WordPress project leadership has reinstated 32 WordPress.org accounts and launched a formal review into dozens more Slack accounts, following ongoing concerns about how bans have been handled on WordPress.org and Slack.

The effort was announced yesterday in a Make WordPress blog post by Community Team contributor Destiny Kanno. It comes after co-founder Matt Mullenweg’s surprise “WordPress Jubilee” post last week, in which he confirmed he was dropping “human blocks” on WordPress.org.

Kanno said the initiative prioritizes accounts banned between August 2024 and the present, particularly those removed without communication or notification. “While some blocks were justified and will be upheld, we acknowledge that mistakes may have occurred,” she wrote. “Our aim is to correct any past errors and provide a clear path for those members to re-engage with the community.”

So far, 47 accounts have been reviewed. According to Executive Director Mary Hubbard, six were inactive and two had voluntarily left the community. Of the remaining 39, 32 have been reinstated on both Slack and WordPress.org. A further 37 Slack-only bans, issued between January 2025 and now, are currently under review.

“The reason we began the review from August was purely to ensure the data pull was comprehensive,” Hubbard told The Repository. “I wanted to include any edge cases and prioritize based on the feedback I received about unfair bans even from the community teams. From feedback, we decided to concentrate on blocks occurring between September and December 2024.”

Project leadership is leading the review with support from Make teams that typically handle account moderation. Kanno said the criteria under review includes the severity of the infraction, time elapsed, and whether individuals have committed to following the community code of conduct. 

The controversy over account bans and blocks on WordPress.org, WordPress Slack, and official WordPress social accounts, began in the aftermath of WordCamp US 2024. During his keynote address at the event, Mullenweg publicly attacked WP Engine, leading the hosting company to launch legal action. A period of intense backlash followed, along with a series of bans and removals targeting people critical of Mullenweg’s actions.

High-profile WordPress contributors who’ve had their access to WordPress.org restored include core committer Ryan McCue, who was banned in October 2024. While he was never informed about the reason for his ban, he had published two posts on his personal blog about the Automattic vs WP Engine feud, including one titled “WP Engine Must Win.”

Joost de Valk, Karim Marucchi, Sé Reed, Heather Burns, and Morten Rand-Hendriksen have also had their accounts restored following the group’s ban in January. Mullenweg accused all five — who have at different times called for governance reform in the WordPress project — of attempting to fork WordPress, a claim they have denied. In December, de Valk and Marucchi called for an end to Mullenweg’s benevolent dictator for life (BDFL) leadership of the WordPress project.

When asked on X whether all WordPress.org bans would be lifted in additional to social media bans, Mullenweg replied, “it’ll be all of them,” raising concerns about blanket reinstatements. Former Plugins Review Team rep Mika Epstein — who endured years of harassment while in her role — was among those who raised the alarm, posting on Mastodon: “This is not a safe community for me or any of the thousands of volunteers who have worked hard to enforce guidelines equitably for over a decade.”

Hubbard has since clarified that each case is being reviewed individually, telling The Repository, “I also want to be clear: once Matt’s post went out, some in the community were concerned that we might reinstate everyone, even those who had engaged in abusive behavior. That is not the case. We’re working closely with community teams to thoroughly review each account and ensure that the safety and integrity of the community remain the top priority.”

Hubbard, who became Executive Director in October, has been advocating internally since she took on the role to have the bans to be addressed — work that is now happening in public. According to Kanno’s post, project leadership will provide regular updates on the progress of the unblocking initiative.

Image credit: Gianni Vascellari.