Conservative activist Ben Shapiro is leading up an online charge of fellow political compadres to boycott the browser Firefox — an outraged response to the Mozilla chief’s departure from his CEO role due to gay rights’ protests.
Former CEO Brendan Eich, who’s been with Mozilla since its creation and actually helped found the company’s charitable offshoot foundation in 1998, announced this week he’s stepping down from the role over a flap generated by a $1,000 donation he made to a California campaign that sought to ban same-sex marriage in the state.
Mr. Eich made the donation five years ago, but his promotion to CEO brought the issue to the forefront once again. And the ensuing outcry from the gay rights crowd and certain Mozilla employees on social media ultimately pushed him to abandon the leadership post.
But now conservatives are striking back.
Mr. Shapiro has started a movement — complete with petition — to get as many Internet users as possible to “uninstall or cease using Mozilla,” he wrote on his website, TruthRevolt.org, replacing his traditional news content with simply the call-to-arms, Raw Story reported.
“Pardon this interruption of your TruthRevolt experience,” the message continued. “Mozilla recently forced its CEO, Brendan Eich, to resign over his personal support for traditional marriage. The firing followed a vicious smear campaign against Eich by dating website OKCupid, in which OKCupid blocked Mozilla users from visiting their website.”
SEE ALSO: Mozilla CEO Brenden Eich steps down after Prop 8 donation outcry
Mr. Shapiro was referencing how OKCupid last week, in attempt to sway public opinion against Mr. Eich, disallowed anybody using the Mozilla Firefox browser from accessing their online dating services.
Mr. Eich donated $1,000 to support Proposition 8 in California.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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