WordPress is a pivotal part of the internet as we know it, due to its versatility, ease of use and ease of customisation with themes to suit every type of business need from legal portfolio to complex eCommerce storefronts.
The potential for WordPress to enable every user to create an effective, functional website transformed the internet completely and led to the development of the blog as we know it today.
However, there is a dispute at the heart of WordPress that has the potential to affect millions of websites in the process.
It started with a blog by founder Matt Mullenweg, which criticised WP Engine, a popular hosting platform for WordPress websites, for marketing that has proven to be confusing to customers, something that Mr Mullenweg argues was deliberate.
WordPress itself is open source, meaning that anyone can use the software under the terms of the General Public License, with the associated company Automattic in charge of WordPress’ commercial endeavours.
However, there are certain conditions attached to that use, and Mr Mullenweg argued that WP Engine had not followed them, calling for a boycott due to their ties to private equity firms.
This led to WP Engine sending a cease and desist order, alleging that he had defamed and attempted to extort them out to tens of millions of dollars.
Automattic then sent their own cease and desist, ordering WP Engine to stop using the WP Engine name due to it causing confusion in the marketplace.
The WordPress Foundation then banned WP Engine from accessing plug-ins and themes held on the main WordPress website, breaking a lot of websites in the process, and stopping them from updating and editing their themes, causing a huge security risk in the process.
The ban was lifted to allow WP Engine to set up a mirror page to access existing resources, but the bitter dispute has split opinion and caused a degree of uncertainty.
Exactly what will happen next will depend on a court case between WP Engine and Automattic, where the former accused the latter of abusing his power.
The chaos appears to have subsided for the time being, but this is a seismic event that could change so much about how we use the internet.
