Having a celebrity name can be co-incidence as well as a curse!. Well, you might know Mark Zuckerberg, but not this one, believe me. This one is a lawyer named Mark Zuckerberg. Moreover, this Mark Zuckerberg has sued Meta the company of Mark Zuckerberg for wrongly suspending his Facebook account on grounds of impersonation.
Mark Zuckerberg, a bankruptcy lawyer from Indiana, has filed a lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta.
Mark Zuckerberg the lawyer uses a commercial Facebook page to advertise his legal practice and communicate with potential clients. But his page has been disabled five times in the last eight years, since Meta’s moderation systems flag his account as falsely impersonating Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of the platform.
Mark Zuckerberg is not impersonating Mark Zuckerberg, because he, too, is Mark Zuckerberg. In his legal complaint, Mark Zuckerberg points out that he has been practicing law since Mark Zuckerberg was just three years old.
“It’s not funny,” Mark Zuckerberg, the lawyer, said to Indianapolis’ 13WTHR. “Not when they take my money. This really pissed me off.”
Mark Zuckerberg has spent over $11,000 to advertise his page on Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta platforms, but when Mark Zuckerberg’s account is disabled for allegedly impersonating Mark Zuckerberg, Mark Zuckerberg still has to pay for these advertisements.
In his complaint, the lawyer shared a copy of an email thread from 2020, where he asks about his wrongly disabled account and references that he has been in touch with the platform about this since 2017.
“Also, if you happen to run into the younger, richer Mark Zuckerberg, tell him I said hi and he causes me great aggravation each day,” Mark Zuckerberg the lawyer wrote in one email.
Who is “Mark Zuckerberg-the Lawyer”?
Well, the attorney, Mark S Zuckerberg, is based in Indiana and has been practising bankruptcy law for nearly 38 years. A graduate of Capital University Law School, he’s helped thousands navigate financial distress over nearly four decades. According to his LinkedIn bio, he’s appeared on NPR, NBC, and in Business Week. He’s a Board-Certified Consumer Bankruptcy Specialist and has lectured nationally. Despite sharing a name with Meta’s CEO, his reputation stands independently in legal circles, especially in consumer debt and credit law.
Why has he sued Meta the company of “Mark Zuckerberg”?
Mark says Facebook has suspended his Facebook account five times in the past eight years, each time accusing him of pretending to be someone else. According to him, the repeated bans have not only hurt his practice but also cost him thousands of dollars in lost business.
Zuckerberg said he has provided every possible proof of identity, including his photo ID, credit cards, and several images of himself. “I’m Mark Steven. And he’s Mark Elliot,” he told a TV channel, pointing out that his name has been genuine long before the tech billionaire rose to fame.
The lawyer insists the bans have caused real harm to his business. “It’s not funny,” he told WTHR. “Not when they take my money.”
What problems does Meta have now?
His case, filed in Marion Superior Court, claims that Meta violated its agreement by pulling down paid advertisements worth about $11,000 (Rs 8.2 lakh). Explaining the impact, he told WTHR-TV: “It’s like buying a billboard on the side of the highway, paying the people for the billboard and then they come and put a giant blanket over it and you don’t get the benefit of what you paid for.”
What forced the lawyer to sue Meta?
“I did everything they asked me to do, like I always do. They ask you to appeal if you think your suspension is not proper. I filed the proper appeals with them the very next day and I’ve heard nothing from them, and it’s been four months. The last time they did it, it was over six months before they turned my account back on. So I don’t know how else to get their attention,” the lawyer said.
His most recent suspension came in May this year. The account was restored only after he filed the lawsuit. Meta has admitted the mistake. In a statement, the company said his account had been “disabled in error” and has since been reinstated. It added: “We appreciate Mr Zuckerberg’s continued patience on this issue and are working to try and prevent this from happening in the future.”