Parler, a social media platform favored by U.S conservatives, has dismissed CEO John Matze, according to Matze on Wednesday, as the site has largely gone offline after the Jan.
6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Gloria Tso reports.
Parler, the social media site popular with the American far right, has dismissed its CEO John Matze.
Matze confirmed the move in a text message to Reuters on Wednesday.
In a memo to staff first reported by Fox News, Matze said, "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." He also cited "constant resistance to my product vision, my strong belief in free speech and my view of how the Parler site should be managed." Matze told Reuters that Parler now has an "executive committee" consisting of Matthew Richardson and Mark Meckler.
Mercer, Richardson, Meckler and Parler did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Parler, which boasted over 12 million users, largely disappeared from the web following the January 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol by far-right extremists.
It was dropped by Amazon Web Services and Apple and Google's app stores, who all said Parler wasn't doing enough to police violent content, and was used to incite the unrest.
Founded in 2018, Parler has styled itself as a "free speech-driven" space.
The app has mainly attracted U.S. conservatives who disagree with what they see as censorship on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
John Matze says he has been fired as CEO of Henderson-based social media company Parler.
