Parler has reportedly terminated CEO John Matze
Parler CEO John Matze is apparently CEO no more. In a memo to staff sighted by Fox Business, Matze reportedly revealed that he has been unilaterally removed from the position and will be leaving the company.
"On January 29, 2021, the Parler board controlled by Rebekah Mercer decided to immediately terminate my position as CEO of Parler," Matze wrote. "I did not participate in this decision." Matze also texted Reuters to confirm his firing. Mercer is a powerful Republican donor who cofounded the site and supports it financially.
Mercer, Matze, and Jared Thomson cofounded Parler in 2018 as a gathering ground for people who believe conservative views are being censored on other social media platforms. (Spoiler alert: They aren't.) The platform has been offline since Jan. 15, when Amazon suspended Parler from its web-hosting services for violating its terms of service — a move prompted by the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Several other tech companies cracked down on Parler as well, with Google and Apple removing the app from their respective app stores due to safety concerns surrounding its lack of moderation prior to the AWS move. Matze continued to insist Parler would return, however it now seems he won't be one of the people behind it if it does.
"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," 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."
Matze later told the New York Times that he and Mercer disagreed on new policies. He said he wanted to block white supremacists and QAnon followers from posting on Parler before he was fired. Parler became a popular hangout for QAnon conspiracy theorists as they were squeezed out of other social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter for posting messages that boosted militarized social movements and led to offline harm, respectively. White supremacist memes were common on the site.
“I got dead silence as a response, and I took that dead silence as disagreement,” Matze told the Times as he described Mercer's reaction to his suggestion.
Parler's chief policy officer, Amy Peikoff, disputed Matze's version of events in a statement emailed to Mashable but didn't provide any details on what conspired from the company's perspective.
"Mr. Matze’s characterizations of the events and circumstances surrounding his termination from the Parler CEO position have been inaccurate and misleading," she said.
Matze will not be staying on at Parler in another role, instead taking some time off before "looking for new opportunities," he wrote in his memo.
"I’m not saying goodbye, just so long for now," wrote Matze.
Peikoff stated that Parler continues to focus on its relaunch, without providing any details of when that may be or what the site may look like upon its return.
UPDATE: Feb. 4, 2021, 10:19 a.m. PST This post was updated to include John Matze's comments to the New York Times about how he suggested to remove QAnon followers and white supremacists from Parler before he was terminated. We also included more information about Republican donor Rebekah Mercer's role at Parler.
UPDATE: Feb. 4, 2021, 1:16 p.m. PST This post has been updated to include comments from Parler's chief policy officer.
