2w ago

Proton CEO supports business policies of republicans

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/37218429

When called out on it, they then doubled down on this dogshit take: https://archive.ph/quYyb

Proton @lemmy.world

cygnus @lemmy.ca

2w ago

Proton CEO goes full MAGA

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103 comments

The initial post could just be chalked up to naivety if we're feeling charitable, but using the official proton accounts for this stuff is an extremely bad move. Then half-assedly retracting it without acknowledging he posted it, doubling down, and making every classic PR mistake. Aside from potential capitulation to a regime that clearly values power more than human rights, there's significant risk from a person with such bad judgement having apparently no safeguards or second opinions when he's posting. What other decisions is he unilaterally making for proton that aren't publicly known?
- He's another mini Elon wannabe, obviously. They're coming out of the woodwork lately.
  I hope people are taking notes so these scum don't get to skate later when it falls down around their ears.
- This is basically my thinking and why I will be shifting away from their products as well

Cancelled my years long subscription today. Any company that bows down to tRump should be avoided. Vote with your wallet.
- I did the same! No more proton unlimited! It is better to use products from multiple companies instead of one.
- Who did you switch to? I'm looking to leave proton too with all this.
  
  Mullvad, Tuta, Bitwarden.
  
  Also curious. I left Mullvad because they stopped supporting port forwarding. Proton seemed like the best second option privacy/feature/price wise at the time. IVPN was touted highly around that time, but it appears they have also phased out port forwarding
  
  for mail, Mailbox.org (originally I said posteo but I was unable to get the payment to go through. idk why). For drive, calendar, contacts, passwords, I'm working on setting up nextcloud but it's not ready yet. I still have a few months before I'm downgraded. for VPN, I'm still looking for alternatives.
- More bandwidth for the rest of us!

The post was deleted and they are in cleanup mode. Best thing we can do is post this everywhere and demand a public apology and the firing of Andy Yen.
Otherwise end your subscriptions!
- What is the Streisand effect?
- We can demand his firing but unfortunately he's one of three founders, he's unlikely to be fired. But I hope it's a wakeup call to them that they should have a policy of keeping their mouth shut on politics, including all board members.

Grrrreat... Can anyone please suggest an alternative? I've switched to Proton trying to de-Google...
- For Email: Posteo, Tutanota, Disroot
  For VPN: Mullvad, AirVPN, IVPN
  For password manager: Keypassxc, Bitwarden
  
  Thank you kindly!
  
  Can Tuta use a gateway similar to Hydroxide for Proton? I like my traditional email clients and have a machine I trust to encrypt/decrypt.
  
  Or support one of the last non-chromium browsers remaining by getting MozillaVPN/Relay and password manager
  
  What do you suggest for cloud storage?
  
  Thx mr frog
- I've been looking at fastmail and tuta
  
  Thank you for the recs, will add them to the list! Maybe it's time to go from one to many...
- I switched to PurelyMail and haven't had any problems. Just mail with no marketing or other bullshit
  
  Excellent, the more options the better! Thank you!
- Damnit, same thing here.

Guy who sells VPNs really supportive of political party that blocks parts of the internet regionally

This comment right here absolutely nails it.
The Republicans have installed a Supreme Court that guts antitrust at every step, and Andy gives them a pass. Anyone that's that bloody oblivious of how the GOP have spent 25 years trying to remove consumer protections at every turn shouldn't be managing a popsicle stand, let alone an email service so many rely on to be private.
What a redundant muffin.

When called out on it, they then doubled down on this dogshit take:
That makes it seem like Andy here just doubled down, but it's way worse than that. The company released an official statement doubling down on Yen's stance.

It seems obvious to me now.
Many US states are now requiring age verification for adult sites. VPN companies will benefit if that requirement expands. The Republican party's pearl-clutching politics are what can make that happen.
- Reminds me of the time the CEO of grindr said he opposed gay marriage.
  
  There's a lot of benefits that come with gay sex being something you get socially ostracized or legally prosecuted for.
  You get to have all the gay sex you want with the reassuring knowledge that it will be kept completely secret by your partners.

Believing in any way that Republicans are helping out the little guy or against big business is so ridiculous I have to believe this is willful ignorance to cover up the fact that a lot more people will need VPNs with all the porn bans and other privacy nightmares the right will pass the next few years.

This is bewildering. What a shame.
I had minor gripes with some of their services but Proton has broadly been pretty great in my eyes.
Some CEOs baffle me. Surely, even if they are massive fans of one US political party over the other, they'd have the sense to keep it to themselves to prevent it becoming a thing that causes a fallout with existing/potential customers? But no. They're too fucking narcissistic for that, and they think everyone wants to hear their opinions and follow them.
- Most of the companies/ceos doing this over the past few weeks do know better. That's why they didnt say anything earlier. The reason they would be publicly taking this stance now is that they either expect to be rewarded by the incoming administration, or they hope to avoid punitive retaliation.

Cancelled my subscription today. I will be finding an alternative.
- I had just signed up a few nights ago to try it out before subscribing, it's an easy cancel at this point and is being done momentarily.
  
