John Matze says he has been fired as CEO of Parler, which was one of the social media services used to plan for Jan. 6. attack on the United States Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.
Matze’s announcement on Wednesday followed Amazon’s January 11 decision to remove Parler from its web hosting service for their unwillingness to remove the places that demanded the murder, rape and torture of politicians, technical executives and others. Google and Apple withdrew the Parler app from their online stores.
Matze, in a post on the professional networking site LinkedIn, thanked Parler employees. “That’s not a goodbye. For now, for now,” he wrote.
His LinkedIn page shows a January 2021 dismissal date:
LilnkedIn
Matze was linked to a Fox Business report citing a note from him to employees saying he was fired on Jan. 29 by the Parler board controlled by conservative donor Rebekah Mercer.
“The Parler board controlled by Rebekah Mercer decided to immediately terminate my position as Parler’s CEO,” the note said. “I did not participate in that decision.”
He was quoted as saying in the note that “in recent months I have found constant resistance to my view of the product, my firm belief in freedom of expression and my view of how the site should be managed. to Speak “.
But in a Facebook video confirming Matze’s expulsion, Parler co-founder Dan Bongino discusses Matze’s account and describes the fights at Parler’s higher levels.
Referring to Matze’s claims that he was a staunch supporter of free speech and product stability, Bongino said: “This is not accurate. … In fact, we were the ones who fought for it. recover.There were some really bad decisions made by people.and listen, we are not airing dirty clothes.This protects a company that is absolutely committed to freedom of speech … There were two different views for l ‘company … This vision of free speech? was ours, the other owners of the company “.
“… The relationship with Parler and the CEO did not work because the CEO’s vision was not ours. … Our vision was clear. We needed to stand up and defend ourselves. In the past some decisions were made. terrible that it will lead us … to be dragged by Amazon and other people. It was … me and the other two owners who were constantly next to this place we would be a free speech platform or it would be nothing. “
“… We could have been (again) in a week if we’d bent our knees and followed all the ridiculous edicts of Apple to become a heavy moderation site left on Twitter. That’s not the that we will do … … … We were a place of free expression and we will continue to be such and that is why it has taken so long to recover “.
A federal judge on Jan. 22 rejected Parler’s request to order Amazon to restore the web service. District Judge Barbara Rothstein in Seattle said she did not dismiss Parler’s claims against Amazon.
Matze, who co-founded Parler in 2018, said in a lawsuit that Parler’s abrupt shutdown was motivated at least in part by “the desire to deny President Trump a platform on any major social media service.”
Parler experienced an increase in users later Twitter banned Trump amid pressure to curb incendiary speech after the Jan. 6 attack that left five dead. Mr. Trump was also banned by Facebook and Instagram.
Trump considered joining Parler under a pseudonym, Matze said.
He told the court that Parler does not “tolerate incitement to violence or breaking the law” and has relied on volunteer “juries” to mark problematic places and vote on whether they should be removed.
Amazon said the suspension was a “last resort” to prevent Parler from embracing violent plans to disrupt the presidential transition.