Automattic CEO and WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg has deactivated the accounts of several prominent members of the WordPress.org community, including two individuals who, he claims, were planning to lead a new fork of the open-source WordPress project.
Tensions surrounding WordPress governance are not new, but the situation recently reached a boiling point after Mullenweg publicly criticized WP Engine, a commercial hosting company built on WordPress, for profiting without contributing back to the community.
The dispute escalated further when WP Engine filed a lawsuit after being banned from accessing critical WordPress resources, a decision later reversed by a court order.
Amid this conflict, key figures in the WordPress ecosystem have voiced concerns. Joost de Valk, creator of the popular SEO plugin Yoast and former marketing lead for the WordPress Foundation, recently shared his “vision for a new WordPress era,” advocating for federated and independent repositories. Karim Marucchi, CEO of the enterprise consulting firm Crowd Favorite, expressed similar ideas.
WP Engine, meanwhile, has indicated its support for such initiatives, potentially offering corporate backing for a new direction.
While Mullenweg has publicly entertained the idea of a new WordPress fork — a process in which developers create a separate version of an open-source project — he accused de Valk and Marucchi of planning a fork, despite their assertions that they never intended to split from the main project. De Valk had previously discussed creating “mirrors” for themes and plugins to address issues of control within WordPress.org, but stressed that his goal was not to create a rival fork, but to enable more independence within the ecosystem.
Earlier this week, Automattic announced plans to reduce its contributions to the core WordPress project to match WP Engine’s contribution, measured in weekly hours. This led de Valk to announce on social media that he was ready to lead the next WordPress release, with Marucchi offering his team’s support. Together, de Valk and Marucchi contribute about 10 hours per week to WordPress development.
In response, Mullenweg said he was deactivating their accounts to “give their independent effort the push it needs to get off the ground,” encouraging those who wish to pursue alternative leadership models to align with WP Engine’s new initiative.
Alongside de Valk and Marucchi, Mullenweg also deactivated the accounts of three other community members: Sé Reed, Heather Burns, and Morten Rand-Hendriksen. Reed, the president and CEO of the newly established WP Community Collective, which aims to provide a neutral space for collaboration in the WordPress ecosystem, expressed surprise at her account being deactivated. Burns, a former contributor, noted on social media that she had not been involved with WordPress since 2020. Rand-Hendriksen suggested that Mullenweg’s actions were a response to their past critiques of WordPress governance.
Deactivating a WordPress.org account prevents users from contributing to the project, including code submissions, plugin development, or theme contributions. However, since WordPress is also hosted on GitHub, anyone can still access the code and create a fork if desired.
In a somewhat sarcastic blog post, Mullenweg mused that a potential new fork could be called “JKPress,” joking about holding a joint summit with the new project. He added, “The beauty of open source is that anyone can take the GPL code and build their vision. If they create something truly innovative, we might even consider merging it back into WordPress.”
Despite the growing tension, Mullenweg emphasized that open-source projects are defined by their ability to freely share ideas and code, fostering innovation even when competing visions emerge.
