From Beacon in 2007 to Cambridge Analytica in 2018 to Meta AI training in 2026 — one of the most studied reputation cases in modern corporate history. Six locked lessons, plus the Apple counter-example.
Sixteen years after The Social Network released, the Mark Zuckerberg reputation arc has run a full structural cycle — from Eisenberg portrait to Cambridge Analytica villain to Meta CEO to the 2024-2026 American-tech-nationalism rebrand. The complete arc, the inflection moments, and what the AI engines retrieve in 2026.