Why is Mark Zuckerberg Suing Facebook?

Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in 2004. More than two decades later, the company is much larger than the social network he put together — Meta, the parent company of Facebook, also owns Instagram, WhatsApp, and a whole lot more. Like any other company of its size, Meta has a lot of fans — and a lot of people who, well, aren’t as happy with the company.

For example, there’s Mark Zuckerberg. He’s not too happy with Facebook, so in September 2025, he sued the company.

And no, that’s not a typo. It’s confusing, sure, but that’s actually the source of the problem. The Mark Zuckerberg behind the lawsuit isn’t the same Mark Zuckerberg as the man behind Facebook.

The other Mark Zuckerberg is Mark Steven Zuckerberg, a bankruptcy attorney from Indiana. (For what it’s worth, the famous Mark Zuckerberg’s middle name is Elliot.) He has his own law practice in Indianapolis and, like many other small business owners, has a Facebook page that helps promote his offerings. Well, he usually has a Facebook page. Because his name is basically the same as Mark E. Zuckerberg, Meta tends to think that he’s playing some sort of prank. As the New York Times reported, Mark S. Zuckerberg “gets regularly blocked from his own personal and business accounts on the social media site founded by his near-namesake — and he hasn’t been able to get the company to solve the problem.”

And in mid 2025, Mark S. Zuckerberg got fed up with that. So, he sued. And he actually had a legitimate claim. As the BBC reported, Mark S. paid $11,000 in Facebook ads to promote his business, only to find that his Facebook presence evaporated. And it wasn’t a one-time thing. He availed himself of Facebook’s official channels to appeal his first ban, but that took four months to resolve, leaving him without a business page the whole time. And that wasn’t a permanent fix — the next time, he was blocked for six months. He told WTHR, his local NBC affiliate that “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.”

The lawsuit — while serious — was as much a cry for help as anything else; he lamented to WTHR that “I don’t know how else to get their attention.” And this attempt seemed to work — mostly. The Guardian reported that, shortly after the Mark S. filed his lawsuit, Meta “apologized for the confusion.” He hasn’t dropped his lawsuit, though — he wants the courts to prevent Meta from doing this again, and he’s also asked that his legal fees be reimbursed.

But Mark S. isn’t taking this personally. He has a webpage outlining some of the times his unfortunately famous name has caused him some grief, and it closes with this: “I don’t wish Mark E. Zuckerberg any ill will at all. I hope the best for him, but let me tell you this: I will rule the search for ‘Mark Zuckerberg bankruptcy’. And if he does fall upon difficult financial times, and happens to be in Indiana, I will gladly handle his case in honor of our eponymy.”

Bonus fact: In the early days of Facebook, people created pages for all sorts of reasons — including to bully others. One NYU student recounted that, as a freshman, she had a hobby of singing and playing piano at local bars, and some of her classmates weren’t so fond of her efforts. They created a Facebook page mocking her, calling it “Stefani Germanotta, you will never be famous.” Shortly thereafter, Germanotta dropped out of NYU and focusing on her music career — and it worked. You may not recognize her by her given name, but you’re almost certainly familiar with her stage name: Lady Gaga.

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