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Paddy Cosgrave, CEO and co-founder of the annual technology conference Web Summit, has resigned after his comments about the war between Israel and Hamas led Alphabet, Meta and Amazon to cancel their participation.
“Unfortunately, my personal comments have become a distraction from the event, our team, our sponsors, our startups and the people who attend,” Cosgrave said in a statement on Saturday.
Earlier, Cosgrave expressed his personal opposition to Israeli counterattacks in Gaza on his social media accounts.
“I repeat: war crimes are war crimes, even when committed by allies and they must be denounced for what they are. I will not back down,” Cosgrave said on the X programme.
His statements led to the cancellation of attendance at the Web Summit by participants such as Meta, Alphabet, Amazon, and others. This year’s conference is scheduled to be held from November 13 to 16 in Lisbon, Portugal.
The day after his post on X, Cosgrave apologized on the Web Summit blog. He wrote that the timing of his comments “caused profound harm.”
“What we need at this time is compassion, and I did not convey that,” Cosgrave said.
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