Mark Zuckerberg Faces Criticism After His Luxury Yacht Refused To Help Stranded Boat

[RAMROD 117,269]

 

Mark Zuckerberg has faced questions over why a small cruise ship in south-east Alaska rescued a stranded skiff and its crew when his 387ft superyacht had been closer.

The Silicon Valley billionaire’s yacht, worth a reported $300m, is said to have “repeatedly” declined to assist when a nearby boat called for help last week.

Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook and Instagram owner Meta Platforms, was not on board at the time, a spokesperson told Forbes.

When a nearby 21ft skiff ran out of fuel between Petersburg and Juneau, the Alaska Beacon reported operators of a cruise ship that was further away than Zuckerberg’s yacht came to the rescue.

“I’m on a small-ship Alaska cruise with my son,” a passenger on the UnCruise Adventures ship Wilderness Legacy posted on Bluesky.

“Our boat rescued a stranded vessel last night and apparently we did that after the Coast Guard radioed Mark Zuckerberg’s yacht – which was closer – and they repeatedly refused to respond. (There was near unanimous booing when the captain announced this).”

But Brian Baker, a spokesperson for Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, told Forbes that the couple were not on board his yacht, named Launchpad. The yacht crew had been operating on a different radio channel, Baker told Forbes. “The assist was already under way” by the time they reviewed the broadcast, he said.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/09/zuckerberg-superyacht-boat-alaska?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky&CMP=bsky_gu

[Celloo Deng 56,368]

He’s so evil. Isn’t that illegal?

[phantasmas 12,408]

[LGAte 984]

1 hour ago, Celloo Deng said:

He’s so evil. Isn’t that illegal?

It might be. If not it should be. It’s pretty custom in most American law if you seem someone injured and you willfully ignore them and don’t get help, you can be held accountable for even manslaughter in some states. I don’t know why this would be any different. Leaving people out in cold Alaskan waters? 
 

Also them being on a different radio channel is a farce because my grandpa and grandma boat and they told me you are a shitty captain/crew if you aren’t regularly checking and sifting through the channels. There is protocols for this that they definitely weren’t following if they truly were just “on another channel”. I know there aren’t a lot of boat people here but like….that should be common sense. If you are out on open water you should regularly be checking what’s around you.

 

This is definitely a case where the crew contacted Zuckerberg and he didn’t want anything to do with it because of the legal, so they just opted out.

 

I actually DO get from a legal standpoint why rescuing a random person could be risky because you could get sued if you help someone and they get on your boat and get injured. Especially knowing people could find out you’re a billionaire and try and make something up. But this is exactly the problem with exorbitantly wealthy people existing- even if Mark and his wife weren’t on the boat, the fact that rich people have to weigh in being sued for their riches as a valid factor to NOT help people shows how being rich disconnects people from humanity and reality. 
 

They will claim they didn’t know any better but you are telling me one of the wealthiest men on earth doesn’t have the best of the best sonar on his yacht? 
You’re telling me that he is that lackadaisical? His team is just casually not paying attention to what boats and objects are going near it? LOL

 

BULLSHIT

[Hydrangea 7,951]

It could be the most illegal thing in the world but he would never face consequences. The law protects the rich but does not bind them. The law binds us but does not protect us 

[SavetheEarthNow 173]

And why are politicians around the world so eager to give that twirp a bunch of land and authorization to destroy communities and the planet with his absolute garbage AI data centres? 

[Ayesha Erotica 1,925]

Does anyone remember the recent shark movie "Something in the water" and the scene, where a luxury yacht comes around and simply swims away, leaving the group in the water and not helping them? 

This totally feels like it. 

 

[HotLikeMexico 6,648]

Hopefully nobody saves him when his yacht croaks. 

[Apec 324]

My father worked in Global shipping/opened his own small branch of a large Japanese shipping company in my country. He once was the last in office (as always), due to head out to a late-night meeting/dinner together with my mom to receive possible new very jetlagged Japanese clients. He got the call right before he was leaving that one of the overarching company's container ships was in serious trouble due to an immense unpredictable storm in the Pacific right were they were supposed to be and that no other offices seemed to be open (the ship's possible radio calls weren't getting through to any Coast Guard or other ship, they had seemingly disappeared). My dad, in Western Europe no less, hurried to a desk area where he had like four phones within reach at the same time and coordinated the initial rescue effort on his own - calling all Coast guards along the lost ship's route, relaying messages to both cruise ships and merchant vessels in the area, and so much more - and stayed on those lines until like four hours later when every person was safely found and brought ashore, everybody unharmed, luckily. My mother had come to the dinner straight from work and since cell phones weren't widespread yet sat there with those clients for all those hours, afraid something had happened because he didn't pick up in his office. When he finally appeared he told everyone what had happened and those sweet people just started clapping for him, en masse. You never expect you'd need to do that from your desk and legally he could've refused but if no one else can it's just what you DO, my dad said. You don't think about it. He'd have done it had he got a similar plea for help from ANY ship out there.

