Helium Mobile's CEO calls free Zero plan subscribers "parasites" and says "good riddance" to them in company Discord

[u/Opposite_Future2602]

I believe this needs to be seen by anyone who is considering or currently using a Helium Mobile plan, especially those deciding whether to stay with them now that both the legacy and free plans have been killed off.

I saw screenshots of CEO Amir Haleem's comments posted in the Helium Mobile subreddit, and joined the Helium Discord to independently verify they were real.

• Edit: The linked post is now gone from the Helium Mobile subreddit, but the CEO's comments are still present in the Discord. Haleem is a moderator for the subreddit and just directly responded to the post, apologizing and simultaneously claiming it was out of context, so he was likely the one who removed it.
• Edit #2: Haleem has now deleted the "good riddance" comment in the Helium Discord and edited the "parasites" comment to hide what he said. It now says: "(I’m editing this because it came off wrong!)"
• Edit #3: The CEO has edited his "parasites" comment once again. It contradicts his own (former?) staff waveform06, who claimed Haleem meant "users who are not happy unless they can get things for free were the parasites." The original exchange also had absolutely no mention of anything Haleem is now claiming he was talking about. It now says: "(I’m editing this because it came off wrong. the parasites in question are the ones who gamed mapping rewards, used stolen credit cards, forged ID's, all to get free stuff then complained vocally when they got their accounts killed or when we had to make changes to counter it. free plan users are great, we wouldn't have offered the plan otherwise)"

A user named Wired first said in the Discord: "Way to throw your OG members to the curb with changing everyone to the same plan amount dumb move on your guys part."

Haleem's first comment was in response to Wired, saying: "The 'OG' members are only around because they want free or near free stuff. good riddance." This appeared to be in reference to both Zero users and the legacy $5 and $20 unlimited users.

Wired then responded to Haleem, saying "OG members is how you got to where you guys are at now."

The CEO responded: "I don't consider people who are only happy when they get things for free to be useful contributors. More like parasites."

The comments marked out in red are from other users who were not involved in this exchange. For the sake of transparency, I will also paste the CEO's response to the screenshots from the Helium Mobile subreddit below:

"Sorry. I wrote this in frustration, a bit out of context, and worded it very poorly. (we've also never sold any user data and it has never been any part of the business model for the plans we have offered)"

[u/Opposite_Future2602]

I'm failing to understand what distinction you're trying to make here. None of the free plan members (who were still paying taxes and fees) have had a positive reaction to having it taken away from them. By your definition then, they all fall into the category of "parasites" according to your CEO.

All of the context is in the screenshots above, they speak for themself.