On April 3rd 2014, Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich resigned only two weeks after accepting the job. Why? Because Eich is opposed to gay marriage, and in 2008, he made a $1,000 donation in support of Proposition 8, the infamous California ballot measure that repealed gay marriage in the state. Unfortunately for Eich, his stance on the issue is incredibly unpopular in the highly liberalized Silicon Valley, where socially liberal ideologies are practically a universal law. Now Eich may have been new to the position of CEO, but he was not new within the Mozilla community. Eich was one of the original founders of Mozilla, and is a smart and well-respected software developer in Silicon Valley.
So how does a founding member of Mozilla get kicked out of his own company for an opinion he’s held for years? The discovery of Eich’s political donation was made in 2012 which led to a minor stir of criticism which seemed to die down pretty quickly. But when Eich was promoted two weeks ago, the story managed to stir up far more controversy than before. Why? Probably because “Mozilla CEO donated to Prop 8” sounds a lot juicier than “Mozilla programmer…” When the story surrounding Eich’s background broke shortly after his promotion, Eich faced opposition from fellow board members, Mozilla employees and community members, as well as a large number of individuals around the world. Popular dating site OKCupid, a company who is not affiliated with Mozilla, initiated a campaign to convince users to boycott the company’s products, namely Firefox. This made the entire story even more newsworthy, causing the story to spread faster and stir up further controversy. By now, even the Mozilla board members who weren’t in opposition of Eich were feeling the heat. They knew they had a public image problem on their hands, and Eich was now a toxic executive.
Say what you will about gay rights, but is it ethical to publicly harangue someone over one of their own personal opinions in an effort to get them to quit their job? I say no, but of course everyone is entitled to their own opinions, including Brendan Eich. I completely support gay marriage, and disagree with Eich’s position, but Eich has managed to keep his political views and his work at Mozilla separate, maintaining that his position does not necessarily reflect that of the company. Eich has even said that he does not believe Mozilla is a place to play politics.
“We’ve kept [politics] out of Mozilla all these 15 years we’ve been going. I don’t believe they’re relevant,” Eich said in a statement he made to The Gaurdian.
It’s important to note the type of corporate culture Mozilla has, as it is not quite like most other tech companies. Mozilla is a non-profit organization with a vast network of software developers from all backgrounds serving as it’s main workforce. Before his resignation, Eich made the argument that a company as diverse as Mozilla should remain open-minded and accepting of all opinions and points of view.
An official statement made by Mozilla said, “This is why Mozilla supports equality for all…” but I ‘m not sure this statement is totally accurate. Even though Eich officially “voluntarily” resigned, there was undoubtedly internal pressure for him to leave, and I believe that is unfair. Eich has stated that he left Mozilla because he felt the entire controversy is bad for the company, something that he says is “bigger than him.” Once again, I completely disagree with Eich’s position, but I also think this man truly wanted the best for the company and whether he was pushed out or left on his own, his actions are honorable. I think the actions conducted by the people responsible for the pressure against Eich are unethical. While we are all entitled to our own opinions, we should be open minded of others’ ideas and not react so viciously. Eich was not in any way trying to tie his views into his work at Mozilla, and I don’t really see a reason why he had to leave the company he helped found.
Ball, James. "Mozilla CEO Insists He Won't Resign over 'private' Support for Gay Marriage Ban." Theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 02 Apr. 2014. Web. 06 Apr. 2014.
SUROWIECKI, James. "How Mozilla Lost Its C.E.O." The New Yorker, 4 Apr. 2014. Web. 06 Apr. 2014.
https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/03/29/mozilla-supports-lgbt-equality/
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