Mozilla Set to Fire Employee Responsible for Hate Speech on Reddit

Mozilla’s CEO has vowed to fire an employee who was suspected of engaging in a vitriolic tirade on Reddit. The person in question used the alias, aoiyama and expressed joyous glee from the recent departure of Mozilla’s community organizer, Christie Koehler, and said:

“Everyone was glad to see the back of her”

“When she and the rest of her blue-haired, nose-pierced ***hole feminists are gone, the tech industry will breathe a sigh of relief.”

From a PR perspective, this was a disaster as the Reddit user is a Mozilla representative and could give an overall impression of their views on gender diversity in technology. Of course, Mozilla need to take firm, authoritative action and try to project a public image of enticing women into the technology sector. I think this proves once again to use caution when ranting on a public website and step away from the keyboard in moments of anger. Respect each other and the internet will become a more harmonious place.

Mozilla’s official response to the incident is as follows:

“It’s been brought to our attention that there’s been anonymous postings to Reddit under the handle aoiyama that crossed a line from criticism to hate speech. There’s a lot to suggest that they’re a Mozillian [an employee]. Specifically, when I’m talking about crossing the line from criticism to hate speech, I’m talking about when you start saying that ‘someone’s kind doesn’t belong here and we’ll all be happy when they’re gone.’ If that’s not hate speech, it’s pretty damn close and we’re not going to walk that line as Mozilla. So if, and when, we identify who this person is and if they are an employee, they will be fired. Either way, they are not welcome to continue to participate in the Mozilla project, so if you cross that line, I’m asking you now: please leave, because you’re not welcome.”

Thank you Engadget for providing us with this information.