Matt Mullenweg deactivates the accounts of 5 WordPress community members and tightens the rope a bit more

After Automattic announced it would reduce its involvement in the WordPress project, it made another significant decision: deactivating the accounts of Joost de Valk and Karim Marucchi. Both individuals hold influential positions within the WordPress ecosystem—Joost de Valk is renowned for creating Yoast, a widely-used SEO tool, and Karim Marucchi serves as the CEO of Crowd Favorite.

Besides these, the accounts of three additional key members, Sé Reed, Heather Burns, and Morten Rand-Hendriksen, have also been deactivated. As per Matt Mullenweg, the aim of this decision is to encourage independent initiatives, although some speculate that it might be a form of retribution for criticizing the current governance.

Why there is a conflict

In September, the CEO of WordPress openly criticized WP Engine for profiting from the platform without contributing to its development, leading to a defamation lawsuit from WP Engine, which Automattic later responded to. This sparked ongoing tension within the community.

Amidst this environment, both Joost de Valk and Karim Marucchi suggested new directions for WordPress, which included creating federated and independent repositories for plugins and themes. De Valk confirmed via a post on X that he was ready to lead the upcoming releases, despite having previously criticized the platform’s leadership.

So @photomatt – I saw the post by @automattic.

I’m ready to lead the next releases. I am sure plenty of people and companies are willing to help me and we’ve got plenty of ideas on what we should be doing.#WordPress
— Joost de Valk (@jdevalk) January 10, 2025

Meanwhile, Marucchi also wrote about the issue, expressing that WordPress leadership needs to evolve and adapt to maintain and enhance the project.

Although these suggestions did not explicitly propose a fork, Matt Mullenweg perceived them as the initiation of a new, separate project, which he mockingly referred to as “JKPress.” The term “fork” is commonly used in software to describe creating a new project from an existing one.

Both have publicly denied planning to fork WordPress, stating instead that they are exploring ways to modernize its structure and promote community independence.

Matt Mullenweg answers

In a statement laden with irony and sarcasm, the CEO of WordPress fully endorses any new initiatives and insists that “neither De Valk nor Marucchi need to prove their worth within the WordPress.org ecosystem; they can simply lead by example by submitting code and products for people to use, evaluate, and test on their own.” Additionally, referencing a post from WP Engine, he adds: “If they need financial or hosting support, it seems WP Engine wants to support their fork.”

We appreciate @jdevalk and @karimmarucchi thoughtful call for constructive conversation, change, and evolved leadership within the WordPress community. Moments of disruption challenge all of us to reflect and to act.

WordPress’s success as the most widely used CMS is not the…
— WP Engine (@wpengine) December 20, 2024

He even proposed organizing a WordPress + JKPress Summit in 2026 to assess the outcomes of these initiatives.

Reactions in WordPress Ecosystem

The recent decision to deactivate the WordPress accounts of Sé Reed, Heather Burns, and Morten Rand-Hendriksen has left these individuals puzzled. They all share a common sentiment: they are unsure why Matt Mullenweg chose to deactivate their accounts, especially since they have not been actively involved in the project for quite some time.

Morten expressed his thoughts on his Bluesky account, while Heather responded to Mullenweg’s actions on her blog, where she accused him of harassment. Sé Reed took to X to voice her perspective.

Matt Mullenweg just deactivated the WordPress.org accounts of @joost.blog, Karim Mariachi, and @sereedmedia.bsky.social for trying to build more sustainable governance and economy where Matt himself failed. Absurdly, he also deactivated Heather Burns and my accounts.

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— Morten Rand-Hendriksen (@mor10.com) 11 January 2025 at 04:11

This controversy has brought to light a significant discussion about governance in open-source projects and the challenge of balancing commercial and community interests. As WordPress progresses into its next phase, these discussions may signal the start of a period characterized by increased experimentation and innovation.

Image: GPT4