This should come as a shock to absolutely no one, but in the early days of Facebook, a very fratty, and uninviting-to-women vibe prevailed at Facebook HQ, which included a mural that dubbed Facebook as Tau Beta Phi (it stood for The Face Book), which was covered in graffiti, some of it depicting large-breasted women. Also, there was graffiti in the women's bathroom depicting a woman taking a dump.

This all comes via a new book from Facebook employee #30, Noah Kagan, who's been trying to capitalize for a couple of years on his story of being fired from Facebook before his stock vested. He now has an ebook out called How I Lost $170 Million: My Time as #30 at Facebook, and ValleyWag points us to the following passage.

The office really was a fraternity. Our original office was emblazoned with the Greek letters Tau Beta Phi, AKA "The Face Book," and was covered with graffiti. To make the experience all the more authentic, there was actually graffiti of a woman shitting in the women's bathroom. It had to be removed when a VC investor decided to visit the office.

There was a patio on the roof where we would drink beers, smoke and just talk about our future. For a while, unsurprisingly, people called the office "The Frat House." When the first women were hired at the office, the situation, as you can imagine, could no longer remain the same.

An earlier book, The Boy Kings, by Facebook's second female employee Kate Losse, confirms that whole vibe, and the nature of the graffiti art.

And the graffiti art in question was likely the work of street artist David Choe, who was hired to do the work by Sean Parker in 2005 and who became famous (and parodied on the show Silicon Valley) for opting to be paid in stock which is now worth $200 million or so, instead of just pocketing a few thousand in cash.

There are some photos here depicting some of Choe's work on the walls of the early Facebook offices, but none of the woman shitting. Ah well.

[ValleyWag]
[Daily Mail]