Proton CEO goes full MAGA

Trump doesn’t go after big tech to help the little guy. Trump goes after big tech to bring them to heel.

The dumbass CEO has fallen for the MAGA lie that these billionaires are working for the the “little people”. They work for no one but themselves and their loyalists.

Is it true though? Not sure it's the case: Lina Khan was nominated by Biden.

What does ths forced backdoor have to do with the text you quoted?

This is what I feel is the core problem of out-of-bounds capitalism today. 50-80 years ago there were fabulously wealthy people as well, but they were taxed out the wazoo and were still fabulously wealthy. And even though every corporation's goal is, and always has been, to make profit, it feels as if it's gone from "profit" to "maximum possible profit at ALL costs, including the damnation of life on the planet".

We have plenty of examples of hypercapitalism destroying us in fiction (cyberpunk etc.) but our current reality is really really close to that hellscape. In some ways it's actually worse because of the insidiousness and banality of the evil that lords over us daily.

Anyone who becomes rich will work to protect that wealth.

Gotta support FOSS alternatives.

Buy your own domain and use a service like mailbox.org which is in Germany.

Also super easy to move to a new email host later when you have your own domain.

Sounds like you might enjoy Apple products.

Was about to pay for proton. Not now

There’s Mullvad.

This is one of the reasons I will never fork over so much cash for a yearly subscription to anything. I pay monthly on everything I subscribe to, because you never know when that service decides, “Yeah. Fuck it. Let’s go downhill, full sprint!”

I dunno what's worse. Lying about Republicans being "for the little guy", or actually believing it. Both point to significant logic, reasoning, and judgmental flaws in Proton's leadership.

I've been calling America a corporate dictatorship for well over a decade, so Yen/Proton realizing the Dem's are captured is welcomed, but the belief that R's are better in 2025 is completely insane.

I've got 18 months left on my current plan, so that'll give me time to see how deep this clusterfuck goes and transition away if need be.

Oh Andy, the Republicans won't think of you as "one of the good ones" and protect you from their white America policies.

Thank you for being one of the saner takes in this thread.

Call out the bad and insane parts of Andy Yen's comment. Also call out the good. Don't fall for the same trap that Yen himself got caught in by painting the entire thing as "full MAGA". The characterization from this post's title feels similar to me as Yen himself saying "all Democrats bad and care only for the big guy".

Point at different things and try to blame what they're doing to them on it.

Transfer wealth upwards.

Comments like his seriously confuse me. You see the incompetent cabinet picks. You see the richest man in the world buying himself the presidency. You see the talk about annexations and war.

This is gonna be great for the little man, yes sure.

Further disposess and enrage them to uh... 'build character.'

how? explain how you even come to that conclusion. big tech is running the republicans!

I could handle it if it was the CEO’s personal position - still gross, but whatever. To have this be the company’s official political position, though, I think I’m out.

Recommendations for alternative email and cloud storage providers? Mullvad seems the way to go for VPN

The only big tech firms Trump is going to crack down on are the ones that didn't "donate" $1m to his inauguration fund. Apple, Amazon, Meta, and others... They're all going to be just fine.

I wonder if Andy paid his tribute yet or if he's hoping some virtue signaling might save him from the incoming shit storm. Let's see how this plays out. 🍿

Yeah, "abuses" like DEI and other equality, sustainability, etc initiatives.

just cancelled my auto renew, now I gotta find a way to manage all my custom emails again rip

I'm going to cancel my subscription right now.

I'm probably moving to Posteo, PurelyMail or... Zoho? (sigh)

Same. Just cancelled and cited these statements praising the GOP as the reason. Vote with your voice and your dollars.

It's a shame. As soon as my current VPN ran out, I was going to give them some money. I guess he should have kept his MAGA thoughts to himself.

I did the same. Also mailed them asking to cancel my account and refunding me the remaing balance.

Same

Maybe. Can board members of a non-profit "impeach" another board member?

Not sure if they have the guts to oust its founder.

If there's a big enough community outrage and if enough people cancel their plans because of this, he will be forced to step down, in order to save the face of the company.

Thankfully privacy is not (yet) a left/right issue. Plenty of rightwingers that also care about privacy and plenty of leftwingers that don't.

What a way to alienate your entire customer base

You really think the entire customer base cares about this?

Gonna need to expand this

This is how it's feeling like, last few weeks. I'll somehow need to justify keeping my proton plan

You are missing class analysis. Fascism is good for business and wealth accumulation.

