March 30, 2021

Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open source solutions for businesses, has publicly withdrawn funding and support from the Free Software Foundation (FSF) following the reinstatement of Richard M. Stallman. Stallman, who is the father of the GNU Public License, has previously supported Linux and a significant portion of the user-oriented software that originally accompanied the Linux kernel. Thus, his return to the board after a two-year hiatus after his controversial statement about Jeffrey Epstein’s sacrifice is proving to be highly controversial and discreditable.

While the Free Software Foundation’s statement on the day Stallman was reinstated assured every one of its transparent and formal process for identifying candidates and appointing new board members who are capable and committed to fulfilling the FSF’s mission, Red Hat was angry to learn that he, Stallman, had rejoined the board of the Free Software Funding Board. In a brief statement, Red Hat revealed, “Red Hat was appalled to learn that [Stallman] had rejoined the FSF board of directors. As a result, we are immediately suspending all Red Hat funding of the FSF and any FSF-hosted events”

For more information see the original story in Ars Technica