Facebook conducted polling in 2017 to figure out public perception toward CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other top executives, Bloomberg reported.

In a presentation about the research, Zuckerberg was labeled a "former innovator," alongside Bill Gates, and not considered a "current innovator," something he reportedly was "incredulous" about.

The results of Facebook's polling were included in a Bloomberg story about how Facebook used special software to track the spread of viral news and hoaxes about the company.

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was reportedly "incredulous" after polling in 2017 showed that the public considered him an old-school innovator that "once pushed the limit," alongside Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates.

Bloomberg reported Facebook conducted research following the 2016 presidential election to get an idea of public perception regarding Zuckerberg and other top executives, including Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer. The research on Zuckerberg's reputation was done in hopes that improving it could in turn improve the public's attitude and trust toward the company, Bloomberg reported.

"My team did this research with the goal of convincing him and improving both," Gary Briggs, Facebook's former head of marketing, told Bloomberg. "In the end, Mark chose not to focus on this much."

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However, Zuckerberg was shown the research on public perception of him and chose to pay attention to some of it, Bloomberg said. In an internal presentation about the Zuckerberg-related polling results — which included ratings on his personality traits and comparisons between the Facebook CEO and rival company executives — one of the slides focused on the public's view on innovation.

Under "historic innovation," the faces of Zuckerberg, 35, and the 63-year-old Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates were shown. They were described in the presentation as people who "once pushed the limit/boundaries to develop something new," according to Bloomberg. That was contrasted with the names of Tesla founder Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who were considered the new age of "current innovation" and "continuing to push the envelope."

(Musk, and not Zuckerberg, being named a "current innovator" is notable because the two CEOs have feuded from time to time. The pair has exchanged jabs over the years, and Musk even deleted the Facebook pages for his companies Tesla and SpaceX amid the #DeleteFacebook protest.)

Zuckerberg was "incredulous" about the slide and considered the perception of him being a "former innovator" as a "knock" on both him and his social network, Bloomberg reported.



Facebook did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

The anecdote about Zuckerberg's reaction to the public polling was included in a Bloomberg story that revealed how Facebook has used special software to track viral stories and hoaxes spreading on their platform about the company itself, including a popular conspiracy theory that alleges Facebook listens to your private conversations.

Bloomberg reported that Facebook used this monitoring software to learn what its users thought about the company, and then sometimes issued special alerts to dispute particularly viral and untrue stories.