Mullenweg Criticized for 1st Amendment Claims via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Matt Mullenweg portrayed himself as a victim in his dispute with WP Engine, claiming in a tweet and blog post that they are ‘trying to curtail’ his free speech. Social media responses ranged from polite debunking of his First Amendment claim to accusations of hypocrisy.

TL/DR Of Dispute With WP Engine

Matt Mullenweg, co-creator of WordPress and CEO of Automattic ignited a dispute with managed WordPress web host WP Engine (WPE), using a Q&A at the WordCamp WordPress conference to denounce WP for not giving enough back to the WordPress open source project. He followed that statement with a post on WordPress.org that called WPE a cancer to WordPress, writing:

“This is one of the many reasons they are a cancer to WordPress, and it’s important to remember that unchecked, cancer will spread. WP Engine is setting a poor standard that others may look at and think is ok to replicate. We must set a higher standard to ensure WordPress is here for the next 100 years.”

He next banned thousands of WP Engine customers, cutting them off from updating their websites. Mullenweg later offered a temporary “reprieve” to prevent further inconvenience by WordPress publishers caught in the middle of the dispute and allow WP Engine to create a workaround.

Banning WP Engine elicited a negative response from WordPress developers and businesses. A tweet by the CEO of Ruby Media Group was representative of the general sentiment:

“My dev team can’t update my plugins because of this. You are destroying people’s lives.”

WP Engine responded with a Cease and Desist letter against Mullenweg and Automattic, followed by a federal lawsuit by WP Engine against Mullenweg and Automattic seeking relief from what they allege is an attempt by Mullenweg to extort millions of dollars from WPE.

Claim Of Attempt To Curtail First Amendment Rights

Mullenweg on Sunday published a blog post claiming that WP Engine’s lawsuit against him and Automattic is an attempt to “curtail” his “First Amendment rights.”

He wrote:

“WP Engine has filed hundreds pages of legal documents seeking an injunction against me and Automattic. They say this about community or some nonsense, but if you look at the core, what they’re trying to do is ask a judge to curtail my First Amendment rights.”

Mullenweg ended the post by stating he will no longer comment on the lawsuit filed by WP Engine but encouraged others to speak up in support of his side of the dispute.

Mullenweg Mocked On Social Media

The First Amendment is a guarantee that the United States government shall not create a law that infringes on a person’s free speech. Many on social media were quick to point out that WP Engine cannot curtain is First Amendment rights because they’re not the government.

A WordPress software developer tweeted:

“You have no first amendment rights in this context. WP Engine is not the government trying to curtail your 1A rights. 1A only applies to government entities.”

Another person followed up with:

“Please reread what the first amendment is, dum dum”

Another developer went further, calling Mullenweg “moronic”:

“WPEngine isn’t the government, how moronic can one man be?”

Another web developer advised Mullenweg to seek legal counsel to explain to him how the First Amendment works:

“Please go talk to your big expensive lawyer. I am sure they can break it down into small words for you.”

Accused Of Hypocrisy

Others on social media accused Mullenweg of hypocrisy for curtailing the free speech of others in the official WordPress Slack channel and banning WP Engine users from accessing plugins from the official repository.

A tweet by a WordPress and open source enthusiast captured the general feeling:

“Yes, “freedom of speech” is so important. I assume you now will be unblocking everyone that was exercising their right to freedom of speech in the WordPress Slack and here on X. Or, did you just mean literally “my freedom of speech” only.”

A WordPress developer from Denver tweeted:

“How many people have you banned from the WP slack channel over the past couple weeks?”

And another tweet:

“This coming from the guy cancelling anyone’s account/ access that disagrees with him. Really?”

Not Much Sympathy For Mullenweg

The overwhelming response to Matt Mullenweg’s post about his First Amendment rights was not sympathetic to his side of the story. A web applications developer’s tweet captured the lack of support:

“Maybe, maybe. But you probably won’t be getting a lot of sympathy from the crowd right now due to this thing the kids these days call “consequences.””

Read the original tweet by Mullenweg:

I feel that @wpengine is trying to curtail my First Amendment rights.

— Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt) October 20, 2024

Matt Mullenweg’s blog post:

My Freedom of Speech

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