Derek Paulson, Vice President of Global Connectivity at Meta, during a quarterly all-hands meeting attended by no one who had accepted his calendar invite. Credit: Lena Marsh/The Register
Derek Paulson, Vice President of Global Connectivity at Meta, during a quarterly all-hands meeting attended by no one who had accepted his calendar invite. Credit: Lena Marsh/The Register

MENLO PARK, Calif. — Derek Paulson, Vice President of Global Connectivity at Meta Platforms Inc. and a 14-year veteran of the company responsible for connecting more than three billion people around the world, has no friends, the company confirmed Tuesday.

Mr. Paulson’s personal Facebook profile, which has been active since 2008 and lists his hometown as Naperville, Ill., currently shows a friend count of zero. A spokesperson for Meta said the figure was “an accurate reflection of Mr. Paulson’s current network status” and noted that his profile was “otherwise complete,” including a cover photo of a scenic mountain range he has not visited and a workplace field that correctly identifies him as an employee of the company whose core product he has never personally benefited from.

“Derek is deeply passionate about the mission of bringing people together,” said Alicia Trent, a Meta communications director who, when asked, confirmed she had not accepted Mr. Paulson’s friend request. “He thinks about global connectivity every single day.” Ms. Trent added that Mr. Paulson had sent 47 friend requests since 2019, none of which had been accepted, and that the requests had expired after 30 days in accordance with standard platform policy.

Colleagues who work alongside Mr. Paulson described him as professional, punctual, and difficult to place socially. “He leads our most-attended webinars,” said Raj Mehta, a senior product manager on Mr. Paulson’s team, who appeared on the platform’s recommended friends list for Mr. Paulson for a period of three years before the algorithm quietly removed the suggestion. A study conducted by the Pew Research Center found that Mr. Paulson’s situation, while uncommon, was not unprecedented among senior connectivity executives, noting that the phenomenon “appears across the industry with a frequency that researchers described as thought-provoking.”