On March 24, 2014, Mozilla promoted
Brendan Eich to the role of CEO. This led to boycotts and protests from the LGBT community and its supporters, as Eich previously donated US$1,000
[26] of his own money in 2008 in support of
California's Proposition 8, a California ballot proposition and state constitutional amendment in opposition to same-sex marriage.
[27] Eich's donation first became public knowledge in 2012, while he was Mozilla’s chief technical officer, leading to angry responses on Twitter—including the use of the hashtag "#wontworkwithbigots".
[28]
Protests also emerged in 2014 following the announcement of Eich's appointment as CEO of Mozilla. U.S. companies
OkCupid and
CREDO Mobile received media coverage for their objections, with the former asking its users to boycott the browser,
[29] while Credo amassed 50,000 signatures for a petition that called for Eich's resignation.
Due to the controversy, Eich voluntarily stepped down on April 3, 2014
[30] and
Mitchell Baker, executive chairwoman of Mozilla Corporation, posted a statement on the Mozilla blog: "We didn't move fast enough to engage with people once the controversy started. Mozilla believes both in equality and freedom of speech. Equality is necessary for meaningful speech. And you need free speech to fight for equality."
[31] Eich's resignation promoted a backlash as he seemed to have been forced out of the company.
[32][33][34]
fosspost.org
Sign up with Google
