What Made The Creator Of JavaScript Quit As CEO Of Mozilla?

Brendan Eich Has Resigned As CEO Of For-Profit Mozilla Corporation And Also From The Board Of The Nonprofit Foundation Which Wholly Owns It

Brendan Eich

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Brendan Eich resigned as its C.E.O. on Thursday just two weeks after taking the job. Mozilla employees, other businesses and Internet users had been calling on him to leave because he had donated $1,000 in support of Proposition 8, the 2008 California ballot initiative that banned same-sex marriage in the state.

It's A First In The History Of American Corporations Because No One Has Ever Resigned Their Posts As A Result Of Public Protest Over A Private Political Stance

Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich (not pictured) has resigned under pressure over his views on gay marriage.

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After just two weeks in the top job, Eich stepped down as chief of the company that makes the popular Firefox web browser. Though CEOs have taken heat for their positions on controversial issues, none have ever resigned their posts as a result of public protest over a private political stance.

In A Blog Post On Thursday, Mozilla Co-Founder And Executive Chairwoman Mitchell Baker Wrote That Eich's Decision Was Voluntary And That He Made It "For Mozilla And Our Community"

Mozilla co-founder and executive chairwoman Mitchell Baker

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"Mozilla prides itself on being held to a different standard and, this past week, we didn't live up to it," Baker wrote. "We know why people are hurt and angry, and they are right: it's because we haven't stayed true to ourselves."

"We didn’t act like you’d expect Mozilla to act. We didn’t move fast enough to engage with people once the controversy started. We’re sorry. We must do better."

Eich Has Personally Confirmed He Has Not Only Stepped Down As CEO, He Has Quit Mozilla Outright

"I’ve resigned as CEO and I’m leaving Mozilla to take a rest, take some trips with my family, look at problems from other angles, and see if the “network problem” has a solution that doesn’t require scaling up to hundreds of millions of users and winning their trust while somehow covering costs. That’s a rare, hard thing, which I’m proud to have done with Firefox at Mozilla."

"I encourage all Mozillians to keep going. Firefox OS is even more daunting, and more important. Thanks indeed to all who have supported me, and to all my colleagues over the years, at Mozilla, in standards bodies, and at conferences around the world. I will be less visible online, but still around."

The Public Campaign Against Eich Was Unseemly And Disturbing. OkCupid, The Dating Site, Told Visitors To Its Website That They Should Boycott Firefox Because Of Eich’s Promotion As CEO On 24 March, 2014

A screen shot from the letter posted by OkCupid

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OkCupid even redirected users visiting the site via Firefox to a pointed letter calling for Eich's resignation. The landing page also asked visitors to access OkCupid through alternative browsers and apps in the meantime.

After Eich Resigned, OKCupid Said On Thursday That It Was "Pleased" That Its Boycott Of Mozilla Had Brought Attention To The Issue Of Same-Sex Marriage Rights

A Screenshot og OkCupid website

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On Thursday, OKCupid said Eich’s resignation was evidence of a commitment by Mozilla toward same-sex marriage rights. “We are pleased that OkCupid’s boycott has brought tremendous awareness to the critical matter of equal rights for all partnerships,” said the statement, issued via Twitter. “Today’s decision reaffirms Mozilla’s commitment to that cause. We are satisfied that Mozilla will be taking a number of further steps.”

Andrew Sullivan, The Editor Of The Dish, Who Is Openly Gay And An Early Supporter Of Marriage Equality, Very Passionately Voiced Out His Disapproval About The Whole Public Campaign Against Eich. He Wrote:

Andrew Michael Sullivan is a British author, editor and blogger, resident in the United States

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"Will he now be forced to walk through the streets in shame? Why not the stocks? The whole episode disgusts me – as it should disgust anyone interested in a tolerant and diverse society. If this is the gay rights movement today – hounding our opponents with a fanaticism more like the religious right than anyone else – then count me out. If we are about intimidating the free speech of others, we are no better than the anti-gay bullies who came before us."

On Twitter, many agreed with Sullivan. “The mob got their man,” wrote Matt Galligan, CEO of news startup Circa. “While I disagree with his beliefs @BrendanEich gave us JavaScript and helped build Mozilla & Netscape. Just $1,000 to Prop 8 now his legacy.”

The News Even Prompted Michael Barbaro, A Reporter At The New York Times, Where News Writers Are Supposed To Keep Their Personal Opinions To Themselves, To Tweet:

“This is giant news, and makes me wonder, is opposition to gay marriage now a boardroom crime?”

