After more than a week of controversy, which included boycotts from employees and websites like OKCupid, Mozilla announced Thursday afternoon that co-founder and CEO Brendan Eich has resigned.
Eich has been at the center of outrage stemming from a $1,000 donation he made in 2008 to support Prop 8, the California ban on gay marriage. While the donation initially surfaced back in 2012, Eich’s recent appointment to CEO in March 2014 reignited the concern over his beliefs — and calls to step down.
Eich repeatedly said that he would not step down — a sentiment he echoed in a blog post written about the issue — but it seems that the company has spoken. In addition to stepping down as CEO, Re/code reports that Eich has also resigned from the Mozilla Foundation Board.
Mozilla chairwoman Mitchell Baker said diversity is a priority at the company:
Mozilla believes both in equality and freedom of speech. Equality is necessary for meaningful speech. And you need free speech to fight for equality. Figuring out how to stand for both at the same time can be hard.
At this time, no decisions have been made on a replacement.
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