A city supervisor in San Francisco is calling for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s name to be removed from a public hospital, citing his refusal to place restrictions on President Trump’s posts.
“Massive advertising boycott of Facebook for failing to regulate hate speech & disinformation,” a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Matt Haney, said in a string of tweets on Sunday. “Huge staff walk outs & protests. Cozy relationship w Trump, $ to Republicans. Much of it seems directly tied to Mark Zuckerberg Why is his name still on our SF public general hospital?”
Zuckerberg, one of the country’s richest businessmen, donated $75 million to the hospital in 2015. The facility is known as the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.
Critics, including some Facebook employees, have expressed outrage that Zuckerberg has not taken more steps to curb statements Trump has made on the platform that are either misleading or offensive.
“We can continue to stand for free expression, understanding its messiness but believing that the long journey towards greater progress requires confronting ideas that challenge us, or we can decide the cost is simply too great,” he said during a speech last year. “I’m here today because I believe we must continue to stand for free expression.”
Haney criticized Zuckerberg and suggested the city shouldn’t embrace him or the way he runs his company.
“The option the nurses prefer — a ballot measure calling for it to be changed, put up for a public vote. Their view is that if it passed, Zuckerberg wouldn’t sue to stop the name from being removed. The name on the PUBLIC hospital is unseemly, even regardless of his recent inactions … NOBODY wants the hospital to lose tens of millions, especially not the frontline nurses, of course not. No one is advocating for an approach that would lead to that. Their goal is to get to a place where it could be withdrawn without losing money,” Haney said.
Haney added that he is grateful for Zuckerberg’s money, even if he believes his name should be stripped from the hospital’s walls.
“$75 million is a big donation, and it’s welcomed and appreciated. It shouldn’t require permanent naming rights, advertising, on our public hospital,” he said. “SF taxpayers have given billions to the hospital, it’s their building.”
$75 million is a big donation, and it’s welcomed and appreciated. It shouldn’t require permanent naming rights, advertising, on our public hospital. SF taxpayers have given billions to the hospital, it’s their building.
— Matt Haney (@MattHaneySF) June 28, 2020
Facebook did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
