WordPress was once a beacon of hope for the internet—a movement, not just a product. It symbolised everything open source stood for: collaboration, community, and mutual empowerment. I was there in the early days, pitching WordPress to sceptical clients who balked at the idea of moving away from overpriced proprietary CMSs. I knew the promise WordPress made to its users, developers, and advocates. But now, all I see is betrayal.
The internet’s original ethos has been trampled by the tech bros who sold us on dreams of disruption and collaboration, only to consolidate power, hoard profits, and exploit the very people who built their empires. WordPress, like so many platforms, grew off the backs of unpaid labour: developers building plugins, designers creating themes, and advocates like me pushing it to reluctant clients. We believed we were part of something bigger—a movement that could upend the monopolies of Microsoft and their ilk. Instead, we ended up in a tech feudalism where the spoils of our collective labour have been siphoned off by a handful of opportunists.
Matt Mullenweg, the self-styled “benevolent dictator for life” of WordPress.org, epitomises this hypocrisy. He sits at the helm of both WordPress.org, a non-profit foundation, and Automattic, a for-profit company backed by private equity giants like Salesforce. This staggering conflict of interest has turned WordPress into a weapon for personal vendettas and corporate greed. His recent actions—attacking competitors under the guise of defending the WordPress community—expose the ugly truth: this isn’t about preserving open source ideals. It’s about power, control, and profit.
The hypocrisy is galling. While Mullenweg rails against WP Engine, accusing them of exploiting WordPress, he conveniently ignores Automattic’s own private equity backing. He wraps himself in cardigans and sneakers, projecting a faux humility that belies his ruthless tactics. This isn’t leadership; it’s manipulation. And we, the community, are collateral damage in his petty wars.
The WordPress Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charity, is supposed to operate for public benefit. Its governance structure should reflect transparency and fairness, yet Mullenweg runs it as his personal fiefdom. Where are the board members? Where is the oversight? The very principles of open source—decentralisation and community-led development—have been hollowed out, replaced by a monopolistic chokehold that undermines everything WordPress was meant to stand for.
This isn’t just about WordPress. It’s a microcosm of the wider internet. Platforms like Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter have all followed the same playbook: harness the unpaid labour of their communities, grow fat on user-generated content, then cash out, leaving the very people who built them in the dust. The internet’s promise has been hijacked by libertarian brain rot and techno-feudal overlords who weaponise algorithms and data against us.
I trusted these people. I built my career on WordPress, believing it was better for clients, cheaper for businesses, and part of a larger movement to democratise the web. Now, I feel nothing but disappointment. I could’ve made more money selling proprietary CMSs with far less grief. I absorbed the risks of promoting WordPress, from dealing with security vulnerabilities to handling client misunderstandings about open source licensing. And for what? To see it all co-opted by private equity interests and used as a cudgel in corporate wars?
To those in the WordPress community, I say this: your contributions matter. Whether you’ve sold WordPress, developed plugins, designed themes, or simply advocated for its use, you’ve helped build something incredible. Don’t let anyone—least of all the cardigan-clad tech bros—tell you otherwise. They’re rewriting history to erase the labour, trust, and dreams that went into this platform. They don’t own WordPress. We do.
But we need to do better. We need governance structures that reflect the community’s interests, not the whims of a single person. We need to resist the gaslighting that tells us we haven’t done enough when, in truth, we’ve done too much for too little in return. Most importantly, we need to stop falling for the lies of tech leaders who promise the world but deliver nothing but exploitation.
This isn’t their internet. It’s ours. And it’s time we took it back.