San Francisco General Hospital may remove Zuckerberg's name
Marlene Awaad | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer and founder of Facebook Inc., listens during the Viva Technology conference in Paris, France, on Thursday, May 24, 2018.
Facebook's scandals may not cost CEO Mark Zuckerberg his board seat, but it could strip his name from a San Francisco public hospital, according to a report by the San Francisco Chronicle.
On Tuesday, San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin reportedly proposed the city remove Zuckerberg's name from San Francisco General Hospital, which was renamed after the Facebook CEO and his wife Priscilla Chan donated $75 million to the hospital's foundation in 2015. Chan previously worked at the hospital as a pediatrician.
Peskin cited Facebook's series of scandals it has faced over the past year as he asked the city attorney to begin working on a procedure for removing Zuckerberg's name, the Chronicle reported. At the Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, Peskin reportedly referenced the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the recent New York Times report claiming Facebook hired an opposition research firm to paint liberal financier George Soros as the force behind an anti-Facebook movement.
"It is not normal for private entities to use that information to spread, and in this case anti-Semitic, conspiracy theories on platforms they control," Peskin said, according to The Chronicle. "It is not normal for Mark Zuckerberg and [Facebook Chief Operating Officer] Sheryl Sandberg to refuse to accept responsibility and to publicly distance themselves from acts that they have personally instigated. ... This is about the integrity of institutions and spaces that are overwhelmingly funded by public money and taxpayer dollars."
At the time of Zuckerberg and Chan's donation, hospital officials believed it was the largest single private donation by individuals to a public hospital in the country, SFGate reported. In May, nurses at the hospital already began to protest the name, with one even taping over "Zuckerberg" on the hospital's signage, the New York Times reported.
Facebook, the hospital and the city attorney's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
