I’m not sure what is going on over there at Parler, but they just fired CEO John Matze from the company:
THE WRAP – Parler CEO John Matze has been fired by the company’s board, according to a memo sent to staffers on Wednesday.
“On January 29, 2021, the Parler board controlled by Rebekah Mercer decided to immediately terminate my position as CEO of Parler. I did not participate in this decision,” Matze wrote to staffers in the memo obtained by Fox News. “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.”
Parler did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
In his memo to staffers, Matze said he’s “met constant resistance” from the board in recent months over his vision for the app and his “strong belief in free speech.” Mercer, the daughter of billionaire hedge fund investor Robert Mercer, co-founded and funded Parler. Like her father, she has been active in right-wing causes like Breitbart News and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
That seems like big news. From what I understand, Mercer is one of these right-wing donors that has an endless money supply. She’s also reportedly the reason that Steve Bannon was pushed out from Breitbart.
I hope this means that she’s about to make some moves with Parler, which is still offline by the way, with John Matze’s messages still on the front page of the site.
I don’t know anything about Matze other than what we saw of him in public. He’s been through a lot so I hate to see him get fired. But maybe Mercer knows what she is doing.
UPDATE: Dan Bongino weighs in on Matze’s firing and says Matze is not telling the truth:
In the memo from Matze to Parler employees, “Matze said he’s “met constant resistance” from the board in recent months over his vision for the app and his “strong belief in free speech.” That’s what is reported above and Dan Bongino says that is NOT true, and he’s adamant about this. Bongino said unequivocally that vision of ‘free speech’ for the site came from the OWNERS, not from Matze, and he suggested that Matze was one of the reasons the company made bad decisions leading up to them being blackballed by the industry. He said once the real story comes out, you’ll know that Bongino and the other two owners are telling the truth and that they are absolutely committed to the site being a free speech site.