Mozilla is a nonprofit organization that lives by what has been described as an unusually principled mission to keep the Web open. However, with the latest turn of events, many employees are fighting for this principle to remain and for another member of the company to leave.
Three Mozilla board members left the company's board last week, namely former Mozilla chief executive officers John Lilly and Gary Kovacs, as well as Shmoop CEO Ellen Siminoff.
Many other employees, meanwhile, posted their rants to the social networking site Twitter, expressing their love for the company but asking one member of the board to step down from his post.
Apparently, all this rage came from the appointment of Brendan Eich as chief executive of Mozilla, and his support to anti-gay stance.
The company, however, denies such claims.
"The three board members ended their terms last week for a variety of reasons. Two had been planning to leave for some time, one since January and one explicitly at the end of the CEO search, regardless of the person selected," the company says in a statement.
Other board members who have remained are Mozilla co-founder Mitchell Baker, CEO Katharina Borchet of German news site Spiegel Online and LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman.
Since 2005, Eich was chief technology officer of the company, best known for his JavaScript creation now widely used as a programming language. Then he became interim chief for over year prior to the current appointment vacated by Gary Kovacs.
Back in 2008, he donated $1,000 to support Proposition 8, said to be a California constitutional amendment disallowing the marriage of same-sex couples. This sparked a controversy in 2012 when the info went around online. Still, he rose above it.
Apparently, the issue is not over yet - especially with Eich's new appointment.
Mozilla employees took to Twitter their rants in the morning of March 27.
"I'm an employee of @mozilla and cannot reconcile having @BrendanEich as CEO with our org's culture & mission. Brendan, please step down," Sydney Moyer, a member of Mozilla's engagement team, tweeted.
"I'm an employee of @mozilla and I'm asking @brendaneich to step down as CEO," posted Chris McAvoy, project lead at Mozilla Open Badges.
Many other employees followed suit with similar or copied statements posted on their personal Twitter accounts.
However, Eich has spoken about the controversy earlier in the week through his blog. He said that Mozilla - including himself - is committed to the inclusiveness and diversity at the workplace. He went on to state his commitments to equality in all their undertakings and to work with LGBT communities in the future.
"I know some will be skeptical about this, and that words alone will not change anything. I can only ask for your support to have the time to "show, not tell"; and in the meantime express my sorrow at having caused pain," Eich said.
"I am committed to ensuring that Mozilla is, and will remain, a place that includes and supports everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, age, race, ethnicity, economic status, or religion," he added.
Even the company clarifies their stand on the issue in its blog post on March 29.
"The Mozilla Project welcomes and encourages participation by everyone. It doesn't matter how you identify yourself or how others perceive you: we welcome you. We welcome contributions from everyone as long as they interact constructively with our community, including, but not limited to people of varied age, culture, ethnicity, gender, gender-identity, language, race, sexual orientation, geographical location and religious views," the post states.
