Mark S. Zuckerberg, a seasoned bankruptcy attorney from Indianapolis, has spent nearly two decades navigating the legal system for his clients. But in a twist worthy of a legal drama, Zuckerberg now finds himself up against a formidable opponent: Meta, the tech giant behind Facebook. The reason? Not a complex bankruptcy case, but a battle over his own name — and the repeated shutdown of his Facebook accounts, which Meta’s automated systems have flagged as impersonating its billionaire CEO, Mark Elliot Zuckerberg.
For Zuckerberg the attorney, the saga has been both surreal and costly. According to multiple reports, including 13News, The New York Post, and TechCrunch, his business Facebook account has been suspended five times over the past eight years, while his personal account has been deactivated four times. Each suspension has forced him through a gauntlet of appeals, requiring him to submit personal photos, driver’s license copies, and other forms of identification. The process is anything but swift. "Last time, it took me six months," he told 13News. During these months-long lockouts, Zuckerberg says he lost thousands of dollars in advertising and struggled to maintain communication with clients.
The financial impact is no small matter. In May 2025 alone, Zuckerberg’s law firm lost $11,000 in ad spending when his business page was suddenly removed, as reported by The Economic Times. "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," he explained to The New York Post. The shutdowns, he says, have made it harder for new clients to find him — a critical blow for any small business owner. "It’s the fact that they’re affecting my business now, you know, my clients can’t find me," he stressed.
Frustrated by years of back-and-forth with Meta’s support teams — who have repeatedly apologized and reinstated his accounts, only for the cycle to repeat — Zuckerberg filed a lawsuit in Marion Superior Court. The complaint accuses Meta of negligence and breach of contract, alleging that the company wrongfully suspends his accounts for "impersonating a celebrity," despite ample evidence that he is, in fact, Mark S. Zuckerberg. The lawsuit seeks restitution for lost fees and advertising, legal costs, and, perhaps most importantly, an injunction to prevent future shutdowns.
Meta, for its part, has acknowledged the problem. "We have reinstated Mark Zuckerberg’s account, after finding it had been disabled in error," a spokesperson told Gizmodo. "We appreciate Mr. Zuckerberg’s continued patience on this issue and are working to try and prevent this from happening in the future." The company also told 13WTHR, "We know there’s more than one Mark Zuckerberg in the world, and we are getting to the bottom of this." But for the attorney, words are not enough. "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," he joked to The New York Post.
The mix-ups, however, go beyond social media. Sharing a name with one of the world’s most famous tech moguls has brought both perks and headaches. Zuckerberg admits that it occasionally gets him a good table at a restaurant, but the downsides are far more frequent and disruptive. His law firm regularly receives calls from angry Facebook users, packages meant for the CEO, and even legal papers intended for the billionaire. In 2020, Washington State’s Department of Social and Health Services mistakenly sued him for financial exploitation, thinking he was the other Mark Zuckerberg. "My life sometimes feels like the Michael Jordan ESPN commercial, where a regular person’s name causes constant mixups," he wrote on his website, iammarkzuckerberg.com.
Sometimes, the confusion is almost comical. While speaking at a conference in Las Vegas, Zuckerberg recounted, "A limo driver was waiting for me at the bottom of the escalator with a sign for ‘Mark Zuckerberg,’ causing chaos as a large disappointed crowd had been waiting." Other times, the confusion turns threatening, with the attorney receiving phone calls and messages — even death threats — intended for the CEO. "I can’t use my name when making reservations or conducting business as people assume I’m a prank caller and hang up," he explained.
The attorney’s legal action is unprecedented in its specifics, but it’s not Meta’s first brush with controversy over its naming policies. In the early 2010s, Facebook faced widespread criticism for its strict "real-name" policy, which led to the suspension of accounts belonging to users who preferred pseudonyms or stage names, including transgender people, drag performers, and even the novelist Salman Rushdie. The policy also affected Native Americans, whose names were sometimes flagged as "fake." After years of public outcry — dubbed the "nymwars" — Facebook eventually softened its stance in late 2015, allowing users to provide context for special circumstances.
Despite these changes, Zuckerberg’s ordeal shows that the company’s systems still struggle with edge cases, especially when it comes to high-profile names. "For somebody who purports to be one of the leading tech companies in the world, and they can’t stop doing this? And they can’t seem to get their appeal process to work? I think they have a problem," the attorney told 13News. His complaint points out that he’s been practicing law since before the CEO was out of diapers. "I don’t wish Mark E. Zuckerberg any ill will at all," he wrote on his website. "I hope the best for him, but let me tell you this: I will rule the search for ‘Mark Zuckerberg bankruptcy.’ And if he does fall upon difficult financial times, and happens to be in Indiana, I will gladly handle his case in honor of our eponymy."
What does Zuckerberg want from Meta? Beyond reimbursement for lost ad spend and legal fees, he wants the assurance that his accounts will not be wrongfully suspended again. He’s even joked about wanting a personal apology from the CEO himself, or perhaps a week on his yacht. "If he wants to fly here personally and say ‘I’m sorry,’ or maybe let me spend a week on his boat to say I’m sorry, I’d probably take him up on that," he said to 13News.
For now, Zuckerberg the attorney continues to fight for his professional identity — and for the right to use his own name online without fear of being mistaken for someone else. As the legal battle unfolds, his story is a cautionary tale about the unintended consequences of automated moderation and the very human cost of digital bureaucracy.
