Just a few hours ago we wrote about the Parler to ask about the status of the free speech app after CEO John Matze said back in early January that he was ‘confident’ the platform will return back fully by the end of January.
Now, we just learned that the Parler board has terminated CEO John Matze, according to a memo Matze sent to staffers, which was obtained by Fox News. Matze went online to says that he’s been terminated by the board but “did not participate in this decision.”
“On January 29, 2021, the Parler board controlled by Rebekah Mercer decided to immediately terminate my position as CEO of Parler. I did not participate in this decision,” Matze wrote. “I understand that those who now control the company have made some communications to employees and other third parties that have unfortunately created confusion and prompted me to make this public statement.”
Matze said that over the past few months he has been “met constant resistance” to his original vision for the free speech platform following Amazon’s decision to shut down Parler’s servers following reports that rioters who seized the US Capitol on January 6 had used Parler to organize.
Below is Matze’s statement:
“Over the past few months, I’ve met constant resistance to my product vision, my strong belief in free speech and my view of how the Parler site should be managed. For example, I advocated for more product stability and what I believe is a more effective approach to content moderation,” Matze wrote. “I have worked endless hours and fought constant battles to get the Parler site running but at this point, the future of Parler is no longer in my hands. I want to thank the Parler employees, the people on Parler and Parler supporters for their tireless work and devotion to the company. They are an amazing group of diverse, hardworking and talented individuals and I have the utmost respect for them. Many of them have become my second family.”
Matze wrote that over the past few months he has been “met constant resistance” to his original vision for the social media platform following Amazon Web Services’ decision to shut Parler down for failure to moderate “egregious content” related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Updates: Dan Bongino, one of the three board members, just had an emergency press conference where he contradicted Matze’s claim about why he was let go. Bongino asked millions of Parler users not to believe Matze, saying “Don’t believe the BS!” You can watch the press conference on Facebook.
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