ACF → SCF forced fork (Oct 12, 2024) — first unilateral plugin takeover in 21-year WordPress history

Claim: On October 12, 2024, WordPress.org forcibly took over the Advanced Custom Fields plugin (a WP Engine property running on >2 million WordPress sites) and renamed the WordPress.org-hosted version to "Secure Custom Fields" without WP Engine's consent. Sites with auto-updates enabled silently switched plugin source.

Quote (ACF official statement, Oct 12, 2024):

"A plugin under active development has never been unilaterally and forcibly taken away from its creator without consent in the 21 year history of [WordPress]."

Source: ACF homepage statement; WordPress.org plugin directory; TechCrunch and Verge coverage.

Confidence: Verified.

Why this is the punchiest event: It's dated, specific, and verifiable. Lead the public-facing article with this rather than the Doctorow framing — concrete events earn reader trust before abstract argument starts. See WP Engine vs Automattic timeline (Sept 2024 → ongoing) — open-source has centralized choke points for the dispute context.