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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