After the platform essentially got wiped off the face of the world-wide-web, Parler CEO and co-founder John Matze has been fired by the company’s board of directors, according to a memo obtained by Fox News.
Matze, who co-founded the platform in 2018, said he’d been relieved of his duties on January 29.
“The Parler board controlled by Rebekah Mercer decided to immediately terminate my position as CEO of Parler. I did not participate in this decision,” he said.
In the memo, he urged that he’d been met with resistance to his free speech vision for the platform.
“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,” he said.
“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,” he added.
But, that’s not what really happened.
Parler investor Dan Bongino exposed the truth in a Facebook video Wednesday.
“Here’s what really happened,” he said. “We were the ones in fact fighting to get Parler back up. It was some really bad decisions made by people on the inside. And listen, this isn’t us airing dirty laundry, this is protecting a company that is absolutely committed to free speech that I put the last year of my life into,” he added.
“Do you actually believe that someone else was on the side of free speech and me, from the...Dan Bongino Show, would get involved with a company that was fighting against free speech? You’d have to be an imbecile to believe that.”
Bongino urged that the free speech vision was not, in fact, Matze’s.
“There were two separate visions for the company...this free speech vision, that was ours - the other owners of the company,” he said. “Let me be crystal clear on this. He makes two points, ‘oh I was a big advocate for free speech, it was my vision and I was a big advocate for product stability.’ That is not true.”
“The relationship with Parler and the CEO did not work out because the CEO’s vision was not ours,” he said. “Our vision was crystal clear. We needed to get up and fight back. Some terrible decisions were made in the past that led to this, that led us to getting pulled down by Amazon and others.”
“It was us, me and the two other owners that were constantly on the side of this site was going to be a free speech platform or it was going to be nothing.”
Following the Capitol riot on January 6, Parler was removed from Google and Apple app stores, as well as by Amazon Web Services, for not enforcing enough content moderation. Bongino said that the reason the site is not yet back up and running is because they are fighting for their rights.
“The vision of the company as a free speech platform was mine and the two other owners, and we were resolutely committed to that,” he said. “Folks, we could’ve been up after Apple, Amazon and Google wiped us out, we could’ve been up in a week if we just would’ve bent the knee and followed all the ridiculous Apple edicts to become a heavy moderation site to the left of Twitter.”
“That’s not what we’re going to do,” he urged.
Bongino went on to blast Matze for his fabricated story.
“This is an outrageous attack on people who have done nothing but work day and night to get this site back up and to fight back against these cancel culture goons,” he said, “and to get kneecapped like this by someone we trusted is a disgrace.”
“I just want to leave you with this. The vision for the company as a free speech site and a stable product, immune and hardened to cancel culture was ours. Ours. Me and the two owners. Anyone telling you otherwise is feeding you fairytales and fables.”
