Mark Zuckerberg, owner of 700 acres of Kauai, Facebook, and pretty much whatever else he wants.
Mark Zuckerberg is right in the middle of turning his dream home into a nightmare. He’s not meaning to, but that’s probably what’s going to end up happening because everyone loves a story with a good villain. Essentially, the gazillionaire owner of Facebook is suing hundreds of non-gazillionaires because he needs 700 acres of prime Kauaiian property all to himself. Sounds like a real dick move, right? It might not be, if one takes Zuckerberg’s explanation at face valuie. He used his platform to explain himself a few days ago, which I’ll post below after a semi-long winded explanation of the whole situation.
Here’s what happened, just so you’re caught up. Back in 2014, Zuckerberg bought a ridiculously big, ridiculously expensive chunk of Kauai. “A few years ago, Priscilla and I visited Kauai and fell in love with the community and the cloudy green mountains,” he wrote. “We kept coming back with family and friends, and eventually decided to plant roots and join the community ourselves. We bought land and we’re dedicated to preserving its natural beauty. It’s filled with wildlife like pigs, turtles, rare birds and seals, and local farmers use it to grow fruits and spices.”
Apparently, he dropped about $100 million on it, then built a brick and mortar wall around the whole thing. Again, sounds like a real dick move, right? That’s some Vinod Khosla shit right there. As it turns out, though, Zuckerberg might not actually be the only guy who owns the property, which would be a little awkward after unloading that much money.
“The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported that partial owners of a few dozen small parcels of land may have rights to land within Zuckerberg’s holdings, some having been passed down through families for more than 100 years,” wrote our very own Dylan Heyden. “Three entities owned by Zuckerberg, Pilaa International LLC, Northshore Kalo LLC, and High Flyer LLC filed eight so-called “quiet title” lawsuits on December 30 to identify and compensate fractional owners of several parcels of land for their shares of ownership.”
Basically, the whole thing comes down to an old law dealing with “kuleana lands.” Unique to Hawaii, the Kuleana Act of 1850 deals with parcels passed down through families without wills or deeds. They’re often fractional portions, making it all even more convoluted.
“Some partial owners of the small parcels identified by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser own as little as one-hundredth of one percent of a parcel or are unaware of their family’s stake,” Heyden continued. “Of the hundreds of people against which Zuckerberg has levied lawsuits, some are apparently also deceased.”
So now it looks as though not only is Zuckerberg suing a bunch of native Hawaiians over land that’s been in their families for generations, but he’s suing DEAD people. What a dick move! But wait, here’s where he gets to explain himself. On Thursday, he explained that, while he is technically suing people, it’s not exactly what everyone thinks.
There have been some misleading stories going around today about our plans in Hawaii, so I want to clear this up …The land is made up of a few properties. In each case, we worked with the majority owners of each property and reached a deal they thought was fair and wanted to make on their own.
As with most transactions, the majority owners have the right to sell their land if they want, but we need to make sure smaller partial owners get paid for their fair share too.
In Hawaii, this is where it gets more complicated. As part of Hawaiian history, in the mid-1800s, small parcels were granted to families, which after generations might now be split among hundreds of descendants. There aren’t always clear records, and in many cases descendants who own 1/4% or 1% of a property don’t even know they are entitled to anything.
To find all these partial owners so we can pay them their fair share, we filed what is called a “quiet title” action. For most of these folks, they will now receive money for something they never even knew they had. No one will be forced off the land.
We are working with a professor of native Hawaiian studies and long time member of this community, who is participating in this quiet title process with us. It is important to us that we respect Hawaiian history and traditions.
We love Hawaii and we want to be good members of the community and preserve the environment. We look forward to working closely with the community for years to come.
People are pissed, but it’s worth noting that he’s doing some good things. “Farmers use acres of the land to produce turmeric and other fruits and spices. We also support local community organizations like the Kilauea Community Agriculture Center,” he wrote. “Our team built a conservatory for endangered albatross. The fence creates a safe space and keeps other animals out.”
Despite all the good intentions in the world–and to be sure, if one judges by his Facebook post, there are lots of them–it doesn’t change the fact that Zuckerberg bought 700 acres of land and built a wall around it. He did that on a small, idyllic island where sharing is caring and aloha is abundant. Many of the locals are calling bullshit. “All that land you occupy is just a reminder to the Native People of how deep pockets push aside culture, tradition, and legacy,” wrote Kamanawa Kinimaka on Facebook. “We are holding on to those parcels because it’s our last chance to keep the land our ancestors walked, fought and birthed on. What you’re doing is a repeat of history, in a different form. You’re occupying land in an illegally occupied nation, distracting birthright occupants by the money that occupies your life.”
