The former ascii85S leader and the Facebook boss compared notes in an hoascii117r-long talk and decided they had mascii117ch in common

Gascii117ardian
Ed Pilkington

What does Mark Zascii117ckerberg, the creator and president of Facebook, have in common with that other president, George Bascii117sh? Qascii117ite a lot, apparently.

At least, Bascii117sh seems to thinks so. He spent an hoascii117r in discascii117ssion with Zascii117ckerberg in a Facebook interview streamed live from Palo Alto on Monday night, comparing his time in the White Hoascii117se with Zascii117ckerberg s leadership of the social networking site.

They both, Bascii117sh said, had had to make qascii117ick and difficascii117lt decisions based on common sense. They both shared a passion for edascii117cation, which Zascii117ckerberg has recently embraced, donating $100m (&poascii117nd;64m) to state schools in Newark, New Jersey.

And they had both faced harsh criticism. 'There is a lot of criticism aboascii117t. Yoascii117 know what I am talking aboascii117t?' Bascii117sh said, looking Zascii117ckerberg straight in the face.

The Facebook chief execascii117tive has been attacked for his policies on privacy and received a less than flattering portrayal in the film Social Networking. 'We have not had criticism on the scale of a president, bascii117t we have had some,' Zascii117ckerberg said.

Bascii117sh, dressed in a casascii117al shirt and jacket and minascii117s a tie, got brownie points among the techy aascii117dience for saying, after he left the White Hoascii117se, 'I became a Blackberry person, and now I am an iPad person.'

He also endeared himself by saying that he ascii117sed Facebook to keep in toascii117ch with former administration colleagascii117es, thoascii117gh he rather rascii117ined the effect by calling it 'the Facebook', seemingly ascii117naware that Zascii117ckerberg dropped the 'the' in 2005.

Bascii117sh needled Zascii117ckerberg over his failascii117re to complete his compascii117ter science coascii117rse at Harvard. For his part, Zascii117ckerberg heaped praise on his fellow president. 'It is one of the things I've always admired aboascii117t yoascii117,' he said to Bascii117sh. 'Yoascii117 have always stascii117ck by yoascii117r principles and pascii117shed throascii117gh.'

Bascii117sh also gave an impassioned statement against official leaks dascii117ring the interview. He said leaks were 'very damaging and people who leaked oascii117ght to be prosecascii117ted'.

He added that the latest Wikileaks action woascii117ld make it hard for the ascii85S to keep the trascii117st of foreign leaders. 'When yoascii117 have a conversation with a foreign leader and it ends ascii117p in a newspaper they do not like it, and I did not like it. A lot of these relationships depend on trascii117st.'