Parler CEO John Matze was terminated by the board of directors last week in a decision the social media platform hoped to keep private until Wednesday when Fox News received a memorandum he sent to employees to explain why he was fired – but Fox News’ contributor and Parler co-owner Dan Bongino does not see eye to eye with Matze’s explanation.
“It’s time to correct the record, Parler CEO John Matze, he was terminated by Parler’s board, but the story you hear is unfortunately not correct,” Bongino said in a letter. Matze sent to staff members of Parler. was first acquired by Fox News.
JOHANNES MATZE, Former CEO, says he is terminated by the council: ‘I did not participate in this decision’
Matze notes that the Parler board under the leadership of Rebekah Mercer decided to terminate my position as CEO immediately, and that he “did not participate in this decision.”
Matze wrote that he had ‘sustained resistance’ over the past few months to his original vision on the social media platform following Amazon Web Services’ decision to shut down Parler due to its failure to moderate ‘serious’ related content with the 6th of January. Riots of the Capitol.
“Over the past few months, I have constantly resisted with my product vision, my strong belief in free speech and my view of how the Parler website should be managed. For example, I have advocated for more product stability and what I believe is a more effective approach to content moderation, “Matze wrote.
Parler did not respond to several requests for comment.
THE NEXT CEO says the platform will ‘come back strong’ with changes to keep users safe while respecting free speech
Bongino disagreed with Matze’s narrative and went to Facebook to record a video outlining his side of the story.
“Here’s the true story, so you have it and do not believe the hype,” Bongino said, pointing out that Matze paints himself as a free speech advocate.
“People, it’s not accurate, it’s his statements, not mine. I do not have a personal battle against John, the CEO, I want to be crystal clear, but John decided to make it public, no. “We did not, we treated it like gentlemen,” said Bongino.
“It was actually us who fought to uplift Parler again. There have been a lot of bad decisions made by people on the inside, and listen, it’s not us who air dirty laundry. It protects a company that is absolutely committed “is after freedom of speech, which I did the last year of my life. Do you really believe that anyone else was on the side of freedom of speech?”
PREVIOUS CEO: ‘NO INDICATION’ BIG TECH SHTUDOWN THREATS WERE ‘DEADLY SERIOUS’ UNTIL LAST MINUTES
Parler, a social media app that has been widely embraced by Trump supporters for favoring freedom of speech, has seen an increase in users following Twitter’s permanent suspension of President Trump. But the site has been down since Amazon Web Services cut it off and was expected to restart before early February, but things have been delayed.
A Parler resident told Fox News the delay was caused by new brands and changes taking place within the company for the sake of stability.
Parler terminated CEO John Matze.
(Fox News)
Matze recently emerged as a conservative media visitor amid the chaos surrounding his company taken offline by Amazon, and regularly appeared on cable news to defend freedom of speech.
However, Bongino said there are ‘two separate visions for the company’ and the ‘free speech vision’ comes from Bongino and other owners of the company. Bongino repeatedly claimed throughout the video that Matze’s version of events was inaccurate.
“I’m really angry now,” Bongino said. “The relationship with Parler and the CEO did not work out because the CEO’s vision was not ours. Everyone was clear about it? Our vision was crystal clear. We had to get up and fight back, a few ‘Terrible decisions have been made in the past, which has led to us being let down by Amazon and others.’
In addition to Amazon, Google and Apple have both suspended Parler from their respective app stores.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Bongino said Parler could have been up and running again if he had wanted to push for Silicon Valley which has moderated it so strongly that it would have been ‘left’ of Twitter.
“This is not what we are going to do. We also do not want rubbish on our site, and we have taken the right steps to do so. But we are a speech-free site and will remain so as such,” Bongino said. .