San Francisco board condemns naming of local hospital for Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, wife Priscilla Chan
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 10-1 in favor of the resolution.
San Francisco officials passed a resolution Tuesday night which condemned the naming of a local hospital after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan.
San Francisco General Hospital was renamed the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital in 2015 after the couple donated $75 million to help fund a new treatment center. However, local officials grew increasingly critical of the name change in recent years as Facebook faced scrutiny over its business practices and approach to user data privacy.
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The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 10-1 in favor of the resolution. The vote was nonbinding and the hospital will not be required to reverse the name change.
“There's been growing public outrage that this important public health institution was named and the naming rights were sold to the highest bidder and to somebody as controversial as Mr. Zuckerberg and Facebook," Supervisor Gordon Mar said regarding the resolution.
The full board voted on the resolution after a referral from the three-person government audit and oversight committee. Board President Norman Yee was the only member to vote against the resolution, but noted that he would support efforts to reverse the name change.
San Francisco General Hospital Foundation CEO Kim Meredith said the Zuckerbergs’ donation had helped to fund necessary equipment upgrades at the facility.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FB | NO DATA AVAILABLE | - | - | - |
“We are proud that the hospital now bears their names and disappointed in attempts to condemn it – especially during the COVID-19 pandemic when the impact of their gift has never been greater," Meredith said in a statement.
The current naming rights deal has a 50-year term.
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Facebook is the subject of several ongoing antitrust lawsuits. A bipartisan coalition of 48 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit earlier this month accusing the social media giant of establishing an “illegal monopoly” through anti-competitive business practices.
In a separate lawsuit, the Federal Trade Commission sued to unwind Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. Facebook is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.