The controversial wall that the founder of Facebook is building in Hawaii

The expansion of this wall around the Zuckerberg property in Hawaii can be seen in this Google Street View photo

A project - architectural, not corporate - Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, is causing controversy in an island of Hawaii.

Zuckerberg is building a stone wall nearly two meters high around a property bought on the island of Kauai, the fourth largest in the archipelago, also known as "garden island".

The land of 240 hectares (about 2.4 square kilometers), was purchased in 2014 and includes the beach, an old plantation of sugarcane and an organic farm.

The controversy is because the wall being built around the earth would be blocking the view of the beach.

"It's sad that someone come, buy a huge tract of land and the first thing to do is block the view that this community has for years," said a resident of the island, Gy Hall, the local newspaper TGI.

It is not known what the full extent of Zuckerberg wall as construction began just a few weeks.

No breeze

Neighbors of the wall have spoken against the construction.

"I'm superinfeliz with it. I know that the earth belongs to Zuckerberg. Money is no problem for him. I am lower than the wall and when I walk I see more than a wall," said Donna Mcmillen, who lives near the property Facebook founder.

Shosana Chantara, which is also nearby building, said the wall has already damaged the air circulation. "It's hot behind this wall. How is a landfill, the sea breeze is not blowing," he added.


When the inventor of Facebook bought more than 700 acres on Kauai, two years ago, the residents were nervous, "wrote this Instagram user who posted a picture of the wall

According to the newspaper, some residents have preached posters and tickets on the wall, calling for its overthrow. Others wrote to Zuckerberg himself, but have not yet been answer.

Another neighbor heard by TGI did not think the wall so bad. Thomas Beebe lives next to the land bought by Zuckerberg and said that the wall is an "attraction."

Brian Catlin, interviewed by the British newspaper The Daily Mail, said Zuckerberg paid "a lot of money (for the land) and therefore can do whatever you want."

Noise
Shawn Smith, a spokesman for the project, sent a written statement to various media, in which he stated that this type of building "is often used as a sound barrier to reduce the noise from the streets and this is its main purpose" .

"The barrier follows all the rules and regulations and our team is committed to ensuring that any development respects the local landscape and the environment, and the neighbors are taken into account," he added.

The BBC World service in Spanish BBC contacted directly with Facebook and with the company that manages its public relations in the UK.

There was no response to the first request. In the second request, the response was that the company "has no comment about it."

However, bloggers, magazines and websites specializing in technology did not fail to remember the words of the founder of Facebook in another context.

"I hear frightening voices calling for the construction of walls and distanciemos the people whom they call 'the other'," Zuckerberg said in April, in an allusion to the plans of the presumptive Republican nominee for president of the United States, Donald Trump, of build a wall on the border with Mexico.