From dorm to dominance: Growing pains as Facebook turns 15

NEW YORK – Facebook turns 15 on Monday, a fitting milestone for its awkward teenage years.

Launched in 2004 as “TheFacebook,” the service was originally intended only for Harvard students. It’s now a massive global business that connects some 2.3 billion users. It was born in an era of desktop computers, years before the iPhone, and ran no ads.

At the time it was impossible to imagine that someday countries like Russia and Iran would try to use it for sophisticated information operations in order to influence elections around the world.

In 2004, CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s biggest problems included almost getting kicked out of Harvard. Zuckerberg’s 2019 worries include the threat of government regulation and the gnawing possibility that Facebook may not be good for the world.