  I had it for a few months. Luckily it was easy to swap out this early on.
  Time to find a new option.
- an alternative for email or vpn? I'm also in the market for a new email now :/
  
  Im happy with mailbox.org so far!
  
  RiseUp.net for both. Disroot.org for email (And other services).
  
  Email!
  VPN I am sticking with Mullvad.

Me being too lazy and putting off switching to Proton has paid off!
- I cancelled my newly made subscription because of this and asked for the money back, currently theyre trying to stall that by all means.
  I went with mailbox.org instead for much cheaper, the setup was really simple, but ive heard great things of other providers as well.
  
  Oh mailbox seems cool. I'm personally using mxroute.com to host my domain's email but to be fully honest, I'm still stuck on the Gmail for most things.
  I mostly use my person domain email for things like a contact address on my résumé.
  I want to switch fully to my personal domain email but mxroute's web app(s) kind of suck 😅
  
  Posteo is another good one, Disroot as well

Canceled my sub last night, ported everything to Tuta today. No issues this far.
Super disappointing, but is what it is and I'll move on.
- I already used my proton email as contact method on some published stuff that I can't modify. Do you have some tips for that situation, or am I stuck now?
  
  I'd probably just set up a forwarding rule and call it good if you can't modify it.
  Right now my Proton account has a few straggling outliers forwarding to my new accounts, but I've mostly switched everything over to emails that are for a domain I own so it's a little easier moving forward.

So we're keeping Lina Kahn, right? RIGHT?
- im definitely gonna miss her.

Thank you for using a less charged title in the cross-post. It's concerning stuff coming from the Proton CEO and Andy Yen using the official account to amplify it. However, I disagreed with it being characterized as "Full MAGA".

what the fuck???? literally HOW did he reach that conclusion
Anyone got a email site that won't shut down or turn fascist?
- FastMail has been around a long time and they're very good. MXRoute is good too and lets you have unlimited email addresses at an unlimited number of domains (they only limit it based on storage space)
- I moved to mailbox.org due to this, very happy so far. They seem happy being just a mail provider with no aspiration for world domination on the privacy market, and their site layouts shows that with no upsells or similiar.
- He hasn't turned fascist though

People here need to read about how fascism in Germany and Italy were good for business but terrible for the workers. About how the moneyed interests played a role in the rise of fascism in both as a defense mechanism against unions and socialism.

Anyone notice Trump clearly didn't write that, because it's clearly written? Remember how bugfuck he was getting over the last year and how we rarely see that anymore?
Just how bugfuck is he now and who's controlling him?

I really don't understand this compulsion people have to publicly announce their political support.
Like, this guy could have just said nothing, literally just not do anything, and he'd be better off.
- That's not how sucking up to fascists works though.

Support business policies of a group that removes oversight, accountability, responsibility, and makes it so he keeps more money.
- What do US domestic politics have to do with a small Swiss company? Is there an indication that Proton would be sanctioned otherwise?
  
  https://www.openbiz.io/blog/15-things-to-know-about-u-s-taxes-for-foreign-companies
  Foreign companies are generally subject to U.S. tax on U.S. source income. This includes income from selling goods or services in the United States, from owning or leasing property in the United States, and from investing in U.S. securities.
  So yeah, doing business in the US, getting paid by US people, subjects them to some US regulations. Hence, they are affected by US domestic policy and politics.

The most interesting part of this take is that JD Vance is very much in the big tech friends circle with Thiel and Musk. But I'm sure they can run some antitrust against their enemies at Google or whatever

Republicans haven’t stood for the little guy for at least….40 years?

It's a shame I have a year subscription to them. I'll be cancelling and moving the second it runs outs.
- Cancel it now so you dont forget it while it autorenews.
  
  Already did!

I was looking to use ProtonVPN but since that story, i would prefer an alternative.
What do you guys use for VPN (i think i saw Mullvad in the replies ?)
- Mullvad
  I thought they were wonderful. Until they got rid of port forwarding, which is the only reason why I was paying them: as a torrenting VPN.
  If you don't need that feature, Mullvad is still great...they take privacy/security seriously! That's why they got rid of the feature I used haha.
  They've also been put to the test and passed IMO:
  https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/21/23692580/mullvad-vpn-raid-sweden-police
- I use PIA VPN.

Is what he's saying true? That the antitrust laws he's referring to were started by trump?
- Bro, he's got Musk as a cabinet member and was put into the spotlight by Murdoch and Thiel, and his Supreme Court gives out handies to any CEO that asks.
  If he did anti-trust anything it was either by accident, for revenge against a specific company, or intendes to be used as it was in the 1890's:
  To bust unions.
  https://www.britannica.com/event/Sherman-Antitrust-Act

Wow, I was considering switching to that from Mailfence but maybe not. Maybe I will look at the other options or sit still to see what happens over the next 30 days.

How tall is Andy Yen?

You mean to tell me that CEOs are currently cuddling up with the president? A VPN company CEO at that? I am flabbergasted. Shocked even.
Business as usual. How are people still shocked when this occurs?

103 comments