Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has rejected reports that he had entered into a contract with a man, handing over 84% of the website for USD 1,000. "If we said that we were unsure, that was likely taken out of context, because I think we were quite sure that we did not sign a contract that says they have any right to ownership over Facebook," Zuckerberg said during an interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer. The comments come a month after Paul Ceglia sued Zuckerberg over a contract under which Zuckerberg had handed over 50 per cent of Facebook for USD 1000. Ceglia alleges that the contract envisaged a clause that would add 1 percent ownership for each day passed Jan. 1, 2004 in case Facebook was not online.
Facebook initially dubbed the case as "frivolous," but later a Facebook lawyer told the court that she was "unsure" if the signature on the contract was of Zuckerberg. The 26-year-old CEO in the interview seemed very confident and claimed that he did not sign the document. Zuckerberg in an interview with Sawyer discussed the fact Facebook has now reached 500 million users. However he also threw some light on the site's privacy issues, legal battles, and – most importantly – the site's much-talked about plans for a "dislike" button. "We've made mistakes for sure," Zuckerberg said about the company's privacy policies. "I think they're a lot better."
When asked why all information is not private by default, Zuckerberg maintained that Facebook is "set in a way that helps people share." He said "the right thing is to make it so certain information is always private."
