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Paddy Cosgrave, CEO and co-founder of the annual technology conference Web Summit, has resigned from his post after coming under fire for his comments on the Israel-Hamas war, which led to big tech guests including Alphabet, Meta and Amazon canceled their participation.
“Unfortunately, my personal comments distract from the event and our team, our sponsors, our startups and the people in attendance,” Cosgrave said in a statement on Saturday.
Earlier this week, Cosgrave took to social media to express his personal opposition to Israel’s counterattacks in Gaza.
“To reiterate, war crimes are war crimes, even when committed by allies, and should be called out for what they are,” Cosgrave said in one Monday post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I won’t give in.”
His comments led to a flood of cancellations from high-profile participants such as Meta, Alphabet, Amazon and others. This year’s conference is scheduled for November 13-16 and is scheduled to take place in Lisbon, Portugal.
The day after his post
“What is needed at this time is compassion, and that is not what I expressed,” Cosgrave said in his apology.