Parler slammed ex-CEO John Matze after revealing he was kicked out by the board

John Matze, the CEO of Parler, the American microblogging and social networking service provider, divulged that the board fired him. He suggested he has been working to restore the site, but he was suddenly booted out behind his back.

Former chief reveals his unceremonious termination

The dismissed chief sent a notice to the staff to inform them about his fate. Fox News was able to obtain the memo, so it was posted for the public.

"On January 29, 2021, the Parler board controlled by Rebekah Mercer decided to immediately terminate my position as CEO of Parler,” Matze wrote. “I did not participate in this decision.”

The former CEO said that he was eliminated when Parler is just a few days away from being restored. As can be seen in his note, he specifically mentioned that Mercer, a conservative political donor, is currently in control of the company’s board.

Matze also said that in the past few months, due to his vision, beliefs in free speech, and views on how Parler should be managed, he often faced resistance, but he still pushed through. He added that he worked non-stop to get the site back up again but was suddenly kicked out thus, the future of the company is not in his hands anymore.

Parler slammed Matze for the alleged spread of misinformation

A few hours after Matze released his memo, Dan Bongino, a conservative talk-show host and stakeholder in Parler, posted his response via a video that was uploaded on his Facebook. He urged the public not to believe the hype and explained his version of Matze’s ouster.

"Folks, that’s not accurate, those are his statements, not mine,” Bongino said. “I have no personal gripe against John, the CEO, at all, I want to be crystal clear, we were handling it like gentlemen and John, not us, decided somehow to make this public."

He added that Matze was responsible for “really bad decisions” that led to Parler’s removal from Amazon Web Services and issues with the application’s security. Bongino went on to say that they were actually the ones who were fighting to restore Parler.

Bongino’s statements were followed by comments from Amy Peikoff, Parler’s chief policy officer. She shot back at John Matze and blasted him for giving false information.

“Mr. Matze’s characterizations of the events and circumstances surrounding his termination from the Parler CEO position have been inaccurate and misleading,” The New York Times quoted Peikoff as saying. “The owners and managers of the company worked tirelessly to build a resilient, non-partisan platform dedicated to freedom of expression, civil discourse, and user privacy.”