socialrosiechen: Mark Zuckerberg has Facebook's only unblockable account

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Mark Zuckerberg has Facebook's only unblockable account

A rumor went around over the weekend that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg couldn't be blocked on Facebook. I just checked, and it's true. Like many others who have tried to block Zuck, I just got the infamous "General Block Failed Error" when I tried to block his account. Every site reporting on this phenomenon has tested and confirmed it, but I thought there was a missing piece: are other Facebook higher-ups unblockable too, or is it just Zuckerberg?

I tried blocking some other folks from the Facebook organizational chart, like Mike Schroepfer and Sheryl Sandberg, and it worked just fine. Even Mark's sister, Randi Zuckerberg (who also works at Facebook) is blockable. So, is this just a joke by Facebook, laughing off Zuckerberg's poor reputation on privacy? I'm not taking it too seriously ... it's not like blocking Facebook employees' personal accounts would stop them from seeing your data if they wanted to, so I'd interpret Zuck's unblockable account as a funny easter egg designed to amuse FB employees and people who get the joke, and outrage those who take themselves too seriously.

Facebook DOES have privacy issues, but this isn't one of them. If you want to block Mark Zuckerberg from seeing information about you, don't put that info on Facebook.