I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it. It was the chief.

“Bad news, detective. We got a situation.”

“What? Is the mayor trying to ban trans fats again?”

“Worse. Somebody just stole four hundred and forty-seven million dollars’ worth of bitcoins.”

The heroin needle practically fell out of my arm. “What kind of monster would do something like that? Bitcoins are the ultimate currency: virtual, anonymous, stateless. They represent true economic freedom, not subject to arbitrary manipulation by any government. Do we have any leads?”

“Not yet. But mark my words: we’re going to figure out who did this and we’re going to take them down … provided someone pays us a fair market rate to do so.”

“Easy, chief,” I said. “Any rate the market offers is, by definition, fair.”

He laughed. “That’s why you’re the best I got, Lisowski. Now you get out there and find those bitcoins.”

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m on it.”

I put a quarter in the siren. Ten minutes later, I was on the scene. It was a normal office building, strangled on all sides by public sidewalks. I hopped over them and went inside.

“Home Depot™ Presents the Police!®” I said, flashing my badge and my gun and a small picture of Ron Paul. “Nobody move unless you want to!” They didn’t.

“Now, which one of you punks is going to pay me to investigate this crime?” No one spoke up.

“Come on,” I said. “Don’t you all understand that the protection of private property is the foundation of all personal liberty?”

It didn’t seem like they did.

“Seriously, guys. Without a strong economic motivator, I’m just going to stand here and not solve this case. Cash is fine, but I prefer being paid in gold bullion or autographed Penn Jillette posters.”

Nothing. These people were stonewalling me. It almost seemed like they didn’t care that a fortune in computer money invented to buy drugs was missing.

I figured I could wait them out. I lit several cigarettes indoors. A pregnant lady coughed, and I told her that secondhand smoke is a myth. Just then, a man in glasses made a break for it.

“Subway™ Eat Fresh and Freeze, Scumbag!®” I yelled.

Too late. He was already out the front door. I went after him.

“Stop right there!” I yelled as I ran. He was faster than me because I always try to avoid stepping on public sidewalks. Our country needs a private-sidewalk voucher system, but, thanks to the incestuous interplay between our corrupt federal government and the public-sidewalk lobby, it will never happen.

I was losing him. “Listen, I’ll pay you to stop!” I yelled. “What would you consider an appropriate price point for stopping? I’ll offer you a thirteenth of an ounce of gold and a gently worn ‘Bob Barr ‘08’ extra-large long-sleeved men’s T-shirt!”

He turned. In his hand was a revolver that the Constitution said he had every right to own. He fired at me and missed. I pulled my own gun, put a quarter in it, and fired back. The bullet lodged in a U.S.P.S. mailbox less than a foot from his head. I shot the mailbox again, on purpose.

“All right, all right!” the man yelled, throwing down his weapon. “I give up, cop! I confess: I took the bitcoins.”

“Why’d you do it?” I asked, as I slapped a pair of Oikos™ Greek Yogurt Presents Handcuffs® on the guy.

“Because I was afraid.”

“Afraid?”

“Afraid of an economic future free from the pernicious meddling of central bankers,” he said. “I’m a central banker.”

I wanted to coldcock the guy. Years ago, a central banker killed my partner. Instead, I shook my head.

“Let this be a message to all your central-banker friends out on the street,” I said. “No matter how many bitcoins you steal, you’ll never take away the dream of an open society based on the principles of personal and economic freedom.”

He nodded, because he knew I was right. Then he swiped his credit card to pay me for arresting him.

Let me guess, the word “union” would break his brain. Or even worse, a “programmers union”

The first nuanced comment in this entire thread. Thank you.

What things did he support Biden doing? If it's continuing to support Israel's genocidal war, then that's not a plus.

You can generally tell what way someone leans when they say "Dems" but spell out "Republicans".

Andy here, since it's my original post that's being reposted here, let me comment further.

My post is talking about Gail Slater, who is by all measures, actually a good pick, with a solid track record of being on the right side of the antitrust issue. Yes, she happens to be nominated by Trump, but her record speaks for itself.

