Zuckerberg turns to social media to defend himself

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg turned to social media Thursday to defend his legal maneuver to buy small pieces of land on Kauai from Hawaii families even if they don’t want to sell to the billionaire.

One local lawmaker, who referred to the world’s sixth-richest person as a modern-day colonizer, wasn’t mollified, and the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. is considering representing defendants named in the lawsuits filed by Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg, who visited Kauai around Christmas with his wife, Priscilla Chan, said in his Facebook post that some media stories about his court action are misleading.

“I want to clear this up,” he said in the post. “We want to create a home on the island, and help preserve the wildlife and natural beauty. 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.”

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser first reported on Wednesday that Zuckerberg, through companies he controls, filed eight “quiet title” lawsuits Dec. 30 in Circuit Court, seeking to force owners of 14 small properties to sell their stakes in their land at public auction. The 14 parcels are surrounded by roughly 700 acres on Kauai’s north shore that Zuckerberg bought two years ago for about $100 million to create a personal estate. Under Hawaii law, the owners of the small parcels have rights to access their property through Zuckerberg’s land.

Through the quiet title law, Zuckerberg aims to identify family members who share ownership of the 14 parcels. After a judge validates who the lawful owners are and their share of ownership, the judge can order that all the ownership shares be sold at auction if it isn’t feasible to physically divide the land among all owners. In one of the lawsuits, it is alleged that ownership of four parcels totaling 2 acres is divided among more than a hundred members of one family.

Zuckerberg aims to acquire these ownership interests at a public auction in which the property would go to the highest bidder.

In his Facebook post, Zuckerberg said he worked with the majority owners of each property and reached a voluntary deal considered fair by the sellers.

“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,” he said. “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 percent or 1 percent of a property don’t even know they are entitled to anything.”

Zuckerberg is referring to kuleana lands. Ownership of these lands often automatically passed to heirs of their first owner in absence of a will or deed, and then down through subsequent generations of descendents who in some cases now own just fractions of an interest in the property without documentation.

“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. It is important to us that we respect Hawaiian history and traditions.”

In some of the lawsuits, however, no known living owners have been identified. And in one case, Zuckerberg is believed to have bought his stake in the property from an owner who acquired the property by occupying it for more than 20 years.

Zuckerberg’s message on Facebook had attracted about 40,000 comments by Thursday evening, and included many critical ones, including one from Kauai resident Stephenie Brown, who said what the Facebook co-founder is doing isn’t right. “You’re quickly making a bad name for yourself and your family on this small island,” Brown wrote. “I’d get a new team who will teach you how to malama the aina (take care of the land).”

Part of Zuckerberg’s post claims that he is trying to pay people for something they don’t use and may not know they have — not forcing people off their land.

But Moses Haia III, an attorney with the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp., said an important part of land ownership for modern-day Native Hawaiians is their connection to ancestors. And a forced sale of their interest in the property, no matter how small, would sever that.

“Land was not a commodity,” he said. “It was a family member. It was a resource.”

Losing a connection to the land for some is more important than receiving compensation, Haia added. “It’s a loss of identity. It’s a loss of one’s own family history, and the foundation of who I am as a Hawaiian.”

State Rep. Kaniela Ing said Zuckerberg is continuing wrongs largely perpetrated by sugar cane plantation owners. “This is just a capstone of 200 years of injustices against Native Hawaiians,” he said. “Zuckerberg is merely completing the theft. He’s legitimizing those original sins. In my humble point of view, Zuckerberg is acting as a modern-day colonizer. We have a mainland billionaire exploiting our legal system in order to displace Hawaiian families from their ancestral lands.”

Ing said he plans to introduce legislation that will help targets in quiet title actions defend themselves.