{"id":9290,"date":"2024-11-10T10:19:23","date_gmt":"2024-11-10T17:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/?p=9290"},"modified":"2024-11-10T10:20:53","modified_gmt":"2024-11-10T17:20:53","slug":"mozilla-foundation-lays-off-30-of-staff-drops-advocacy-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/2024\/11\/10\/mozilla-foundation-lays-off-30-of-staff-drops-advocacy-division\/","title":{"rendered":"Mozilla Foundation Lays off 30% of Staff, Drops Advocacy Division"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Large foundations usually get corrupted with contributions requiring board seats to make sure funds are spent responsibly. Leading to the organizations being captured by special interests, often pulling them away from their original goals and mission. So with Firefox shrinking market share and push towards their own products being sold along with a new ad system being developed, the future of Firefox looks unsure. I might have to move to the Mullvad Browser or one of the other privacy focused browsers that tweak the Chromium or Firefox source code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2024\/11\/05\/mozilla-foundation-lays-off-30-staff-drops-advocacy-division\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

By Zack Whittaker<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mozilla Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the Firefox browser maker Mozilla, has laid off 30% of its employees as the organization says it faces a \u201crelentless onslaught of change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When reached by TechCrunch, Mozilla Foundation\u2019s communications chief Brandon Borrman confirmed the layoffs in an email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Mozilla Foundation is reorganizing teams to increase agility and impact as we accelerate our work to ensure a more open and equitable technical future for us all. That unfortunately means ending some of the work we have historically pursued and eliminating associated roles to bring more focus going forward,\u201d read the statement shared with TechCrunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to its annual tax filings, the Mozilla Foundation reported having 60 employees<\/a> during the 2022 tax year. The number of employees at the time of the layoffs was closer to 120 people, according to a person with knowledge. When asked by TechCrunch, Mozilla\u2019s spokesperson did not dispute the figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the second layoff at Mozilla this year, the first affecting dozens of employees<\/a> who work on the side of the organization that builds the popular Firefox browser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mozilla is made up of several organizations<\/a>, one of which is the Mozilla Corporation, which develops Firefox and other technologies, and another is its nonprofit and tax-exempt Foundation, which oversees Mozilla\u2019s corporate governance structure and sets the browser maker\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of Mozilla\u2019s work focused on advocating for privacy, inclusion, and decentralization of technologies, and \u201cto create safer, more transparent online experiences for everyone,\u201d which ultimately benefit the browser maker and its users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Announcing the layoffs in an email to all employees on October 30, the Mozilla Foundation\u2019s executive director Nabiha Syed confirmed that two of the foundation\u2019s major divisions \u2014 advocacy<\/a> and global programs<\/a> \u2014 are \u201cno longer a part of our structure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After publication, Borrman told TechCrunch that \u201cadvocacy is still a central tenet of Mozilla Foundation\u2019s work and will be embedded in all the other functional areas,\u201d without providing specifics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move, according to Syed, is in part to produce a \u201cunified, powerful narrative from the Foundation,\u201d including revamping the foundation\u2019s strategic communications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur mission at Mozilla is more high-stakes than ever,\u201d wrote Syed in an email to staff, a copy of which was shared with TechCrunch. \u201cWe find ourselves in a relentless onslaught of change in the technology (and broader) world, and the idea of putting people before profit feels increasingly radical.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNavigating this topsy-turvy, distracting time requires laser focus \u2014 and sometimes saying goodbye to the excellent work that has gotten us this far because it won\u2019t get us to the next peak. Lofty goals demand hard choices,\u201d wrote Syed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Syed, who joined the Mozilla Foundation in February<\/a>, previously served as chief executive at data journalism and investigative news site The Markup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Updated with comment from Mozilla.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Large foundations usually get corrupted with contributions requiring board seats to make sure funds are spent responsibly. Leading to the organizations being captured by special interests, often pulling them away from their original goals and mission. So with Firefox shrinking market share and push towards their own products being sold along with a new ad […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jason","author_link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/author\/jturning\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9290"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9294,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9290\/revisions\/9294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}