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But Eich And The Board Of Mozilla Did Not Help Themselves Either

Screenshot of one of the many tweets sent to Eich

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They did not respond fast enough to their critics, especially their own employees when a number of Mozilla employees took to Twitter with a united, nearly simultaneous message to the newly appointed Mozilla Corporation CEO Brendan Eich: "Step down.". And when they did address the controversy, they stumbled.

In an interview with The Guardian newspaper earlier this week, Eich seemed to draw a strange connection between his views and the fact that the majority of Indonesians do not support same-sex marriage. Here’s the Guardian:

Eich also stressed that Firefox worked globally, including in countries like Indonesia with “different opinions”, and LGBT marriage was “not considered universal human rights yet, and maybe they will be, but that’s in the future, right now we’re in a world where we have to be global to have effect”.

Eich’s Views On Same-Sex Marriage Would Likely Not Have Drawn Any Attention Had He Been Appointed Chief Executive Of, Say, An Oil Company In Texas, Argues Vikas Bajaj Of NY Times

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A talented programmer who created the JavaScript programing language, he was effectively pushed out was because his views cut against the grain in Silicon Valley, which is dominated by liberals and libertarians.

His support of Proposition 8 seemed especially out of place at Mozilla, which has prided itself for being more progressive than other technology companies. It’s owned by a non-profit foundation (slogan: “Doing good is part of our code”). It uses open-source software and thus relies on developers all around the world. And it recently changed the default settings on Firefox to make it harder for advertisers to track its users’ browsing habits.

Given the image Mozilla projected, the board should have expected that people at the company and outside of it would have questioned Mr. Eich’s selection, and they should have been prepared to deal with those complaints, at the very least. In fact, some people who led the movement to boycott Mozilla say their goal was never to force Mr. Eich out or get him to change his beliefs; it was simply to get him to apologize for the discrimination they faced under Proposition 8. That would have been a much better resolution than his resignation.

Susan Adams Of Forbes Reports That According To Two Crisis Communications Consultants, The Not-So-New Reality In Silicon Valley Is That If Executives Want To Hold The Top Job, They Can’t Oppose Gay Rights

A protester at the Los Angeles Mormon Temple during a demonstration against funders of Proposition 8, Nov. 6, 2008.

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Paul Argenti, a professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business who is also a corporate communications consultant and the author of the textbook, Corporate Communications, regrets Eich’s firing. “We should respect the privacy of people to believe and do whatever they want,” he says. “Otherwise who is going to become a leader?” But, he adds, “If you have designs on being the CEO, you have to realize your private life is not as private as you think.” Though Argenti believes that Mozilla should have protected Eich’s right to hold private political views that conflicted with popular opinion, “he made a bad decision by not realizing this could happen.”

Eric Dezenhall, who runs a crisis communications firm in Washington, D.C., agrees with Argenti and goes a step further. “There is a very specific narrative today on certain issues and if you step an inch out of bounds, you’re going to get fouled or worse,” he says. “He stepped on one of the three great land mines: gay rights, race and the environment. You don’t have to have made flagrantly terrible statements to get into trouble now.” Though most people view corporate America as being right wing, contends Dezenhall, over the last three decades, companies have increasingly made public statements that show their progressive stripes.

There are exceptions: Chief operating officer Dan Cathy of fast food chain Chick-fil-A has made millions in donations to anti-LGBT organizations and has spoken out strongly against gay marriage. But the company is closely held and based in Atlanta, rather than Silicon Valley and Cathy has kept his job. DIY chain Hobby Lobby is in the news now for opposing a provision in the Affordable Care Act that requires company health insurance to cover contraception. But like Chick-fil-A, the company is based far from Silicon Valley, in Oklahoma City and its position isn’t held by a lone executive.

Adams, Who Is A Strong Supporter Of Gay Rights And Marriage Equality, Further Writes Expressing His First Reaction To The Eich News:

"If Eich wanted privately to support that bill, but didn’t discriminate against gay employees or advocate the company quit providing benefits to domestic partners, then he shouldn’t be fired for his views."

But the news of the past day underlines the points made by Argenti and Dezenhall: We live in a time when it’s nearly impossible to keep private views private and as Quinn says, corporate leaders must realize that they are now subject to the same scrutiny as politicians, especially on radioactive issues like gay marriage.

A Piece In Wall Street Journal Points Out Another Practical Reason That Eich’s Private Views Could Have Presented A Problem For Mozilla

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The company is hoping to renew a major contract with Google, a company that strongly supports gay rights. The Journal talked to a Mozilla insider who said the deal might have been put in jeopardy by Eich’s leadership.

One More Irony In The Controversy: