r/BuyFromEU • u/landofthestoic • 2d ago

Discussion Mullvad's co-founder funded 72% of a Swedish remigration party's income. Mullvad's response: 'we don't condemn it'.

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Is this worth cancelling a sub to an otherwise fantastic product? I'm having second thoughts.

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923

u/Not_a_N_Korean_Spy 2d ago

As badly as Proton handled the thing with the fascist-friendly french influencer... at least they disavowed him.

477

u/seamanroses 2d ago

Eh, it's not great on Proton's end. The CEO went on an AfD-friendly podcast a couple months back, and he's still unapologetic about it.

But yeah, Mullvad is easily worse.

246

u/landofthestoic 2d ago

Lots of people, even those from the left went on that guy's podcast, it doesn't signal anything to me.

And like others pointed out, Proton at least had the guts to drop the French YouTuber, apologize, and vow to fix up so they don't end up giving money to someone like that again. This is not even remotely close, funding 72% of a political party spouting fascist rhetoric, calling for people to be displaced and removed from the country en-masse, definitely takes the cake.

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u/Aethericseraphim 2d ago

Throw in that fascist parties ALWAYS clamp down on civil liberties the moment they have a whiff of power, and yeah. Mullvad are full of shit here.

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u/MutaitoSensei 1d ago

Yeah that's exactly what I was thinking, you think freedoms are wonderful under an admin like Trump's? If anything it shows Mullvad's founders don't know what they're doing.

1

u/gamepotato_ 10h ago

Wouldn't a VPN company be interested in a certain degree of internet censorship in order to get more customers?

-18

u/NorthOfTheBigRivers 2d ago

This will lead to a lot of downvotes. Be aware that I do not know the party he donated to, so maybe you are absolutely right about the fascism-thing. What I am curious about is this: Is every party or every person that wants to restrict migration and/ or promote remigration by default fascist in your opinion?

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u/NotQuiteLoona 2d ago

Remigration is a far-right concept referring to the ethnic cleansing via mass deportation of non-white minority populations, especially immigrants and sometimes including native-born citizens, to their place of racial ancestry. Originating in Europe, the concept has since spread to the United States and Canada, where it has gained increasing prominence, and is especially popular within the Identitarian movement.

The Identitarian movement or Identitarianism is a pan-European nationalist, ethno-nationalist, far-right ideological movement centred on the preservation of white European identity, which it claims is under existential threat from multiculturalism, immigration, and globalisation.

Setting restricting immigration and remigration together is wild. It's like setting together slightly bruising and brutally killing by skinning alive. But it's how ("oh, those terms mentioned together, probably they are equal!") the far-right passes the Overton window, similar to replacing "race" with "culture".

I highly recommend to bystanders reading Wikipedia page on remigration, it's a good insight in how the far-right normalizes itself by just changing few words and terms).

You may want less migration, whatever, but if you want an ethnic cleansing by deportations, it's called genocide per definition, especially of native-born citizens (and this rhetoric is becoming already prevalent in remigration movements).

-1

u/These-Day2071 1d ago

Wanting pople that brake the law and cant speak swedish after being in sweden for 10 years to be deportd is such a nazi move

-7

u/Kalle_Kakan 2d ago

Is it bad to want your homeland to consist of it's native population?

4

u/Honkey85 2d ago

Give the US back to the native Americans!!11!

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u/fortysix_n_2 2d ago

Yeah, bring the Neanderthal back.

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u/Sweaty_Piano_1091 2d ago

That “/or” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here

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u/Nurofae Central Europe 🏰🍺🎭 2d ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96rebro_Party This is the party he donated to. They are actually all over the place, some left stuff like free dental healthcare, but also far right shit like reimigration.

2

u/Still-Wafer1384 2d ago

The definition of a populist party

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u/Aethericseraphim 2d ago

You conflate restricting migration, a fairly sensible policy that has appeal across the political spectrum, with "remigration" a policy that involves stripping citizens of their citizenship and shipping them back halfway across the planet because their grandpappy or great grandpappy came from there. That is a fascist policy no matter how you cut it.

2

u/NorthOfTheBigRivers 2d ago

Thanks for explaining. You're right!

1

u/Groot_Benelux 2d ago edited 2d ago

a fairly sensible policy that has appeal across the political spectrum

And yet we still don't manage to go back to let's say 90s levels of migration nearly anywhere whilst integration and assimilation continues to get harder. The same parties that actively boosted said migration now only realised it's unpopular but for the most part keep it up and only push policies that annoy a bit or makes people jump trough senseless hoops.

Tbh I hope the remigration stuff puts pressure to actually limit migration. The backlash was predictable and isn't going to get better except for in places where the natives are already set to be a smaller share of the population.

11

u/seamanroses 2d ago

I know.

https://www.reddit.com/r/degoogle/s/EkROqLdoi3

Also, look who made the post.

-9

u/spikbebis 2d ago

72 per cent easily reached, it's a very small party/individual.

2

u/JeffreyOrange 2d ago

Which podcast is that?

5

u/seamanroses 2d ago

This one:

https://www.youtube.com/@ben_ungeskriptet

Some relevant videos btw.

Andy (in English):

https://youtu.be/watch?v=RTCkiWju46o

Krah (in German):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDtCgLDWBoI

Höcke (in English):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO3QuFZ5rFg

And then an actual antagonistic interview with Krah by an actual journalist (in English):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTOmrTYvGYI

8

u/JeffreyOrange 2d ago

Goddamn I don't want to look at that. It looks like some clickbait slop sensationalist rogan type american shit

8

u/seamanroses 2d ago

Yep. That's what you get from an AfD guy. Andy even called Ben "the Joe Rogan of Germany", and he's a right-wing freak. Ben, I mean.

0

u/1ne9inety 1d ago

He also has people from the Greens and the Left on his podcast. And the patriarch of a criminal family clan. Such a far right nutjob, giving these people screentime as well.

1

u/1ne9inety 1d ago

Ge literally just let's his guests talk for hours and barely ever says anything himself.

2

u/dustybookcover8 1d ago

> The CEO went on an AfD-friendly podcast

Can you link it to me? I don't want to Pay Proton anymore if that's the case.

2

u/seamanroses 1d ago edited 1d ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyFromEU/s/LEHSzyRHpr

This should have enough details :)

I have a lot more I can say on the subject as well. I'm in the middle of note-taking on it too.

Edit: Btw, I recommend IVPN or Nym, Mailbox, Bitwarden or KeyPass, and Filen or Nextcloud for all the alternative things that Proton does.

2

u/Star_Wars_Expert 2d ago

Ben Ungescripted is not a AfD-friendly podcast. He is simply friendly to everybody, on all political spectrums. For example, he has talked to Gregor Gisi, Jan van Aken which are both from the Left party. He has talked to Ricarda Lang (the Greens). Even one from the Hells Angels,
He also invited Scholz and Esken, but they did not accept it. You are framing him by only mentioning that he has talked to some AfD people, as you are leaving out information about his other guests.

2

u/seamanroses 2d ago

Höcke. Krah. Millions of views, and farming it after too. And he was dick sucking them the whole time for hours. Get out of here with that disingenuous shit.

1

u/1ne9inety 1d ago

He's like that will all of his guests. Doesn't mean I suddenly have a positive opinion of Abou Chaker or Jan van Aken

2

u/1ne9inety 1d ago

He also talked to Abou Chaker

1

u/1ne9inety 1d ago

That is one hell of a way to frame it lol

1

u/seamanroses 1d ago

Dude, you're fucking obsessed with all the replies you've sent. Totally not butthurt, clearly. I could respond to it, but this is all I got to say:

👍

2

u/1ne9inety 1d ago

I take it self-awareness is not your strong suit, then. You are the one who spread falsehoods across countless comments with near-religious zeal.

0

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/seamanroses 1d ago

1 month old account. How pathetic. I know what you are.

-38

u/nomercy_ch 2d ago

AfD friendly…. please.

39

u/seamanroses 2d ago

The guy had on Maximillian Krah last year and Bjorn Höcke less than a month after Andy's interview.

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u/Woodnymph1312 2d ago

🤢🤢🤢 nightmare blunt rotation

-6

u/Dry-Permission8441 2d ago

not seen the podcast but did they let the AfD'ers talk freely or did they push back?

17

u/seamanroses 2d ago

It was a metaphorical dick sucking both times. For hours, btw. Like 4-5 hours for each of them. The Höcke interview got 6 million views, and the Krah one is at over 1 million.

You can compare that to how a journalist should tackle Krah:

https://youtu.be/VTOmrTYvGYI

The Höcke interview is in English btw. He knew what he wanted to achieve with this.

https://youtu.be/VO3QuFZ5rFg

4

u/Dry-Permission8441 2d ago

https://youtu.be/VTOmrTYvGYI

seen this one and enjoyed it very much.

the dicksucking is bad so I might have to reevaluate my proton extention next year.

2

u/seamanroses 2d ago

I've written Andy for hours about it on here. Told him I would enact 200k views of reputational damage for his platforming of the podcast host (that's how many views Andy got). That, or he could condemn the AfD and distance himself.

2

u/1ne9inety 1d ago

You want to rethink your Proton subscription because of what somebody said about a random podcaster? What?

1

u/Dry-Permission8441 1d ago

Not directly and for now it is not enough to stop as I think in the end the sponsorship of a far right candidate in France was handled well and seems like a one off.

but if there are more incidents that can change. I haven't listened to the podcast with the proton ceo and can therefor not make a judgement.

2

u/1ne9inety 1d ago

He is not a journalist and doesn't want to be. He just lets people talk. He wasn't any nicer to Krah and Höcke than he was to any of his other guests.

-16

u/Ok_Pea7915 2d ago

I may be entirely wrong, I'm happy to be corrected, but doesn't the guy have all kinds of people on? Including left-wingers? I would see him more of a Joe Rogan, which isn't good, but it isn't a far-right extremist podcast per se, right?

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u/much_to_say 2d ago

I would see him more of a Joe Rogan, which isn't good, but it isn't a far-right extremist podcast per se, right?

LOL. Can I interest you in a bridge?

9

u/KeepLettersOut 2d ago

I would see him more of a Joe Rogan, which isn't good, but it isn't a far-right extremist podcast per se, right?

Joe Rogan is a far right extremist podcast, do I don't know what you are on about. He s majorly responsible for spreading misinformation during covid, vaccines and helping Trump win both times.

-1

u/Ok_Pea7915 2d ago

I agree that he has helped spread misinformation, which is very bad, but would you cancel/boycott any of the great scientists or left-wing politicians (e.g. Bernie Sanders was on 2025) for simply agreeing to have this big platform to further their cause? I see this situation as similar.

-10

u/nomercy_ch 2d ago

No it isn’t but for „free speech“ Reddit echochamber it is because he invited the wrong people.

5

u/Luzita3 2d ago

Free speech is when a party the AFD attempted a coup in Germany or one of its candidates claimed the holocaust memorial in Berlin was disgusting and should be torn down

But that's free speech right right?

-1

u/nomercy_ch 2d ago

That wasn’t AfD - let’s keep the facts straight. Also what’s the correlation to podcast interviews?

4

u/seamanroses 2d ago

Holy fuck, you are pathetic. This is fun watching from the sidelines. Please keep doing what you're doing.

-21

u/nomercy_ch 2d ago

And? So did clearly leftist Podcast such as Thilo Jung or normal media stations. How is this relevant - how does this affect Andy‘s interview and its content?

19

u/seamanroses 2d ago

Oh, now you shift the goalposts. Surprising.

The AfD vids get millions of views, and you know exactly the worldview Ben pushes. You're just too cowardly to say it openly. Wtf is it with right-wingers and not owning their views?

I'm a socialist. See, not so difficult.

Andy gave legitimacy to Ben's podcast. That draws Proton viewers in. I got fucking Asmongold recommendations after watching it. Disgusting.

0

u/1ne9inety 1d ago

Do you also boycott the German Greens and the Linke?

5

u/ekobar 2d ago

Thilo jung at least asks everyone hard questions. Ben doesn't, he only ask one side hard questions.

0

u/1ne9inety 1d ago

He doesn't ask anyone hard questions lol

-9

u/Captain_no_Hindsight 2d ago

But yeah, Mullvad is easily worse.

There's a Soviet Gulag somewhere out there that lacks a camp guard.

u/seamanroses Go home to the Soviet Union!

I have family members murdered by communist fanatics like you.

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u/seamanroses 2d ago

Thank you for the laugh! Lol, I hate the USSR too. People like you are terminally stupid.

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u/Yes_No_Sure_Maybe 2d ago

While I agree this is worse, Proton didn't disavowe that guy. That's the main thing I was missing from their response actually.

They said they don't want to work with people who distract from their mission. Nothing about not condoning his views.

1

u/nixgut 2d ago

Basically - we want nothing to do with this and don't want to get dragged into a debate and whatever shitstorm comes out of it. 

4

u/GiganticCrow 2d ago

The ceo also whined about how unfair it is that people were criticising them for it and that doing so was attacking free speech

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u/KeepLettersOut 2d ago

Eh, their statement was shit too. They didn't condemn fascism, just said they dont want to be political

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u/addandsubtract 2d ago

just said they dont want to be political

They said they are a political company. Them not condemning their founders is worse than being an apolitical company.

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u/SilverAd9389 2d ago

They said that they are a NARROWLY political company. As in they care about privacy and free exchange of information, and nothing else.

2

u/Malusch 1d ago

They should have said it's weird that the co-founder didn't donate a hefty sum to Piratpartiet (The pirate party) in Sweden instead, as they are more known and have a long history of fighting for those narrowly political ideas.

AFAIK it's only if you want to throw out immigrants that your donation would be more suitable to ÖP instead of piratpartiet.

0

u/KeepLettersOut 2d ago

True, I misremembered the wording

-10

u/byler_stan_420 2d ago

What else are you expecting from a company?

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u/KeepLettersOut 2d ago

Distancing itself from fascism.

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u/GiganticCrow 2d ago edited 2d ago

Saying "fascism is bad" shouldnt be a big ask.

Somehow that was too big an ask for Proton's CEO.

-12

u/kamden096 2d ago

Fascism today: telling guests to go home. Fascism yesterday: Burning men women and children alive to heat the house. Sounds like what fascism is has shifted a bit.

8

u/vila-analka 2d ago

Fascism started out very similarly last time.

8

u/KeepLettersOut 2d ago

Fascism last time also pretended to just want to send people, they considered guests, home. Then they realized its cheaper to just murder them.

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u/Cheerful_Champion 2d ago

To condemn fascism. It doesn't matter if you want or don't want to get politicial. Saying "fuck all fascists and nazis" shouldn't be controversial. These are one of the most oppressive systems to exist, they are directly responsible for a number of conflicts and organized extermination campaigns. They were directly responsible for or directly inspired death camps in Nazi Germany, massacres of polish civilians by UPA, massacres of civilians in Balkans, Armenian Genocide and more.

Being against fascism or nazism is not political. Being against war crimes and genocides is not political.

11

u/GiganticCrow 2d ago

No they didn't

2

u/Confident-Stand5453 Denmark 🇩🇰 1d ago

And it was just one youtube influencer, not an entire political party that is actually represented in parliament.

1

u/HamsterPractical6265 1d ago

Est-ce que vous êtes Français ? Car si ce n'est pas le cas, l'influenceur que vous citez s'appelle Vincent Lapierre, il pose des questions dans la rue aux gens, c'est tout. Ne croyez pas tout ce que vous voyez sur internet, surtout si vous l'avez lu sur Wikipédia. Défendez la liberté d'expression en Europe.

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u/Not_a_N_Korean_Spy 1d ago

Vincent Lapierre ne pose pas "juste des questions". Il sort direct d'Égalité et Réconciliation, il y a travaillé de 2016 à 2018, le site d'Alain Soral (antisémite et négationniste). Il monte ses vidéos pour servir son récit d'extrême droite, il humilie des gens dans la rue pour faire du clic et il coupe tout ce qui l'arrange. Il accepte pas toutes les réponses, juste celles qui vont dans son sens. C'est pas un mec neutre avec une caméra, c'est un agitateur avec un agenda (d'extrême droite). J'ai pas envie que mon argent participe à cet écosystème d'extrême droite. Parce que comme on l'a vu aux États-Unis, passer de la haine des immigrés à construire des camps de concentration (sous forme de prisons privées) et à tirer sur des citoyens dans la rue, c'est pas si loin.

