Parler CEO John Matze says he's been fired by the company's Rebekah Mercer-controlled board
- Parler CEO John Matze said he was fired by the company's board, Fox Business reported Wednesday.
- The app was recently taken offline after Amazon, Google, and Apple booted it from their platforms.
- It came under scrutiny in the wake of the Capitol riot for allowing violent speech.
Parler CEO John Matze told employees the company's board of directors fired him last week, Fox Business reported on Wednesday.
"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 told employees in a memo, according to Fox, adding: "I understand that those who now control the company have made some communications to employees and other third parties that have unfortunately created confusion and prompted me to make this public statement."
Parler, a social-media app popular among the far-right, is funded by Rebekah Mercer, a conservative megadonor whose family was among the most influential backers of then-candidate Donald Trump in 2016.
The company came under scrutiny after the Capitol insurrection as evidence emerged that the rioters had used Parler and other platforms to coordinate the attack.
Under public pressure, Apple and Google removed Parler from their app stores, saying it had continued to allow content that threatened to escalate violence in violation of their policies. Shortly afterward, Amazon removed Parler's access to its web-hosting services, and other tech companies refused to do business with it, effectively taking the platform offline.
Matze entered the media spotlight amid the industry's response, repeatedly defending the company's lax approach to content moderation and saying it would be back online by the end of January.
It has since sought to return using fringe service providers such as a Russian tech company with links to racist, far-right, and conspiracy-theory sites.
Far-right and conservative users flocked to Parler in the past few months in protest of other social-media apps that began cracking down harder on election misinformation, hate speech, and attempts to incite violence. The app was downloaded millions of times in the days after the November election, jumping to the top spot in the App Store.