Updated Most of the volunteer staff of Freenode, an internet relay chat (IRC) network dating back to 1995, have resigned in protest over what they de

Freenode IRC staff resign en masse, unhappy about new management

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2021-05-27 07:30:08

Updated Most of the volunteer staff of Freenode, an internet relay chat (IRC) network dating back to 1995, have resigned in protest over what they describe as a hostile takeover of the chat service.

Freenode, which has focused on serving as a real-time communication channel for free and open source software projects, currently has about 76,000 users and 42,000 chat rooms.

In a resignation letter, a staffer called Christian, who is also known as Fuchs on Freenode, said after 10 years helping with the network, he is leaving because he disagrees with the direction being taken by Andrew Lee, founder of VPN firm Private Internet Access (PIA), who acquired a controlling interest [PDF] in Freenode's holding company in 2017.

Christian said that at the time of the 2017 transaction, the terms of the deal were not disclosed to staff, although promises were made that Lee would not have operational control over the Freenode IRC network.

That apparently has changed. "The democratically elected heads of their respective teams, development, infrastructure, projects and communities were removed by force and have been informed that they are not entitled to act in their respective capacity," said Christian. "As a result, Mr Lee wants and partially has operational control over the Freenode IRC network now."