Facebook: Can San Francisco rename its hospital Zuckerberg?

“Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center”: these big letters in capitals, erected on a pretty lawn, rise in front of an imposing building irradiated by the Californian sun. They have been enthroned on their plinth for five years, when the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, and his wife Priscilla Chan donated $ 75 million to the health facility, renamed for the occasion. And this is not about to change: an agreement initialed by the mayor of the city thus obliges the hospital to keep its name until at least 2065.

But much ink has flowed since this signing. The Cambridge Analytica scandal, which erupted in 2018, opened the season of compromising business for the firm, each further damaging the image of the young billionaire. A black series which today pushes some elected officials of the San Francisco city council to wish that the hospital be renamed, as reported by our colleagues from the Figaro in an article dated December 9, 2020.

Symbolic vote

“The only public hospital in San Francisco should not bear the name of a person responsible for endangering public health in our country and around the world,” railed elected Gordon Mar on Twitter. And to continue: “This hospital belongs to people whose health, well-being and privacy are endangered by the decisions made by the man whose name it bears. ”

But renaming the hospital could force the latter to return the tidy sum paid by Mark Zuckerberg. But there is no question of it. The elected officials, angry, therefore propose to organize a symbolic vote on December 15 condemning the honi “naming”.