Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg delivers Harvard commencement address

Kristen Sze Image
Friday, May 26, 2017
Mark Zuckerberg delivers Harvard commencement address
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerbeg went back to Harvard on Thursday to deliver the commencement address and to get his degree.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (KGO) -- Facebook founder Mark Zuckerbeg went back to Harvard on Thursday to deliver the commencement address and to get his degree 11 years after he dropped out to start the world's biggest social media company.

At 33, Zuckerberg becomes the youngest commencement speaker ever at Harvard and only the second drop out - the first was Bill Gates.

His wife Priscilla Chan and the class of 2017 listened in the rain as Zuckerberg delivered his message - if you create opportunities, you create purpose.

Not just for yourself, but for others.

"Let's give everyone the freedom to pursue purpose. We're all better for it," he said.

Zuckerberg's speech may have been well-received but not Facebook's live-captioning.

Mike Murphy's tweet points out one such error.

Thursday morning, the Harvard newspaper's website was hacked to troll Zuckerberg with headlines such as "Mark Zoinkerburg at it again."

But in the end, Zuckerberg does get a whole lot of likes with a picture of him getting his honorary Harvard degree. He posted, "Mom, I always told you I'd come back and get my degree."