Mark-ing his territory in the most Meta way possible.
An Indiana lawyer who shares the name Mark Zuckerberg is suing Meta after the social media platform repeatedly shut down his personal and business profiles, claiming he was impersonating its founder.
Zuckerberg, an Indianapolis bankruptcy lawyer, has battled mistaken identity issues on Facebook for 15 years, sharing a name with the platform’s billionaire creator.
His verified personal account has been shut down five times, and after losing $11,000 in ad funds to Meta when his law firm’s page was taken down in May for the fourth time, he’s taking his fight to court.
“Normally you would say, well, it’s just Facebook and it’s not a big deal, but this time it’s affecting my bottom line because I was paying for advertising for my business to try and get clients,” the aggrieved attorney told The Post Wednesday afternoon.
“So they took my money, but then after they took my money, they shut me down for what they say is impersonating a celebrity, not using a true name and violating their community standards. And it’s the same message I get every time they shut me down.”
Zuckerberg filed his lawsuit Tuesday in Marion Superior Court, accusing Facebook’s parent company of negligence and breach of contract for suspending his accounts for baseless and improper reasons.
He said his Facebook page was first deactivated in 2010, and every time since, he’s had to endure a painfully long appeals process — including submitting photos of himself, his license and his credit cards — to prove he’s a real person who hasn’t violated the platform’s policies and get his accounts restored.
“I think it’s offensive that a company that is supposed to be so tech savvy in the world can’t figure out how to flag my accounts and keep this from happening,” said Zuckerberg, who has practiced bankruptcy law for 38 years.
“It’s like they’re almost doing it on purpose, but I’m sure they’re not but it feels like it.”
Meta told The Post that it just received Zuckerberg’s complaint and is reviewing it.
“We know there’s more than one Mark Zuckerberg in the world, and we are getting to the bottom of this,” the spokesperson said, declining to answer any additional questions.
The company later told The Post that the other Mark Zuckerberg’s account had been reactivated.
“We have reinstated Mark Zuckerberg’s account, after finding it had been disabled in error. We appreciate Mr. Zuckerberg’s continued patience on this issue and are working to try and prevent this from happening in the future,” a spokesman said Thursday.
While Zuckerberg joked that sharing the high-profile Meta CEO’s name has its perks — like scoring a good table at a restaurant after making a reservation — it has also caused headaches in his personal life, calling the identity mix-up a “thorn in my side.”
His law firm fields daily calls from Facebook users seeking help with their accounts, receives countless packages meant for the social media mogul, and in 2020, he was mistakenly sued by Washington State’s Department of Social and Health Services for alleged financial exploitation.
The repeated cases of mistaken identity prompted Zuckerberg to launch a website tracking them — yet he still relies on online platforms like Facebook to attract new clients and compete with other local legal practices also spending ad dollars on the social network.
“It’s the fact that they’re affecting my business now, you know, my clients can’t find me,” the frustrated lawyer stressed, adding that he wants Meta to refund his money and pay his attorney fees, among other demands.
“I want an injunction, I want them to not do it again, and I want [Mark Zuckerberg] to fly out here, hand me my check, shake my hands and say, ‘I’m sorry,’ but that’s never gonna happen.”
