NEW —

Last week, one of Mark Zuckerberg’s engineers asked him to resign as Facebook CEO.

But the engineer didn't even work for Facebook. They work for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, his philanthropy.

We go deep on the unrest at Zuckerberg’s charity. https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/6/26/21303664/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-chan-zuckerberg-initiative-philanthropy-tension

One of Mark Zuckerberg's employees gives him three choices in an extraordinary moment:

1. Resign as CEO of Facebook
2. Resign as CEO of CZI
3. Moderate Trump's content

That's when Zuckerberg flipped the tables.

https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/6/26/21303664/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-chan-zuckerberg-initiative-philanthropy-tension

We've got a bunch of scoops in this piece about how Facebook affects the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Will share a couple.

For starters, the Cambridge Analytica scandal ended up temporarily killing a political data startup that CZI acquired called Deck.

https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/6/26/21303664/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-chan-zuckerberg-initiative-philanthropy-tension

Color of Change, one of Facebook's loudest critics, had talks to take $2 million last year from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

They decided against it — turning down free money! — because they saw it as "dirty" Facebook millions.

https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/6/26/21303664/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-chan-zuckerberg-initiative-philanthropy-tension

Former employee of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative:

"Basically anything that we did at CZI was gated by whether it would drastically affect Facebook or not,” they said. “I eventually left the company thinking that CZI was Facebook’s PR machine.” https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/6/26/21303664/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-chan-zuckerberg-initiative-philanthropy-tension

Mark Zuckerberg to his employees on the inflammatory posts by Donald Trump — that Facebook won't take down:

"Trump is going to be judged by what he said. And it’s not going to be judged well, from my opinion.”

https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/6/26/21303664/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-chan-zuckerberg-initiative-philanthropy-tension

I found this anecdote a little funny, not going to lie.

When Cambridge Analytica happened and Facebook's stock tanked, some employees at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative thought it could affect their budget.

Facebook was still worth hundreds of billions!

https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/6/26/21303664/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-chan-zuckerberg-initiative-philanthropy-tension

One employee at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative told me they quit in large part due to concerns about Zuckerberg and Facebook.

“One of the reasons I ended up leaving was that I could no longer put aside this feeling of shame and almost guilt."

https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/6/26/21303664/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-chan-zuckerberg-initiative-philanthropy-tension

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative wants to give away money to some controversial racial justice groups.

But it is giving the money through an intermediary in part to manage any blowback from conservatives, a source says. (CZI disputes that's why.)

https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/6/26/21303664/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-chan-zuckerberg-initiative-philanthropy-tension

Here's the bigger picture:

Billionaires like to point to their philanthropy to justify their net worths. They cast the charity work as independent from their corporate practices.

But what the CZI story shows is that these are not so easily segregable.
https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/6/26/21303664/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-chan-zuckerberg-initiative-philanthropy-tension