Zuckerberg and Meta Reach Deep into Academia

Mark Zuckerberg’s personal philanthropy and his company, Meta, have collectively donated hundreds of millions of dollars to more than 100 US colleges and universities across the country, giving the CEO powerful potential leverage to influence the institutions. The recipients of these donations range from research powerhouses like the University of California, Berkeley, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to smaller institutions like Des Moines Area Community College. In some cases, the gifts can support entire academic programs or make up a big chunk of an institution’s overall funding. The issue of Zuckerberg’s philanthropic gifts and their potential influence on universities came into sharp relief when leading online disinformation expert Joan Donovan accused Harvard University of pushing her out of a job after receiving a $500 million donation from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Donovan, who filed a whistleblower complaint to the U.S. Education Department and the Massachusetts attorney general, said she was subjected to a mounting campaign of pressure and restrictions as her team worked on a project that was acutely embarrassing to Meta—an archive of internal Meta documents leaked by former Facebook employee Frances Haugen. Harvard said it could not find a faculty sponsor to oversee Donovan’s work and denied that she was fired.