Mark Zuckerberg gave away 99 percent of his stock in Facebook when he welcomed his first child Max. Now, a viral post claims that being a new dad made him feel extra generous that he plans to give away more of his money to Facebook users who post a chain letter as their status. Exactly how true is this?
Facebook users all over the world have been posting statuses that said, "Mark Zuckerberg has announced that he is giving away $45 billion of Facebook stock. What you may not have heard is that he plans to give 10 percent of it away to people like YOU and ME! All you have to do is copy and paste this message into a post IMMEDIATELY. At midnight PST, Facebook will search through the day's post and award 1000 people with $4.5 million each as a way of saying thank you for making Facebook such a powerful vehicle for connection."
While $4.5 million may sound like the best Christmas gift ever, Facebook clarified that the viral post is just a hoax. The social media giant said, "Friends don't let friends copy and paste memes. While Priscilla and Mark's pledge to give money to improve the world is real, not everything you read on the internet is, and they're not giving it away randomly. Be safe out there, sweepstakes seekers."
Last December 1, Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan announced the birth of their baby girl together with the commitment that they are going to spend $45 billion to "join people across the world to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation."
In a letter addressed to their newborn daughter which Zuckerberg posted on his official Facebook page, the couple shared that they have formed the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative which will focus on learning, curing diseases, building connections and forming communities.