This is not going to be a popular opinion, but on the specific issue of antitrust, Democrats fell short. In 2022, we campaigned extensively in the US for anti-trust legislation. Two bills were ready, with bipartisan support. Chuck Schumer (who coincidently has two daughters working as big tech lobbyists) refused to bring the bills for a vote. In the aftermath of this failure, great people like former Democratic rep David Cicilline left congress, leaving few strong voices for antitrust left in the Democratic party. In the meantime, at a 2024 event covering antitrust remedies, out of all the invited senators, just a single one showed up - JD Vance.

By working on the front lines of many policy issues, we have seen the shift between Dems and Republicans over the past decade first hand. And that's a missed opportunity for Dems, because by and large, support for cracking down on corporate monopolies is popular on both sides of the political spectrum. Unfortunately, corporate capture of Dems is real and in the end money won. It is hard to see how this changes, and Republicans are likely to lead the antitrust charge in the coming years.

From that perspective, and going back to my original post, Gail is a great pick. One should not equate our support of Gail for Proton not being neutral anymore. We continue to call out bad behavior from both sides, whether it's Dems or Republicans, on our core issues. Just a few weeks ago, we were called out for being in bed with Soros because we gave money to too many "liberal" organizations: https://proton.me/blog/2024-lifetime-fundraiser-results No, the Proton Foundation isn't the new Soros either (even if we may coincidentally fund some of the same things sometimes). We simply stick with our strongly held core believes, and leave politics out of it, because the issues we care about, should be apolitical.

I can't hate the followup response. It is legitimately more important to support good policy (such as antitrust) than any particular team. Even if Trump and his entire administration are a joke (and they are), that doesn't mean the Democrats are the good guys here or that we shouldn't stand up for good policy just because it came from his administration. Praising the actual people who made the actual good policy decisions does not absolve Trump for all his shit and we shouldn't pretend it's as cut and dry as that.

All that said, giving Trump any fucking credit does seem ridiculous. The man would fuck over his mother for a dollar. I don't see why he'd give a shit about antitrust unless it benefited him somehow.

Please just post it here. I can't access Reddit anymore.

So he’s walking back and watering down what he said because they’ve gotten so much backlash?

What the hell does he mean "we campaigned extensively"? Republicans did? And why is he including himself in that? He's not an American and therefore shouldn't be campaigning for a goddamn thing. And if he's quoting JD Vance then that part should actually be in quotes.

Who do Schumer's daughters lobby for? What's the name of the lobby? What have they lobbied for that's actually passed and was it supported by Democrats and Republicans? Like is he gonna post actual policy or anything that Republicans have put forth for antitrust? Or is he just spouting off and doubling down in order to be defensive with little to no actual facts to back up his claims.

He could have talked about Gail Slater's track record and why she's a good fit. Instead he talked some nonsense straight from the mouth of JD Vance and pulled some random whataboutism.

Don't you have a PR team? Like Proton, as a whole should be trying to fix this.

I also love that a user literally came with receipts and he has yet to respond.

Its edited btw. Original looks like this: https://archive.ph/quYyb

Andy here, since it's my original post that's being reposted here, let me comment further.

My post is talking about Gail Slater, who is by all measures, actually a good pick, with a solid track record of being on the right side of the antitrust issue. Yes, she happens to be nominated by Trump, but her record speaks for itself.

This is not going to be a popular opinion, but on the specific issue of antitrust, Democrats fell short. In 2022, we campaigned extensively in the US for anti-trust legislation. Two bills were ready, with bipartisan support. Chuck Schumer (who coincidently has two daughters working as big tech lobbyists) refused to bring the bills for a vote. In the aftermath of this failure, great people like former Democratic rep David Cicilline left congress, leaving few strong voices for antitrust left in the Democratic party. In the meantime, at a 2024 event covering antitrust remedies, out of all the invited senators, just a single one showed up - JD Vance.

By working on the front lines of many policy issues, we have seen the shift between Dems and Republicans over the past decade first hand. And that's a missed opportunity for Dems, because by and large, support for cracking down on corporate monopolies is popular on both sides of the political spectrum. Unfortunately, corporate capture of Dems is real and in the end money won. It is hard to see how this changes, and Republicans are likely to lead the antitrust charge in the coming years.

From that perspective, and going back to my original post, Gail is a great pick. One should not equate our support of Gail for Proton not being neutral anymore. We continue to call out bad behavior from both sides, whether it's Dems or Republicans, on our core issues. Just a few weeks ago, we were called out for being in bed with Soros because we gave money to too many "liberal" organizations: https://proton.me/blog/2024-lifetime-fundraiser-results No, the Proton Foundation isn't the new Soros either (even if we may coincidentally fund some of the same things sometimes). We simply stick with our strongly held core believes, and leave politics out of it, because the issues we care about, should be apolitical.

