold Space Medal, for designing the first privately developed rocket to reach orbit. Prior recipients include Neil Armstrong, Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites and John Glenn.
• Named as one of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century by Esquire magazine.
• Recognized as a Living Legend of Aviation in 2010 by the Kitty Hawk Foundation for creating the successor to the Space Shuttle (Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft). Other recipients include Buzz Aldrin and Richard Branson.
• In 2010, Musk was elected to the board of trustees of the California Institute of Technology, however no longer holds the position.
• In a 2010 Space Foundation survey, he was ranked as the No. 10 (tied with rocketry pioneer and scientist Wernher von Braun) most popular space hero.
• In February 2011, Forbes listed Musk as one of “America’s 20 Most Powerful CEOs 40 And Under.”
• In June 2011, Musk was awarded the US$250,000 Heinlein Prize for Advances in Space Commercialization
• In 2011, Musk was honored as a Legendary Leader at the Churchill Club Awards.
• In 2012, Musk was awarded the Royal Aeronautical Society’s highest award- a Gold Medal.
• Musk was the 2012 recipient of Smithsonian magazine’s American Ingenuity Award in the Technology category.
• In 2013, Musk was named the Fortune Businessperson of the year for SpaceX, SolarCity, and Tesla.
• In 2015, he was awarded IEEE Honorary Membership.
• As of 2015, Musk serves on the board of advisors of Social Concepts, Inc.
• In 2016, The Drive, a division of Time, named Musk the most influential person in the car business and as the second most influential person in the automotive tech sector.
• In June 2016, Business Insider named Musk one of the “Top 10 Business Visionaries Creating Value for the World” along with Mark Zuckerberg and Sal Khan.
• In December 2016, Musk was ranked 21st on Forbes list of The World’s Most Powerful People.
• In March 2017, Musk was listed by UK-based company Richtopia at number 3 in the list of 200 Most Influential Philanthropists and Social Entrepreneurs.
• Musk was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)in 2018.

Honorary doctorates

• Honorary doctorate in Design from the Art Center College of Design
• Honorary doctorate (DUniv) in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Surrey
• Honorary doctorate of Engineering and Technology from Yale University
• Honorary Doctorate from AGH Cracow.

In popular media

In Iron Man 2 (2010), Musk met Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) in a restaurant, and had some brief lines regarding an “idea for an electric jet.”

In January 2015, Musk made a guest appearance playing himself on The Simpsons in an episode titled “The Musk Who Fell to Earth”; the episode poked fun at many of Musk’s ideas.

In November 2015, Musk appeared in an episode of The Big Bang Theory, playing himself, volunteering at a soup kitchen with Howard.

Musk was featured in the 2015 environmental documentary Racing Extinction, in which a custom Tesla Model S was designed to help project images of critically endangered species onto public buildings, including the Empire State Building and the Vatican.

In 2016, Musk appeared as himself in the romantic comedy film Why Him? where he was briefly met by one of the main characters, Ned Flemming played by Bryan Cranston, in a bar at a party.

Also in 2016, Musk was referenced by Dr. Martin Stein on The CW time-travel TV show DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. During time travel to the past, Stein meets his younger self and introduced himself as Elon Musk, to disguise his own identity.

In October 2017, Musk was prematurely immortalized as a historic pioneer on the CBS All Access series Star Trek- Discovery. Set in the year 2256, Captain Gabriel Lorca attempts to motivate a scientist on his ship by asking him “How do you want to be remembered in history? Alongside the Wright Brothers, Elon Musk, Zefram Cochrane? Or as a failed fungus expert. A selfish little man who put the survival of his own ego before the lives of others?” According to an article in techcrunch.com published the day after the episode aired, this mention is “also interesting because of its notable omission of Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos- This other space entrepreneur is such a big fan of Star Trek that he pitched and succeeded in landing a cameo in Star Trek Beyond as an alien being, but he doesn’t rate a mention from Lorca among the spaceflight pantheon.”

Musk is significantly referenced numerous times in Hat Films’ 2017 album, Neon Musk.

In November 2017, Musk appeared as himself in the Season 1, Episode 6, episode of The Big Bang Theory spin-off prequel series Young Sheldon. The successful first landing of a SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage on a drone ship on April 8, 2016, is shown being covered by CNN. This is followed by a scene where Musk is shown alone in his office reading the notebook that young Sheldon mailed NASA in 1989 (a scene shown earlier in the episode) containing calculations detailing how this feat could be accomplished.

Referance- Wikipedia