'Social Network' Was Fun, Says Facebook's Zuckerberg, as Site Gets Update

In his first television interview since being portrayed on film in "The Social Network," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said parts of the hit movie were right, while others were wrong, but ultimately he thought it was "pretty fun."

Speaking on CBS’ "60 Minutes" Sunday night, Zuckerberg also unveiled new changes to profiles for the more than 500 million members of the social networking site.

"The Social Network," in which Zuckerberg is portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg, has generated Oscar buzz and taken home more than $180 million at the box office.

The 26-year-old billionaire said "we took the whole company to go see the movie."

"It's pretty interesting to see what parts they got right and what parts they got wrong,'' he said. "I think that they got every single T-shirt that they had the Mark Zuckerberg character wearing right. And they got sandals right and all that.

"But I mean, there are hugely basic things that they got wrong, too,'' he said. "They made it seem like my whole motivation for building Facebook was so I could get girls.''

The TV news show also featured an interview with Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the Harvard University classmates who accused Zuckerberg of stealing their idea, and whose lawsuit forms a large part of the storyline in "The Social Network."

The twins reached a reported US$65 million settlement with Facebook but are now claiming they were misled about the value of the company, AFP reported.

"He sabotaged our project; and he betrayed us,'' Tyler Winklevoss said.

Speaking of the Winklevoss twins, Zuckerberg said, "it's hard for me to fully wrap my head around where they're coming from on this.''

He added: "You know, early on, they had an idea that was completely separate from Facebook.

"It was a dating site for Harvard. And I agreed to help them out with it. It wasn't a job, they weren't paying me, I wasn't hired by them or anything like that.

"That they would be upset about this all these years later is kind of mindboggling for me.''

He said the movie makes "it seem like this whole lawsuit is such a huge part of Facebook's history'' but "I've probably spent less than two weeks of my time worried about this lawsuit at all.''

Asked if he felt any remorse, Zuckerberg said: "I mean, after all this time, I feel bad that they still feel bad about it.''

Meanwhile, Zuckerberg spoke about Facebook's new profile design, which will emphasize users’ biographical information by moving it to the top of the page, along with adding a slideshow of photos in which the user has been tagged, and allowing users to highlight “Featured Friends.”

Redesigned Facebook profiles are available now for users who wish to adopt them, and all profiles will be updated with the new design over the next few weeks.

Zuckerberg said the new interface will allow users to connect with their friends "in a way that the current version of the profile that we have today just doesn't do" by showing them a visual representation of the things they have in common with friends.

In a post on Facebook’s blog Sunday in advance of the “60 Minutes” broadcast, Facebook engineer Josh Wiseman outlined the new features and said the redesign was geared toward “making your entire profile a more compelling visual experience” and making it easier to "tell your story and learn about your friends."

Asked about Facebook applications that transmit personal information about users to advertisers, Zuckerberg said the site shuts down applications that it catches violating its privacy policies.

"Do we get it right all the time? No. But it's something that we take really seriously, and every day we come to work and just try to do a good job on this," Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg also denied rumors that Facebook was planning to release its own branded smartphone, and revealed that he once turned down an offer from Yahoo! to buy Facebook for $1 billion.

"I think a lot of people at the time thought we should sell the company," he said. "But, you know, I felt really strongly. And I think, like, now, people generally think that that was a good decision."