[icon color=”#e96a2a” size=”16px” name=”awesome-file-alt”] April 3, 2014

Online dating service OKcupid is able to claim victory in its fight against FireFox. As we reported on Monday, OKcupid urged users to stop using the popular FireFox browser because the CEO of Mozilla (which owns/runs FireFox) had given money in the past to an anti-gay marriage initiative. Despite distancing himself from that and promising to be inclusive, CEO Brendan Eich was forced out of Mozilla due to the growing controversy fueled by OKcupid.

ALSO SEE: OKcupid Urges Users to Reject FireFox

Eich is best known as the creator of Javascript. He’s been a strong leader in the tech industry, but hit a brick wall when he accepted the job of CEO of Mozilla last month. There was an internal protest in Mozilla over the hiring, but the posting of a letter to FireFox users by OKcupid really fueled the debate and media coverage. It was a bold move by the online dating service which is owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp who also owns Match.com and Chemistry.com. Neither Match.com or Chemistry.com got involved in the protest.

The announcement that Eich was let go/resigning at Mozilla was unceremoniously delivered in a blog post by Mozilla Executive Chairwoman Mitchell Baker. Here’s an excerpt from that post:

[dropshadowbox align=”none” effect=”lifted-both” width=”100%” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#e96a2a”]Mozilla Post on Brendan Eich Resignation
Mozilla prides itself on being held to a different standard and, this past week, we didn’t live up to it. We know why people are hurt and angry, and they are right: it’s because we haven’t stayed true to ourselves.

We didn’t act like you’d expect Mozilla to act. We didn’t move fast enough to engage with people once the controversy started. We’re sorry. We must do better.

Brendan Eich has chosen to step down from his role as CEO. He’s made this decision for Mozilla and our community.[/dropshadowbox]

Brendan Eich has yet to publicly comment on his resignation. According to PC Magazine, a few hours before the resignation, OKcupid removed the message from its Website and said it would explain why later. As of this writing, OKcupid has yet to publicly comment on the resignation of Eich.