The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has
returned to Harvard University under rainy skies
to give a graduation speech and receive an
honorary degree. The world’s fifth-richest
person, worth $62.3bn (£48.1bn), famously
dropped out of Harvard after launching the
global social-networking website.
Mr Zuckerberg called for students to “not only
create new jobs, but create a new sense of
purpose”.
Politicalexperts think he may be positioning
himself to run for office.
During his remarks on Thursday, Mr Zuckerberg
told graduates that “we live in an unstable
time”.
“There’s pressure to turn inwards,” he said
about those that feel left behind by increased
globalisation.
“This is the struggle of our time. The forces of
freedom, openness and global community
against the forces of authoritarianism,
isolationism and nationalism.”
With his wife, Priscilla, in the audience, he
pointed to the dormitory where he launched
Facebook, and remarked that meeting her there
was the best thing to happen to him at the
university.
Before giving remarks, he received an honorary
Doctor of Laws degree during Harvard’s 366th
graduation ceremony.
On Wednesday, he did a Facebook Live
broadcast from his old dorm room.
“This is literally where I sat,” he says, pointing
to a small wooden desk and chair inside Kirkland
House, which is due to be renovated over the
summer.
“I had my little laptop here. And this is where I
programmed Facebook,” he tells the camera.
During his commencement address, Mr
Zuckerberg told students: “There is something
wrong with our system when I can leave here
and make billions of dollars in ten years when
millions of students can’t afford to pay off their
loans, let alone start a business.
“When you don’t have the freedom to take your
idea and turn it into a historic enterprise we all
lose,” he continued.
He told stories of meeting “children in juvenile
detention and opioid addicts, who told me their
lives could have turned out differently if they just
had something to do”.
The 33-year-old appeared to get choked up at
one point during a story about an high school
student who feared he would not be able to
enrol in university because he was an
undocumented immigrant.
More than 1.9 billion people log onto Facebook
every day.
Since its launch in 2004, Facebook has inspired
many other social media competitors, including
Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram.
In 2007 another Harvard dropout returned for an
honorary degree.
Bill Gates addressed students shortly after
stepping down from the world’s largest software
company, Microsoft, to launch to focus on his
charity.