Parler has fired CEO John Matze just weeks after the conservative social media site was shut down over violent and incendiary posts about the Capitol siege
Parler has fired CEO John Matze just weeks after the conservative social media site was shut down over violent and incendiary posts about the Capitol siege.
Matze blamed Rebekah Mercer, the 47-year-old heiress who hired and then fired Steve Bannon at Breitbart, and controls the board.
Parler was founded in 2018 by Mercer, John Matze and his college friend Jared Thomson.
In a memo Matze sent out to staff this week, first obtained by Fox News, he pointedly said that the decision was made by a board ‘controlled by Rebekah Mercer’.
The former CEO said he had been met with ‘constant resistance’ to his ‘belief in free speech’ and vision for Parler after Amazon Web Services shut down the site for ‘egregious content’ related to the Capitol riots.
On Friday, the Parler board decided to to terminate Matze, he wrote in his memo.
‘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.’
‘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.
‘Over the past few weeks, 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.
On Friday, the Parler board decided to to terminate Matze, he wrote in his memo
‘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 plans to take a few weeks off before searching for a new role.
‘After that, I’ll be looking for new opportunities where my technical acumen, vision and the causes I am passionate about will be required and respected,’ he wrote.
‘I want to thank all the people of Parler that supported me and the platform.
‘This has been the true American Dream: an idea from a living room to a company of considerable value. I’m not saying goodbye, just so long for now.’
Mercer, who Matze blamed for his firing, is the daughter of Robert Mercer, a hedge fund manager and the co-founder of the now-defunct political data-analysis firm Cambridge Analytica.
Matze blamed Rebekah Mercer, pictured with her father Robert in 2017, for his firing as CEO
The Mercers have been prominent supporters of President Donald Trump and conservative causes, and donated millions to Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Robert Mercer, the former co-CEO of hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, and his wife Diana donated $15.5 million to a variety of different organizations to help elect Trump, and donated a further $1 million for the inaugural committee.
They also provided substantial support to Breitbart, with Steve Bannon – who they had financed for years – at the helm.
It was reportedly the Mercers who convinced Trump to hire Bannon and Kellyanne Conway as his campaign managers, in 2016.
‘The Mercers laid the groundwork for the Trump revolution,’ Bannon said in 2017.
The Mercers dropped Bannon, however, after he spoke to Michael Wolff for his book Fire and Fury, and Bannon was forced out at Breitbart shortly after.
Their support for Trump also dramatically waned: in 2020 they gave $1.4 million to conservative causes, which represents over a 90 per cent drop in contributions from the Mercer family compared with the year prior.
In November she revealed that she had been financing the new app.
‘John and I started Parler to provide a neutral platform for free speech, as our founders intended, and also to create a social media environment that would protect data privacy,’ she said.
‘The ever increasing tyranny and hubris of our tech overlords demands that someone lead the fight against data mining, and for the protection of free speech online.
‘That someone is Parler, a beacon to all who value their liberty, free speech, and personal privacy.’
The app rocketed into the spotlight after conservatives flocked to the site, when they were forced from Twitter.
Not all the attention was welcome.
Matze said on January 12 that he had been receiving death threats, after Trump was kicked off Twitter.
Matze said on January 13 that he was receiving death threats after the app was shut down
‘People are threatening my life,’ he said. ‘I can’t go home tonight.
‘So this is really a lot, you know. This is not just our civil liberties. [Big Tech] can shut down a billion-dollar company, half-a-billion dollar company overnight.’
Apple, Google and Amazon banned Parler from their app stores due to a failure to moderate ‘egregious content’ posted by users related to the violent siege.
On January 19 Parler reappeared with the help of a Russian-owned web security service.
Parler’s domain name is now registered with Epik Inc., a website services company based in Sammamish, Washington, according to public records made available by internet regulator Icann.
Epik is also the domain registrar for Gab, another less restrictive social networking site popular with the far right.