Mozilla co-founder Brendan Eich is stepping down as CEO and leaving the company following protests over his support of a gay marriage ban in California, RawStory.com reported.
The non-profit maker of the Firefox browser infuriated many employees and users last week by naming Eich head of the Mountain View, California-based organization, according to RawStory.
Eich's $1,000 donation in 2008 to the campaign to pass California's Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that outlawed same-sex marriages, RawStory reported. The ban was overturned last year when the U.S. Supreme Court left in place a lower-court ruling striking down the ballot measure.
Eich's contribution had drawn negative attention in the past but took on more weight when he was named CEO, according to RawStory. Mozilla employees and users criticized the move on Twitter and elsewhere online.
Earlier this week, dating website OKCupid replaced its usual homepage for users logging in with Firefox with a note suggesting they not use Mozilla's software to access the site, RawStory reported. The departure raises questions about how far corporate leaders are allowed to go in expressing their political views.
"When you run a public company or any visible organization, what you think and what you say is always going to affect the company," said Microsoft Corp. Chairman John Thompson, according to RawStory. "You have to be mindful of how things you do and say will affect your customers, your employees and your investors."
Eich said in a statement Thursday that Mozilla's mission is "bigger than any one of us, and under the present circumstances, I cannot be an effective leader," RawStory reported. Eich said that attacks on his beliefs represented a threat to Mozilla's survival.
"If Mozilla cannot continue to operate according to its principles of inclusiveness, where you can work on the mission no matter what your background or other beliefs, I think we'll probably fail," Eich said, according to RawStory.
Mozilla chairwoman Mitchell Baker apologized for the company's actions in an open letter online Thursday, saying that Eich is stepping down for the company's sake, RawStory reported.
"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," Baker wrote in the letter. She said that Mozilla believes both in equality and freedom of speech and that "figuring out how to stand for both at the same time can be hard."