In maritime law it's indeed always been "best practice" for any vessel remotely close to try to help ships in distress - There have even been collisions between passenger and merchant ships where the much smaller merchant one looked more heavily damaged but when checks were performed they were somehow much more seaworthy than the former and went back and picked up like 80% of the fleeing passengers (the rest was done by another vessel) and brought them to shore safely. But then, backing up a bit, you have the RMS Titanic itself, which literally had the SS Californian about 15 nautical miles away and because their wireless telegraph operator had already gone to bed/deckhands saw distress signals but the Captain wouldn't bother waking the operator up for some reason it was the RMS Carpathia, 4-5 hours later, after hearing the distress calls and having gone full steam towards the Titanic's last known location, that became the first vessel to pick up survivors. The SS Californian/its owners were never even fined because of a loophole that's likely to be used by Zuck and co., sadly. So these d**ks have always existed...

In 1974 it finally became a strict legal duty for ships in a seriously huge radius to rescue/provide help (basically unless you are sinking yourself), through for example the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the SOLAS Convention (Safety of Life at Sea). Provided, sadly, you received/heard the radio distress signals of the ship OR Coast Guard, which again, these wastes of space can claim they didn't hear since there was no affirmation coming from their side so "they didn't know".  And if challenged in Court Zuck will probably flatten anyone with the most expensive legal teams out there. The lack of humanity isn't surprising anymore but man these billionaires live in a different world. 

Edited Monday at 03:07 PM by Apec

[Lord Mayhem 3,457]

Isn't it maritime law that the closest available ship has to assist if they can???

Wtf...

[Apec 324]

4 minutes ago, Lord Mayhem said:

Isn't it maritime law that the closest available ship has to assist if they can???

Wtf...

Yeah, it has been International Maritime law since 1974 for all other ships in the area of a ship in distress... That aren't either sinking themselves or THE BIG CAVEAT: Those that have heard the distress calls (so people like Zuckerberg can and do play deaf ).

Luckily most actually do their very best, normally, but Zuck & co. ... Yikes, to say the VERY least.

[Bronco 26,029]

Just worth pointing out from what I've seen 

Maritime law is that you have to assist in the case of emergency distress (e.g. a ship sinking like the Titanic). 

From what I've read, the coast guard didn't flag this out to ships in the area like the Zuckyacht as an emergency request for assistance but rather a general request. 
As such, it's not illegal under maritime law - its just an incredibly d*ckish move. 

[Lord Mayhem 3,457]

1 hour ago, Apec said:

Yeah, it has been International Maritime law since 1974 for all other ships in the area of a ship in distress... That aren't either sinking themselves or THE BIG CAVEAT: Those that have heard the distress calls (so people like Zuckerberg can and do play deaf ).

Luckily most actually do their very best, normally, but Zuck & co. ... Yikes, to say the VERY least.

But then again...what are they gonna do? Slap a fine to a billionaire? Threaten jail time when he can just post bail? Like the rich clearly have no fear of abiding to laws when their endless money will just take care of that

[Apec 324]

5 hours ago, Lord Mayhem said:

But then again...what are they gonna do? Slap a fine to a billionaire? Threaten jail time when he can just post bail? Like the rich clearly have no fear of abiding to laws when their endless money will just take care of that

I know... There's normally heavy monetary penalties attached for vessel owners of these incidents - most are companies (for maritime law this is regarded as an incredible breach) but this doesn't seem near any Coast Guards' urgency list so it's an even easier case should these bastards ever face court because his lawyer team would be err... top tier and just be able to claim the crew/passengers of the yacht didn't receive distress calls and not even a fine would be issued. These billionaires truly live in a different world than ours.  I'm with you, man!

Edited Monday at 11:34 PM by Apec

[Apec 324]

6 hours ago, Bronco said:

Just worth pointing out from what I've seen 

Maritime law is that you have to assist in the case of emergency distress (e.g. a ship sinking like the Titanic). 

From what I've read, the coast guard didn't flag this out to ships in the area like the Zuckyacht as an emergency request for assistance but rather a general request. 
As such, it's not illegal under maritime law - its just an incredibly d*ckish move. 

1974 finally created laws around it (UN with UNCLOS and the SOLAS convention) - sorry, that got drilled into me with case studies and everything - but I agree, without a Coast Guard's urgent emphasis it's much more difficult to enforce. Plus the loopholes are already insane. In practice (as if that means anything to these psychos) you've breached international maritime law if able to receive direct distress calls in a seaworthy vessel and have ignored them. As if they give a damn...