Black Girls Code sues its sacked founder over ‘hijacking’ websites

San Francisco:  Non-profit organisation Black Girls Code has sued its founder Kimberly Bryant, accusing her of “unlawful hijacking” of its websites.

Bryant was sacked as a board member and CEO earlier this month after an intense period of allegations and legal and corporate battle, reports TechCrunch.

The complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California alleged that Bryant “took a series of inappropriate actions following her termination, including the unlawful hijacking of the BGC website and redirecting site visitors to her own website, which makes several false and misleading statements.”

Black Girls Code alleged that its domains — including blackgirlscode.com, blackgirlscode.org, blackgirlscode.site and blackgirlscode.net — all now redirect to another website named saveblackgirlscode.com.

“That website offers a memo with the details of Bryant’s aforementioned federal lawsuit, including her lawyer’s contact information,” the complaint said.

Bryant created the nonprofit in 2011 to give girls of colours an opportunity to join the tech mainstream.

In December 2021, Bryant was allegedly denied access to her email.

The board said she “was placed on administrative paid leave to review complaints against her”, which she denied.

Black Girls Code terminated Bryant on August 12.

“Ten+ years of founding and building an organisation to a $40M+ international brand which fundamentally changed the course of an industry and ousted without not a penny of severance offered. Sounds like retaliation?” She tweeted last week.

Bryant has also filed a federal lawsuit, alleging wrongful suspension.

A Black Girls Code spokesperson told TechCrunch that the group “believes the decision to remove Bryant as CEO and as a board member is in the best interests of the organisation, the girls it serves, its employees, and its donors”.

The nonprofit claimed that Bryant’s conduct violates federal and state statutes and “has caused irreparable harm to BGC’s operation and mission in the community”.

–IANS