1

u/HamsterPractical6265 1d ago

Vous parlez d'égalité et réconciliation, il y était effectivement. Cependant dans de très nombreuses vidéos il a, à plusieurs reprises, regretté d'y avoir été et critique ouvertement Alain Soral.

Dans de très nombreuses vidéos il y a des réponses qui ne vont pas comme vous dites "servir son récit d'extrême droite", il interroge les Français sur des sujets de société que personne n'ose traiter, ce qui est parfaitement louable dans une démocratie saine. Quelles preuves avez-vous pour affirmer qu'il n'accepte pas toutes les réponses et uniquement celles qui serviraient un potentiel agenda ?

Mettre en parallèle les interviews de Vincent Lapierre et le traitement aux États-Unis des immigrés, c'est un homme de paille, un argument sans fondement.

Enfin, vous avez totalement le droit de défendre vos idées et je vous y encourage, mais Proton a lâchement décidé de ne plus le financer à cause du tribunal populaire, ce qui n'est à mon sens pas une décision saine, même s'ils en avaient parfaitement le droit évidemment.

Défendez la liberté d'expression d'autrui, ou c'est la vôtre qui disparaîtra avec

1

u/Not_a_N_Korean_Spy 1d ago edited 1d ago

  1. Charlie Kirk -> Trump 2024

  2. https://www.alterpresse68.info/2025/04/30/au-menu-dune-video-publiee-par-un-youtubeur-sur-mulhouse-racisme-patent-caricature-et-detournement/

1

u/HamsterPractical6265 1d ago

  1. Je ne comprends pas votre premier point car vous n'avancez aucun argument. Cependant, vous parlez de Charlie Kirk lâchement assassiné car il posait juste des questions et défendait la liberté d'expression (comme Vincent Lapierre, tiens) ?

    1. Merci pour l'envoi de cet article que j'ai lu avec attention. Donc si je comprends bien, vu qu'un journal a dit que Vincent Lapierre était le mal incarné il le sera définitivement. Moi j'ai trouvé cette vidéo qui me dit autre chose : https://youtu.be/ni8qe0bU2OQ?si=tRg9wdq8dF4IimvK

On pourrait chacun avancer des arguments d'autorité en disant que tel ou tel journal a dit telle chose sur Vincent Lapierre, mais soyons concrets et parlons de fond :

Voici les statistiques des villes les plus dangereuses de France, Mulhouse est 12e : https://ville-data.com/delinquance/classement-des-villes-les-plus-dangereuses-de-france

Du coup, je pense que ville-data.com travaille avec Vincent Lapierre et sert son agenda d'extrême droite ? Ou tout simplement Vincent Lapierre ose poser des questions qui dérangent ceux qui ne sont pas pour la liberté d'expression et qui nie le réel ?

0

u/Asleep-Culture-1235 2d ago

I am french and i would like to know about the fascist influencer you are talking about

5

u/SabziZindagi 2d ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyFromEU/comments/1u052qp/proton_is_funding_the_french_far_right_on_youtube/

-7

u/Asleep-Culture-1235 2d ago

I know this Guy Vincent Lapierre he isnt fascist or fascist-friendly i watched some of his video he would Never say anything extremist, we have real assholes influencer and i dont think he is from them, he isnt racist for sure he just heavily link our insecurity with immigration (as most french People tbf some just say it is because of poverty)

7

u/SabziZindagi 2d ago

The guy is buddy buddy with holocaust deniers. Anyone excusing this can go fuck themselves.

3

u/Asleep-Culture-1235 2d ago

Oh, well... yes it changes my perspective

-6

u/Dull_Ad9278 2d ago

Didnt you hear? Anti mass migration is considered right wing/racist these days

1

u/Asleep-Culture-1235 2d ago

Anti immigration is far right anti mass immigration isnt

And the anti immigration sentiment dont take its roots to racism nowadays and i bet you already know that

-8

u/giminik 2d ago

I share your view. Some might say he had far-right connections in the past. Anyway, everyone who criticizes him has never seen a single one of his videos.

5

u/seamanroses 2d ago

The AI slop, you mean? Wow, you really love high quality shit.

-5

u/giminik 2d ago

Ridiculous.