Mark Zuckerberg spends on security and ‘defund police’ groups
Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t practice what he preaches when it comes to public safety.
The tech tycoon’s company has spent more than $40 million on Zuckerberg’s personal security over the past three years — while at the same time his family-run foundation has donated millions of dollars to groups that want to defund or even abolish the police.
Since 2020, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) has donated $3 million to PolicyLink, the organization behind DefundPolice.org, according to investigative reporter Lee Fang.
The anti-cop group boasts on its website that its funds efforts to “diminish the role of policing in communities, and empower alternative visions for public safety,” though it fails to list what those substitutes may be.
CZI, which Zuckerberg founded with wife Priscilla Chan, has also donated more than $2.5 million to Solidaire, Fang reported, which seeks to do away with policing.
Solidaire reported in a June 2022 overview of its Defund the Police for Funders program that it proudly led the “Anti-Police Terror Project,” which claims to have played a significant role in stripping the Oakland Police Department’s budget of $18 million.
The Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of 150 activist groups funded by Solidaire, said in a press release that “the police do not keep us safe, and they do not prevent nor stop crime.”
“Pouring more money into the system of policing only threatens the very lives they’re purported to protect,” it added.
That concept apparently stops at CZI’s door.
The foundation provides annual funds to a community group tied to the Redwood City Police Department — the local law enforcement agency that patrols both Meta’s headquarters in Melo Park, Calif., and CZI’s offices in Redwood City, Calif., Fang wrote on his Substack on Friday.
Representatives for Meta and CZI did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Meta, meanwhile, increased its pretax spending on Zuckerberg’s security to $14 million in 2023, up from $10 million over the last several years, according to a company filing released in February.
Zuckerberg, who has thrown himself into becoming a jiu-jitsu master, is allowed to use the money to pay for “additional personnel, equipment, services, residential improvement” and other safety-related needs.
The documents noted such a costly security detail was necessary due to the 39-year-old’s “position and importance to Meta,” and the fact that he “has requested to only receive $1 in annual salary and does not receive any bonus payments, equity awards or other incentive compensation.”
In 2021, Meta reportedly earmarked a total of $27 million for an “overall security program” that ensured the safety of Zuckerberg, Chan and their three daughters.
A cool $10 million of that was the “annual pretax allowance,” while the rest reportedly covered Zuckerberg’s safe, private air travel.
It wouldn’t be the first time Zuckerberg has been seemingly hypocritical when it comes to protecting his family.
Earlier this week, the Meta boss sparked outrage for posting a photo to Instagram where he concealed his two eldest daughters’ faces with emojis.
Zuckerberg, who has been touting the launch of his “Twitter killer” app Threads, was seen in the photo wearing a US flag-themed cowboy hat while standing next to Chan, who is holding their infant daughter, Aurelia, in her hands.
While four-month-old Aurelia’s face is not covered, her older sisters — Maxima, 7, and August, 5 — have their faces obscured.
Instagram users criticized Zuckerberg for insisting on privacy for his children even as his company has been accused of monetizing user data that has led to personal information becoming public.
“Even Zuck doesn’t trust his platforms to put his kids faces up,” one Instagram user commented.
Another Instagram user wrote: “Take notes. The founder of Meta doesn’t want his daughter’s faces posted to social media.”
