We keep seeing news stories and commentary about Matt Mullenweg’s extortion campaign against WP Engine and all the fallout of that, which gets basic details wrong. That is in large part because Matt Mullenweg has been very successful in making it seem that things are different than they are. For example, lots of people have understandably believed that the WordPress website was controlled by the WordPress Foundation, but it isn’t. The foundation has little control over WordPress.

On example of confusion that needs addressing is a post titled, “If WordPress is to survive, Matt Mullenweg must be removed,” which seems to be getting a lot of attention. The important questions to ask in response to that are what Matt Mullenweg would be removed from and how would that happen.

While quite a long post, there appears to be little about the removal. The first is this:

I believe that if WordPress is to survive, let alone thrive, Matt Mullenweg must be removed from all forms of official WordPress leadership, as expediently as possible.

What forms of leadership would he be removed from? It doesn’t say, as right after that, the post moves on to something else.

That isn’t a small detail to not explain, as Matt Mullenweg is the leadership of WordPress. It’s just him. There is an Executive Directory of WordPress, but that is simply an employee of his for-profit company Automattic. (Or was, as the person who has had that role since 2019 is apparently leaving.)

The only other mention of his removal is this:

I don’t expect him to be removed from Automattic leadership (although if there actually is a board, or other people who can challenge Matt’s power there, I think they absolutely should be considering whether that’s the right move for the company). But in any case:

It’s clear that the blurry lines between WordPress.org and WordPress.com should be turned into unbreachable walls, with no one company on both sides, or able to exercise power over the Foundation and/or Organization. It’s clear that the blurry lines between WordPress.org and WordPress.com should be turned into unbreachable walls, with no one company on both sides, or able to exercise power over the Foundation and/or Organization.

I don’t care about Automattic giving 5% to WordPress anymore. I want it to give up Matt’s unchecked, unilateral power. Because it’s clearer than ever he can’t be trusted with it.

Automattic does have a board. A simple web search would have told this person that. Normally a board can remove a CEO, but Automattic is a private company, so we don’t know what the rules are for that sort of thing or if Matt Mullenweg has an ownership stake that could allow him to replace the board.

The rest of what he is saying doesn’t explain how what he is proposing could be done. Matt Mullenweg apparently personally owns WordPress.org and is ultimately in charge of WordPress.com, because it is owned by Automattic.

The WordPress Foundation has three directors, so potentially the other two members could remove Matt Mullenweg. But if they did, it doesn’t necessarily have much impact. The foundation has a scholarship and helps to handle WordPress meetings. It does own the WordPress trademark and some other trademarks. While Matt Mullenweg claimed recently that the license he apparently has for the WordPress trademark is revocable by the foundation, he also said that about Automattic’s license. Automattic’s license is publicly available, and it actually says the license is “perpetual, irrevocable.”

Shortly before that, he acknowledges that Matt Mullenweg is a dictator, while saying that forks don’t work:

I think the better approach is to reshape what we have, not throw untold resources at forking and rebuilding everything, only to possibly end up in the same situation all over again, just with a different dictator.

(He doesn’t address the long existing fork of ClassicPress and why it couldn’t work as fork in wider use.)

While calling Matt Mullenweg a dictator, he doesn’t cite any examples of dictators that were replaced to produce the result he wants there. Dictators are not exactly known for the peaceful transfer of power to democracy.

Considering that Matt Mullenweg appears to be completely unhinged at this point, it seems unlikely that someone could talk sense in to him. But if it there was an ability, Automattic’s board and investors seem like they would have the most leverage here.