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Dr. Joan Donovan, a former Harvard disinformation scholar, is claiming in a brand new disclosure that the college’s cozy relationship with alumni Mark Zuckerberg and his spouse Priscilla Chan, led to her termination.
Donovan is thought to be one of many world’s main social media disinformation consultants. In 2021, she testified before the House and Senate subcommittees about misinformation and social media.
Within the whistleblower declaration made public on Monday, Donovan claims her research on media manipulation campaigns have been restricted following a $500 million donation from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to fund a man-made intelligence middle in 2021.
“From that very day ahead, I used to be handled in a different way by the college to the purpose the place I misplaced my job,” Donovan told The Logic.
The disclosure was despatched on Donovan’s behalf to Harvard and U.S. Schooling Secretary Miguel Cardona by Whistleblower Help final week.
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The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is a philanthropic group run by Zuckerberg and Chan.
Donovan claims she was terminated in 2022 after Harvard shut down her analysis. She had labored on the college since 2018 operating the Expertise and Social Change Analysis Challenge for the Shorenstein Middle at Harvard College’s John F. Kennedy College of Authorities.
The disclosure requires an investigation into the Kennedy College and “all applicable corrective motion.”
Harvard, in the meantime, has refused Donovan’s allegations and claims she wasn’t fired.
“Allegations of unfair therapy and donor interference are false. The narrative is stuffed with inaccuracies and baseless insinuations, significantly the suggestion that Harvard Kennedy College allowed Fb to dictate its strategy to analysis,” stated Harvard spokesperson James Francis Smith in a statement to CNN.
“By longstanding coverage to uphold tutorial requirements, all analysis tasks at Harvard Kennedy College must be led by school members. Joan Donovan was employed as a employees member (not a college member) to handle a media manipulation venture. When the unique school chief of the venture left Harvard, the College tried for a while to determine one other school member who had time and curiosity to guide the venture. After that effort didn’t succeed, the venture was given greater than a yr to wind down. Joan Donovan was not fired, and most members of the analysis workforce selected to stay on the College in new roles,” he stated.
Entrepreneur reached out to Meta for remark.
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The disclosure notes that the Chan Zuckerberg donation got here shortly after the 2021 “Fb Papers” whistleblower criticism from former Fb worker Frances Haugen.
Harvard made the papers public with the assistance of Donovan, who archived the paperwork for public analysis.
Since Donovan’s departure from Harvard, she introduced in August she is becoming a member of Boston College’s Faculty of Communication as an assistant professor.
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