A California district court has ordered Automattic and its CEO, Matt Mullenweg, to restore WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org, reversing a ban imposed in September.
The ruling reinstates WP Engine’s ability to manage themes, plugins, and subdomains on the platform after a dispute which began when Mullenweg publicly accused WP Engine of harming the WordPress community and blocked its access to the site.
This action also prevented WP Engine from maintaining its Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin, which Automattic took over and rebranded as Secure Custom Fields (SCF). The court’s decision returns control of ACF to WP Engine and requires Automattic to remove a list of former WP Engine customers it had published.
Automattic called the order preliminary and pledged to continue its legal fight. WP Engine welcomed the decision, saying it would bring stability to the WordPress community. The case has sparked debate over the management of open-source projects and fair contributions to the platform.
Philips Babatunde