John Matze, CEO of social media platform Parler, has informed that the companies board has fired him on Wednesday.
Matze has confirmed the news after it was originally reported by Fox News, and said that he had not been given a settlement. The social media platform backed by Republican Party donor Rebekah Mercer is favored by US conservatives.
“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,” Matze said in a memo sent to Parler staff.
“Over the past few months, 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 has informed that Parler now has an “executive committee” consisting of Matthew Richardson and Mark Meckler.
Ever since Parler was dropped by Amazon’s cloud-hosting division and the app stores of Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google following the Jan. 6 siege of the US Capitol, it has largely remained offline.
The companies cited Parler’s record of policing violent content, after far-right groups spread violent rhetoric on the platform ahead of the unrest in Washington.
Parler was founded in 2018 and has claimed it has over 12 million users. The platform has styled itself as a “free speech-driven” space, a reason why it attracted US conservatives who disagree with rules around content on social media sites like Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc.