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Mozilla boss Brendan Eich resigns after gay marriage storm

The chief executive of Mozilla - the company best known for its Firefox browser - has stepped down.

Brendan Eich was appointed just last month but came in for heavy criticism for his views on same-sex marriage.
Mozilla's executive chairwoman Mitchell Baker announced the decision in a blog post.
"Mozilla prides itself on being held to a different standard and, this past week, we didn't live up to it," she wrote.
"We know why people are hurt and angry, and they are right: it's because we haven't stayed true to ourselves.
"We didn't act like you'd expect Mozilla to act. We didn't move fast enough to engage with people once the controversy started. We're sorry. We must do better."
Mr Eich has also stepped down from the board of the Mozilla Foundation, the non-profit organisation which owns the for-profit Mozilla Corporation.

Angry users
Mr Eich, who co-founded Mozilla and was also the creator of the JavaScript scripting language, made a $1,000 (£600) donation in 2008 in support of Californian anti-gay marriage law Proposition 8.
Although it was initially passed, it was later overturned by the US Supreme Court in 2013.
When the announcement of Mr Eich's appointment was made on 24 March, angry users voiced their opinions on social media. Several high-profile Mozilla employees also weighed in. Three board members also recently resigned - but Mozilla said the events were not linked to Mr Eich.
"The three board members ended their terms before Brendan was publicly announced as CEO for a variety of reasons," Mozilla said in a statement.
"Two had been planning to leave for some time, one since January and one explicitly at the end of the CEO search, regardless of the person selected."

Mitchell Baker, Mozilla
The announcement was made by Mitchell Baker, Mozilla's executive chairwoman
But the most damaging act of protest came via dating website OkCupid.
Users who went to the site using Mozilla's Firefox browser were greeted with a message that read: "Hello there, Mozilla Firefox user. Pardon this interruption of your OkCupid experience.
"Mozilla's new CEO, Brendan Eich, is an opponent of equal rights for gay couples. We would therefore prefer that our users not use Mozilla software to access OkCupid."
Mozilla initially defended Mr Eich's appointment, but Ms Baker's blog post announcing the chief executive's departure made apologies for doing so.
"We failed to listen, to engage, and to be guided by our community," she wrote.

She added that any potential replacement for Mr Eich was still being discussed, and that more details would be announced next week.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-26868536

Psyko wrote:Freedom of speech, not freedom from public outcry and consequences.

Sniperwax wrote:I dunno discussion with either side of this debate seems pointless. Blood is the only acceptable currency in this realm. If I was a gambling man I'd bet on the gays they would clearly spill more blood to achieve their goal. So in the end the gay haters must shut up because they are comically weak and cowardly. Survival of the fittest. End of discussion.

Legendary Apophis wrote:

Psyko wrote:Freedom of speech, not freedom from public outcry and consequences.

Yeah tyranny of liberal political correctness.
Same as back in USSR, you had full freedom of agreeing with the soviet regime's stance, nowadays it's changed with liberal leftist lobbies' stance.

Sniperwax wrote:I dunno discussion with either side of this debate seems pointless. Blood is the only acceptable currency in this realm. If I was a gambling man I'd bet on the gays they would clearly spill more blood to achieve their goal. So in the end the gay haters must shut up because they are comically weak and cowardly. Survival of the fittest. End of discussion.

Lol what a ridiculous argument! You are not even middle aged thinking, but it's antiquity thinking and that's not really something cool you know. Well, there are still Al Qaeda fighters who follow this kind of thinking but well...

"Must shut up" typical average tolerant liberals' kind of speech in such debate.

Legendary Apophis wrote:

Psyko wrote:Freedom of speech, not freedom from public outcry and consequences.

Yeah tyranny of liberal political correctness.
Same as back in USSR, you had full freedom of agreeing with the soviet regime's stance, nowadays it's changed with liberal leftist lobbies' stance.

shooty08 wrote:I'm perfectly fine with people speaking their mind, but they have to live with the consequences. I'm not going to protect anyone if they have a view someone else disagrees with. In this case, the perso/company decided that the best course of action was for him to be replaced rather than face continued backlash. The "PC" thing to do would have been to publicly apologize and hire an "image consultant" who would have gotten him to shake hands with George takei while donating an irresponsibly large amount of money to a gay rights group