Mozilla CEO steps down after social media furore

Mozilla CEO steps down after social media furore

Brendan Eich has stepped down as Mozilla’s chief executive following the controversy surrounding revelations he had donated to campaigns that fought against marriage equality in California.

His resignation was announced this morning by Mozilla executive chairwoman Mitchell Baker, just days after Eich was promoted last Tuesday (March 25) as the new boss of the company behind internet browser Firefox.

 

Soon after Eich’s promotion last week, it was revealed he had donated $1000 to the Proposition 8 campaign to ban same-sex marriage in California.

The controversy and social media furore that followed prompted Mozilla to go into damage control.

Angry Mozilla employees took to Twitter to demand Eich’s resignation, and developers Hampton Catlin and husband Michael went public with their decision to boycott Mozilla.

In Australia, Victorian AIDS Council / Gay Men’s Health Centre also announced last week that it was joining the growing boycott of products from Mozilla.

Earlier this week, former chief executives Gary Kovacs and  John Lilly, plus Ellen Siminoff, quit the Mozilla Foundation board over Eich’s promotion, while  popular dating site OK Cupid also made a public move to boycott Firefox by encouraging users to use other web browsers such as Chrome, Safari or Explorer.

Yesterday, the Star Observer ran a poll which found that 53.21 per cent of readers will never again use Firefox as an internet browser on their computer, while 22.02 per cent said they never used it anyway.

Earlier this week, Eich — one of Mozilla’s co-founders in 1998 — declared he would not resign, telling The Guardian that his donation was personal.

At the time of writing, Eich had not yet made a public statement about his resignation.

 

 

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