Zuckerberg Name to be Stripped From Hospital over Facebook Controversies

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Facebook CEO and Founder Mark Zuckerberg's name is to be removed from a San Fransisco hospital after the supervisor stated the social media giant "no longer serves the public interest."

The supervisor of the Zuckerberg San Fransisco General Hospital and Trauma Center said on Tuesday that the city attorney is drafting legislation that would remove the Facebook CEO’s name from the facility.

The new legislation will not only strip Zuckerberg's name from the building, but it will create changes in the way the city names its public institutions in the future, The Mercury News reported.

The Hospital was renamed in 2015 after the Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chen donated $75 million.

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According to Fox News, Facebook was viewed more favorably at the time, but a spate of recent controversies, including Cambridge Analytica and the company’s hiring of a Republican-affiliated firm to smear its critics, has brought the company's political clout to an all-time low.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin on Tuesday asked City Attorney Dennis Herrera to draft legislation that would scrape Zuckerberg’s name from the hospital because he believed Facebook’s no longer served the public interest.

Peskin told The Times: “I really want this City to re-assess the value of giving up these naming rights and the message this sends relative to our role as stewards of the public trust.

"More than just about naming rights, this is about the integrity of institutions and spaces that are overwhelmingly funded by the public and which exist to serve the public.”

For the legislation to proceed, lawmakers would allow the public 30 days to comment before the matter is put to a vote.

City officials have yet to decide what to do with Zuckerberg’s original donation should his name be removed from the hospital.

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In the summer, following news of Facebook’s recent controversies, a group of nurses protested the use of Zuckerberg's name, saying the name makes patients wary and called to have it removed.

According they have renewed their efforts to have it removed.

“We are in charge of keeping our most vulnerable people private and protected,” said Heather Ali, who works at the hospital in nursing administration.

“Now people wonder, ‘How much is my privacy protected at a hospital with that name on it?’”

Megan Brizzolara, a nurse at the hospital, said the Zuckerberg name “scares” patients.

Renaming the hospital was one of the conditions of taking the $75 million gift and was approved with a vote by the city’s Board of Supervisors.

“Look it’s a double-edged sword, and I totally get the loyalty to the name as it was historically, but this is a thing that’s between the donors and the Board of Supervisors completely,” said Brent Andrew, the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital’s chief communications officer.

Some on the board at the time now question their decision.

“Had we known what we know now, perhaps we wouldn’t have accepted the funds from Zuckerberg,” said John Avalos, the former supervisor.

A dozen current and former nurses held a small demonstration outside the hospital, led by Sasha Cuttler, a nurse.

Guy Vandenberg, another nurse, came down in scrubs and on one placard wrote a diagnosis (“malwareberg”) and on another sketched out a fake prescription: “Uninstall Zuckerberg.”