A prominent Republican Party benefactor, two men who replaced him at the company, and a political commentator is known for his support for former President Trump are all accused of defaming and improperly ousting the developer of the conservative social network Parler.
In a lawsuit, John Matze claimed he was fired for trying to moderate the extremism on the site, and the suit was dismissed. Jeffrey Wernick and Mark Meckler, along with podcaster and television analyst Dan Bongino conspired to steal 40 percent of his company’s stock, leaving him with $3. (roughly Rs. 210).
Mercer did not respond to phone and email inquiries about a lawsuit filed in Nevada state court on Monday by the Heritage Foundation and a tax attorney for a family foundation, Wernick and Meckler at Parler, and Bongino at his newsletter on Tuesday.
It makes Matze the scapegoat for the trouble that started when Parler became a place where far-right extremists went to share their ideas before and after the siege at the US Capitol on January 6.
The site, which is based in the suburb of Henderson outside of Las Vegas, became more popular after the violence when Trump’s social media posts were blocked by Facebook and Twitter as incitement.
On January 11, Parler kicked off the Internet because Apple stopped selling its phone app and Amazon Web Services stopped hosting it in the cloud. Mid-February, the site was back, but Matze wasn’t there.
The lawsuit said that Wernick was not an officer or owner of Parler, but he acted like he was the company’s operating chief. He allegedly asked Bongino to “use his media presence… to promote Parler.” Meckler became the CEO of the company.
According to Matze’s lawsuit, he was accused of wrongdoing and fired on January 29 after suggesting that posts are moderated and extremist groups like neo-Nazis and the right-wing conspiracy theory QAnon be banned.
The lawsuit said, “Simply put, Parler was “hijacked” to promote the personal political interests and personal benefits of defendants instead of being used as the free-expression platform it was meant to be.”
In the court filing, Parler’s value was put at more than $1 billion (roughly Rs. 7,250 crore), and Matze’s right to compensation and punitive damages was said to be worth many millions of dollars.
James Pisanelli and Todd Bice, Matze’s lawyers, said in a short statement on Tuesday that the lawsuit is meant to protect Matze’s rights, fix his unfair firing, and deal with breaches of contract and good faith.
The document says that Parler’s first investor was Mercer, who is the daughter of Robert Mercer, a big donor to Trump and a supporter of the conservative website Breitbart News. It said that Matze was the original creator. It said that the name of the website comes from the French word for “to talk.”
It linked to a post that was said to have been written by Mercer and called Parler “a neutral platform for free speech” and “a beacon for all who value their freedom, free speech, and personal privacy.”
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“Rather than protect Parler,” the lawsuit says, “Mercer tried to use it as a symbol or the “tip of the spear” for her brand of conservatism.”
A new court filing says that the CEO of the conservative social media app Parler and his family have gone into hiding because they have been threatened with death and harassed.
The documents that Fox News got show that people who knew John Matze’s street address and threatened to break in have been after him and his family.
After the riots at the Capitol, Apple and Google kicked Parler off their platforms, and Amazon removed it from its cloud hosting service, Amazon Web Services.
In response, Parler sued Amazon for unfair competition. Fox News said that Amazon sued back, saying that Parler’s lawsuit had no legal basis and that Amazon employees had been threatened and harassed.
In the court documents, Parler’s lawyers admitted that some of Amazon’s claims were true, but they said that it’s not just Amazon employees who are being attacked.
“AWS’s motion to seal only talks about its employees, but Parler’s employees have been harassed and threatened in the same way,” the filing said. “Parler’s CEO, John Matze, Jr., says in his declaration in support of Parler’s TRO motion that many Parler employees are being harassed and treated badly, fear for their safety and the safety of their families, and in some cases have left their home state to avoid being persecuted.
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