UPDATE: I posted another comment further below in response to a user, but I'll reproduce it here for completeness:

I don't really want to wade further into what is obviously a very polarizing political topic, but since you are asking for some thoughts, I can share.

We have been fighting big corporate interests since the very beginning. People have short memories, so few remember that in 2019 and 2020, we were working with congressional Democrats on this issue. We're even cited a dozen times in the report, which by the way, was partially authored by Lina Khan, who at that time worked with Ciciline. This is the report here: https://proton.me/blog/congress-antitrust-report

The American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA) was also mentioned. Guess what, we supported that too: https://proton.me/blog/congress-stand-up-to-big-tech More than with blog posts, I personally was on Capitol Hill trying to convince senators who were on the fence, on both the Democratic and Republican side. The votes where there, but in 2022, Democrats controlled the Senate, and ultimately Sen. Schumer decided what gets to be voted on, and as we know, AICOA was not advanced.

Epic vs Apple was also mentioned. Well, we supported that one too. In fact, we were one of the founding companies of the Coalition for App Fairness, along with, yes, Epic: https://proton.me/blog/coalition-for-app-fairness

The point I am trying to make is, in the past 10 years, our position on corporate monopolies has not moved. But US politics has shifted, and the parties themselves have moved. We're huge supporters of Lina Khan and her work. But you know who else agrees with Lina Khan on Big Tech? Actually, JD Vance, as he's publicly stated: https://fortune.com/2024/08/11/jd-vance-5000-child-tax-credit-support-ftc-lina-khan-tech-regulation/ Can you imagine the Republican Vice Presidents of the past taking this position?

It is not a bad thing that Republicans have moved so far on this issue, and are now in a position to go even further than Democrats have managed in the past four years. It's a good thing, and something that should be welcomed irrespective of your political leanings. Ultimately, we will judge actions, but for now, I am supportive of Gail Slater, just as I was supportive of Lina Khan. And honestly, it should not matter that one is a Republican, and the other is a Democrat.

Please post contents too. Reddit doesn't load for many of us

As people become shittier as time goes on (especially people who run businesses), it will be harder and harder to find someone with your values that will provide a service you want.

Funny enough, it's also outside my wheelhouse but I've been wanting to run my own servers. This is the push I needed.

Edit: bitwardens good for a password manager

Don't self-host email. Find an awesome tech collective and donate money to them. Disroot, systemli, riseup, etc

For password manager at least, use Keepass-xc and sync the database to your other devices using syncthing. Your passwords available offline and don't even touch someone else's cloud.

"maybe you shouldn't be such an asshole"

"Oh my God! It's a terrorist!"

Thanks for the link. I dont see a problem with this text. He's not wrong. Presidents before Trump built the NSA and they're to blame for the NSA, not Trump.

Interesting perspective. With this context this makes sense. Thanks for posting

Yk what else you could imagine?

Later there was an official statement posted stating the previous post made with the Proton account wasn't an official post. https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/comments/1i2nz9v/on_politics_and_proton_a_message_from_andy/

What a shit show. Sack the guy.

I need to do this. I hope I can get my money back but they can choke on it if not I guess.

I checked archive and it wasn’t saved to the wayback machine so I added it in case proton deletes it. https://web.archive.org/web/20250115163936/https://proton.me/blog/trump-control-nsa-privacy

That’s a nice one to rub Andy’s nose in. I’ll put that one in my cancellation note.

I don't think it's way different. Yeah he's not praising Trump here, but he's certainly not taking a stance against him either, more trying to calm down worried people about Trump being in control now.

One of my favourite things about using an email relay is how easy it was to change email addresses. Unfortunately I was changing to Proton. Fortunately I was using my own domain! Unfortunately I pre-paid 2 years.

Same! And there's not a good email alternative that's as popular

Well, if he means tech companies that generally get smothered by unfair competition due to tech monopolies, as I believe he does, he is right to refer to them as the little guy.

Also let's not forget that he is the tech CEO of a company which offers great products that don't harm users, that raised tons of money for other nonprofits in the privacy space and that ceded control to a nonprofit to ensure they stay consistent with those values. He is for sure not a regular Joe, but comparing him to a regular corporate CEO is disinformation IMHO.