An Indiana-based lawyer, who happens to share his name with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, has filed a lawsuit against Meta after repeatedly facing account suspensions. The attorney, Mark S. Zuckerberg, has been practising bankruptcy law for nearly 38 years, but says Facebook’s automated systems wrongly flagged him for impersonation multiple times.
According to the lawyer, his Facebook account has been suspended five times in the past eight years, each time accusing him of pretending to be someone else. He says the repeated bans haven’t just disrupted his work – they’ve also cost him thousands of dollars in business.
In his lawsuit filed in Marion Superior Court, Zuckerberg claims Meta violated its agreement with him by taking down paid advertisements worth around $11,000 (Rs 8.2 lakh). Explaining the impact, he compared it to “buying a billboard and then having it covered up so no one can see it.”
Zuckerberg insists he has provided every possible proof of his identity – from government IDs to credit cards and even photos of himself. “I’m Mark Steven. He’s Mark Elliot,” he said, pointing out that his name is genuine and predates the tech billionaire’s fame.
His latest suspension happened in May this year, and his account was only restored after he filed the lawsuit. Meta later admitted the mistake, saying the account was “disabled in error” and promised to prevent such incidents in the future.
However, the lawyer maintains that the damage has already been done. “It’s not funny,” he told WTHR-TV. “Not when they take my money.”
To highlight the strange situations his name has caused, he has even launched a website documenting past incidents – including one case where he was mistakenly sued by the state of Washington. The dispute highlights how social media’s automated moderation systems can sometimes misfire, especially when users share names with high-profile figures.
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