The social media platform 'Facebook' was founded by :
- (a)Mark Zuckerberg
- (b)Elon Musk
- (c)Bill Gates
- (d)Jack Dorsey
Correct — A, Mark Zuckerberg. He launched 'Thefacebook' from his Harvard dormitory on 4 February 2004 along with fellow students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes, and has led the company as CEO ever since. The site dropped the 'the' to become Facebook in 2005, and the parent company was renamed Meta Platforms in October 2021.
- (b)Elon Musk — Musk is associated with Tesla and SpaceX; in social media he was a buyer, not a founder — he acquired Twitter in October 2022 and renamed it X.
- (c)Bill Gates — Gates co-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975 — an operating-system and software company, with no role in founding Facebook.
- (d)Jack Dorsey — Dorsey is a co-founder of Twitter (2006) and of the payments company Square (now Block) — a different platform altogether.
MPPSC's computer-awareness block regularly asks students to attach each major digital platform to its founder, its owner and its purpose. Facebook began in 2004 as a campus network at Harvard and grew into the world's largest social network; its parent company, renamed Meta Platforms in 2021, also owns Instagram and WhatsApp. Knowing the founder–platform–parent-company chain answers most such questions in one step.
Three of the four names are famous technology figures attached to other companies (Microsoft, Tesla/SpaceX, Twitter). The trap is recency — Musk's takeover of Twitter and the Meta rename make people second-guess an otherwise straightforward fact.
- Facebook was launched on 4 February 2004 at Harvard; Mark Zuckerberg was its lead founder and is its CEO
- The parent company was renamed Meta Platforms in October 2021
- Meta also owns Instagram (acquired 2012) and WhatsApp (acquired 2014)
- Twitter, co-founded by Jack Dorsey in 2006, was bought by Elon Musk in 2022 and renamed X
- Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975
- Confusing founding a platform with acquiring it — Musk bought Twitter, he did not found it
- Assuming the 2021 Meta rename changed who founded Facebook
- Mixing up Jack Dorsey (Twitter) with Zuckerberg (Facebook) when the question names a 'social media platform'
MPPSC keeps this factual — who founded a platform, which platform serves which audience, what an acronym stands for. UPSC rarely asks founder trivia and instead approaches social media through regulation (IT Rules, intermediary liability) and data protection.
Which social networking site is meant for professionals and business people who wish to connect with other professionals?
- (a) Facebook
- (b) MySpace
- (c) Twitter
- (d) LinkedIn
Answer(d) LinkedIn
The same MPPSC habit of testing recognition of individual social-media platforms — 2024 asked what each platform is for, 2025 asks who founded one of them.
What is social media optimisation?
- (a) Easily creating publicity by social networks
- (b) Writing clear content
- (c) Creating short content which is easily indexed
- (d) Creating content for hiring people in social networking
Answer(a) Easily creating publicity by social networks
Confirms that social media is a standing sub-topic of MPPSC Paper-I's computer section — worth preparing platforms, founders and basic terminology together.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp was renamed in October 2021 as:
- (a)Alphabet
- (b)Meta Platforms
- (c)X Corp
- (d)Byte Inc.
Answer(b) Meta Platforms — the rename covered the parent company, not the Facebook app itself.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which social media platform was acquired by Elon Musk in 2022 and subsequently renamed 'X'?
- (a)Facebook
- (b)LinkedIn
- (c)Twitter
- (d)Snapchat
Answer(c) Twitter — acquired in October 2022 and rebranded as X.