A San Francisco politician is seeking to remove Mark Zuckerberg's name from the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center despite the Facebook chairman, CEO and co-founder's $75 million donation to the hospital, according to Business Insider.
San Francisco politician Aaron Peskin reportedly asked the city attorney Nov. 27 to provide an outline on how to remove Mr. Zuckerberg's name from the hospital and to revisit the city's policy on offering naming rights in exchange for gifts, according to documents obtained by Business Insider. Mr. Zuckerberg and his wife donated $75 million to the hospital in 2015 in exchange for naming rights.
The move to remove Mr. Zuckerberg's name comes after a protest in May by nurses at the hospital who called on hospital officials to consider changing the facility's name after news broke earlier this year of Facebook's involvement with Cambridge Analytica, a company that allegedly harvested the personal data of millions of Facebook users without their consent and used that information for political purposes.
"What message does it send when we are willing to brand our public facilities in exchange for one-time donations, while the entities behind those one-time donations turn around and oppose even the most modest taxes, which — when allocated to our general fund — actually give the citizens of San Francisco oversight for how those funds are spent," Mr. Peskin said, according to Business Insider.
Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital CEO Susan Ehrlich, MD, told Business Insider in a statement: "Naming is an important convention in philanthropy that encourages additional donors, and our hospital relies on the support of the community, the city and county of San Francisco, and generous private philanthropy. We are honored that Dr. Chan and Mr. Zuckerberg thought highly enough of our hospital and staff, and the health of San Franciscans, to donate their resources to our mission."
A Facebook spokesperson did not respond to Business Insider's requests for comment.
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