A member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab plans to resign after the research center and its director accepted money from Jeffrey Epstein, the deceased sex trafficker, the Boston Globe reports. Ethan Zuckerman, director of the lab’s Center for Civic Media, told officials at MIT of his plans last week. “I am ashamed of my institution today and starting the hard work of figuring out how to leave the Lab while taking care of my students and staff,” Zuckerman wrote in a note reviewed by the Globe. “I no longer feel I can continue working on issues of social justice under the banner of the Media Lab.” Last week, Joi Ito, the Media Lab’s director, apologized publicly for the lab’s ties to Epstein. In an open letter, Ito said that he had invited Epstein to the Media Lab, traveled to his homes, and taken money from Epstein for the research center and for Ito’s own investments. Ito said he plans to raise the amount that Epstein gave to the Media Lab and donate it to nonprofits that work with survivors of trafficking, and to return the money Epstein invested in his personal funds.
