Second round of job cuts at Mozilla this year

Mozilla Foundation Cuts 30% of Staff, Axes Advocacy Division

Sweeping staffing cuts have fallen at The Mozilla Foundation, the nonprofit arm of Mozilla tasked with advocating for web standards, internet privacy, and open-source.

A huge 30% reduction in head count at the foundation cleaves away the entirety of the dedicated advocacy division, according to an internal memo seen by TechCrunch (and since confirmed to them and other press outlets by Mozilla).

“The Mozilla Foundation is reorganizing teams to increase agility and impact as we accelerate our work to ensure a more open and equitable technical future for us all,” Brandon Borrman, vice president of communications at Mozilla is quoted as saying.

“That unfortunately means ending some of the work we have historically pursued and eliminating associated roles to bring more focus going forward.” 

Borrman followed up with a comment to Engadget to stress that while the foundation’s advocacy division is indeed now kaput, the foundation’s commitment to advocacy in general isn’t changing: they’re simply ‘revisiting’ their approach to it.

Spin or sincerity? Never easy to tell, I find.

Not the first job losses at Mozilla this year

In February, the corporate side of Mozilla (the part which makes Firefox) killed off several sideline projects (including a paid-for feature announced only weeks prior) and laid off 5 percent of its workforce in an attempt to reduce costs.

At the time, it also announced more AI integrations and renewed focus on its profitable products, such as the Firefox web browser. And to be fair, we’ve seen an uptick in big features confirmed for the browser in the months since, like vertical tabs and tab groups.

That said, to see further cuts made, so soon, and to the portion of Mozilla which tackles the “vital” stuff, like championing a web that’s truly open, accessible, and free of lock-ins and limitations, is a blow.

It’s tough out there (unless you’re an AI unicorn)

Not that Mozilla is the only tech company facing hard decisions on its future owing to falling finances.

The GNOME Foundation has been upfront about its struggles of late, which also involved job losses. However, they have a plan, they have grants still in place to fund important development works, and they have us (anyone can donate to GNOME at any time).

Yet it is all-too easy to think of these tentpole nonprofits as part of the furniture – always been there, always will be; too big, too important, and too well known to vanish – but that is not a given.

Absolute failure rarely happens instantly or with bombast. It’s more …death by a thousand cuts; a slow bleed into increasing irrelevance because—catch 22—they can’t fund the work they do which keeps them vocal, relevant, needed – and thus funded.

The foundation matters more than we think

Like many nonprofits, The Mozilla Foundation is focused on mission, education, and policy rather than creating those tangible baubles that catch the public’s eyes, generate excitement, and let tech sites and bloggers (like me) screenshot and coo over.

Yet the foundation is a buttress against the “icky web”. Weakening its voice in championing open web standards, digital literacy, and engaging people on the need to care about that is simply not a good thing for the web in general, regardless of whether it’s viewed in Firefox.

So while the foundation might not be putting tab doohickeys and AI chatbots in the browser for people to use, it doesn’t mean their work is any less important — arguably, it’s the most important work: a web that works wherever, in whatever, for whomever.