San Jose, Calif. (AP) – The resignation of Mozilla’s CEO amid outrage that he supported an anti-gay marriage campaign is prompting concerns about how Silicon Valley’s strongly liberal culture might quash the very openness that is at the region’s foundation.
Mozilla co-founder Brendan Eich stepped down April 3 as CEO, just days after his appointment. He left the nonprofit maker of the Firefox browser after furious attacks, largely on Twitter, over his $1,000 contribution to support of Prop 8, a now-overturned 2008 gay-marriage ban in California.
“There was no interest in creating an Internet lynch mob,” said OkCupid co-founder Sam Yagun, whose dating service site was among those engaged in online protest. “I am opposed to that with every bone in my body.”
But Eich’s abrupt departure has stirred the debate over the fairness of forcing out a highly qualified technology executive over his personal views and a single campaign contribution six years ago. And it raises questions about how far corporate leaders are allowed to go in expressing their political views.
OkCupid never demanded Eich resign, and after discussing the issue with Mozilla, Yagun ended the call for a Firefox boycott.
“I would have loved to have engaged in a debate over what happens when freedoms collide,” Yagun said. “We have freedom of speech, which I would defend to the end. And we have what I believe is a fundamental liberty of people to marry and love whoever they want.”
Eich’s departure didn’t end the controversy, it just changed it.
The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), which backed Prop 8, called on consumers to boycott the Firefox browser.
NOM President Brian Brown said Eich had been the “target of a vicious character attack by gay activists who have forced him out of the company he has helped lead for years.”
