Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab co-founder Nicholas Negroponte on Wednesday defended director Joichi Ito’s decision to take money from accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein years ago, saying at an internal meeting that he would accept the funds even now. “If you wind back the clock,” he said, even knowing about the allegations against Epstein now, “I would still say, ‘Take it,’” he was quoted as saying by the MIT Technology Review. He repeated, “‘Take it.’” Some people in the audience were reportedly audibly shocked by Negroponte’s comments. In a statement to The Boston Globe after the meeting, Negroponte said he told Ito at the time that “he should” take the donation from Epstein, and “I would say that again based on what we knew at the time.” Ito revealed in August that the lab had received funding from Epstein, and at the meeting Wednesday revealed the total amount of $525,000. Ito’s disclosures have led to the resignations of two members of the lab, former director of the Media Lab’s Center for Civic Media Ethan Zuckerman, and Media Lab visiting scholar J. Nathan Matias.
