Automattic removed a spreadsheet containing the domain names of WP Engine customers from the WP Engine Tracker website. The removal is in response to a preliminary injunction granted to WP Engine, ordering Automattic and Matt Mullenweg to remove the spreadsheet within 72 hours.
The preliminary injunction was warmly received on X (formerly Twitter), a tweet by Joe Youngblood representative of the general sentiment:
“The ruling was a gigantic win for small businesses and entrepreneurs that rely on open source keeping it’s promises. That includes allowing webhosts to host and not stealing code repositories.
I am hopeful the full outcome of this looks much the same.”
Someone else tweeted:
“Unbiased parties watching on the sidelines think the court got it right. This was obvious from day one.
Next step for you guys is to try to settle out of court to prevent further embarrassment and reduce potential risk in damages.”
Mullenweg’s Dispute With WP Engine
Matt Mullenweg began an attack against WP Engine on September 20, 2024 after WP Engine declined to pay tens of millions of dollars, what WP Engine’s attorney’s called “extortionate monetary demands” in a cease and desist letter sent to Automattic’s Chief Legal Officer on September 23rd.
On November 6th Automattic intensified the pressure on WP Engine by launching a website called WP Engine Tracker that offered a list of WP Engine customers that could be used by other web hosts to solicit the clients with offers to leave WP Engine.
Solicitations of WP Engine customers apparently followed, as related by a Redditor in a discussion about the WP Engine Tracker website:
“I was out of the office for some medical procedures, so I missed the WPE Tracker thing. However, this explains why I’ve received unsolicited hosting calls from certain operations. Clearly, someone is mining it to solicit business. Absolutely aggravating and also completely expected.
All this does is further entrench me on WP Engine. Good work, Matt, you dweeb.”
The WP Engine Tracker website became evidence of the harm Mullenweg was causing to WP Engine and was cited in the request for a preliminary injunction.
The judge sided with WP Engine and granted the preliminary injunction, requiring among many other things that Automattic and Mullenweg take down the list of WP Engine customers.
The court order states:
“Within 72 hours, Defendants are ORDERED to:
…(a) remove the purported list of WPEngine customers contained in the “domains.csv” file linked to Defendants’ wordpressenginetracker.com website (which was launched on or about
November 7, 2024) and stored in the associated GitHub repository located at https://github.com/wordpressenginetracker/wordpressenginetracker.github.io.”
The CSV file was subsequently removed although the link to a non-existent file , with a link showing zero :
Screenshot Of WP Engine Tracker Website
Clicking the link leads to a 404 error response message.
Screenshot Of 404 Error Response For CSV Download
A pull request on GitHub shows that a request was made to remove the CSV file on December 11th.
“Remove CTA to download list of sites #29
wordpressenginetracker commented 9 hours ago
This PR removes the text and download link to download the list of sites that have are still using WPE”
Screenshot Of GitHub Pull Request
Advanced Custom Fields Plugin
Automattic removed WP Engine’s Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin from the official WordPress.org plugin repository and replaced it with Automattic’s cloned version, renamed as Secure Custom Fields (SCF).
The preliminary injunction orders Automattic to also restore access to the Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin repository:
“Within 72 hours, Defendants are ORDERED to:
…(v) returning and restoring WPEngine’s access to and control of its Advanced Custom Fields (“ACF”) plugin directory listing at https://wordpress.org/plugins/advanced-customfields, as it existed as of September 20, 2024.”
The cloned SCF plugin currently still exists at that URL, although Automattic still has time to take it down.
Screenshot Of SCF Plugin In The ACF Directory Listing
Featured Image by Shutterstock/tomertu