I've read the article: pretending that your revenue doesn't go towards supporting far right politics doesn't change the fact your customers don't want to financially support that.

#Mullvad

I gave you a chance to correct your stances.

I will stop my subscription.

Will spend it to some organizations that will kick fascists asses like your co-somewhat.

Read home work for you: Paradox of Tolerance

Byebye

#DanielBerntsson

Your word salad neglects to mention that your CEO gets paid through OUR money, and the only way to enact the remigration the fascist fuckface wants to do is through mass surveillance, which calls into question how long it's going to be before he orders the Mullvad team to backdoor the VPN.

Go fuck yourselves, fascist apologists.

You still have not understood what this controversy is about. Nobody here denies anyone the right to have freedom of speech nor to donate to political parties.

This controversy is about us not wanting to indirectly fund this party, as custommers. Your custommers money goes to the Mullvad company. Then a little part of this money goes to Daniel. And a part of his money goes to this party.

Shortly before your donation to the fascists I had payed a yearly subscription.

After this fascist whitewashing article I completely regret that.

Is there a way to cancel and get the rest of my money back?

I was wondering if I had done the right thing not renewing when my latest payment cycle came to an end.

Thank you for clarifying I did. This ongoing shameful defence of the of defensible reminds me why I found this donation and your refusal to stand by the principles Mullvad was founded on, so reprehensible.

You have made a huge error by standing by Daniel in this and your inability to realise it or simple refusal to apologise does your reputation no good.

I still don't understand why it was necessary to take a stance for what you didn't do in the first place.

What somebody does with their own private life and their own choices and limited to their own personal sphere, should be nobody's concern, whether one agrees with them or not.

If anything, Daniel's action demonstrate the very need for privacy, including using VPN.

@tailscale and with this — you realize you have very little time left to add a other VPN's as exit-nodes, or face this kind of PR yourself for every single post, the same as mullvad does— they are not ignoring it anymore, they are complicit, now so is Tailscale.

And @mullvadnet the only way you could ever be in a remotely neutral political position, is to match and compensate the donation, but towards the left, or at least a organization helping victims your indirect donations cause.

Even putting the right wing party issue aside (as if we could) the most charitable reading of this guy’s blog is that he’s yet another techbro salty about having to pay his taxes.

So say whatever you want but I’m done with Mullvad as long as this guy is involved in any way.

To quote you:

»It should be clear by now how the party donation relates to this. Mullvad does not condone it, nor condemn it. It most likely was a bad idea; most things where there are a multitude of conflicting opinions necessarily are. But societies need a great diversity of ideas, initiatives and organizations who can be tested and sifted until the best ones remain. Ideally through rational debate.«

In short:

• You believe that the promotion of racist and xenophobic ideologies, including deportation, aka "remigration" of citizens, should be filed under "diversity of ideas".
• You also declare the deportation of people as yet another idea, to be "tested and sifted until the best ones remain".
• You did not address the fact that half a million Euros donated by your Co-CEO didn't come out of thin air, but was most likely money made from what he received as your Co-CEO.

In other words: you don't object to the money made from your customers being openly funneled into the support of a racist and extremist party.

To which we say:

Fuck you, enablers of racism.

Trying to be politically neutral when it comes to fascism is to state that you're OK with a *bit* of fascism.

You'll not get another penny from me.

I didn't have much hope going into that article and what little hope I had was destroyed when you immediately went on what reads as a desperate defence, I'm getting second hand embarrassment just reading it. Claiming to nurture "radical tolerance" when you fund highly intolerant politics is so hypocritical and ironic I'm surprised you didn't realise how absurd that is when you wrote this. As others have mentioned, you need to develop and understanding of the tolerance paradox.

You build the tools to fight the very oppression you financially support. This is either an attempt at ensuring your products remain profitable, in which case you are two-faced and opportunistic, taking advantage of and manufacturing the oppression your tools are needed to fight, or you are just simple-minded, naïve, and understudied in the topics you claim to be so knowledgeable on, in which case I hope that one day you realise your position and climb down from the peak of Mount Stupid and improve your political activity and funding (ideally also getting rid of your CEO for the damage he's done to your company's reputation) or, failing that, you simply stop all political activity altogether and join the rest of the VPN companies in promising consumerist sheep that they'll get Netflix from different countries or whatever they use to market their products nowadays.

Whatever you choose, choose quickly, as the longer you hold onto your position, the more humiliating it will be when you finally admit you were wrong. I likely will never be purchasing your product again and will be going elsewhere unless major change happens, as do I hope many other people who've been watching this prolonged humiliation ritual.

the more you dig your own grave with this very badly handled situation, the more it seems that this product was never ment to fight anything bad, or help a humanitarian cause.

It seems more and more that some just wanted to have a tool to cover-up their own shady doings, and the global success is a by-product.

Edit: "badly" is a understatement, i know people working in PR-training they will take your company as a educational example of how to destroy your own reputation.

one sentence. You couldn't go one sentence without downplaying that the problem is your guy is a fascist who gave huge sums to fascists to help them spread fascism

Who did you think this mealy-mouthed bullshit would placate, exactly

People who think their own political ideology is the only one who deserves, or in protecting the right for privacy are completly wrong!

I support #mullvad because of their mission statement, not for some individual opinion or statement!

Privacy is for everyone, and by anyone regardless of their political allingment

Stop addressing the controversy, you can't dig up, only down.

Daniel has to leave Mullvad, it's the only solution.

In January, when my current payment is up, I'll be switching to #nymvpn

Their CEO is everything I like in a CEO. #antifascist, an #anarchist, arrested for protesting, hates the authorities, and sees the world for the hellscape it's becoming.

Also, Nym has better technology that takes into account the threats users face in today's world.

You need to watch TheHatedOne's video about this situation. He explains very clearly why your customers and former customers aren't happy.

bitchute.com/video/7UmyDGjxO_s

Daniel Berntsson is not just a private individual, but a co-founder, 50-percent owner and active CEO of Mullvad. In that position, he should represent the company’s values credibly and, as a key figure in its leadership, ensure that his actions reflect those principles.

Yet five million Swedish kronor were used to provide substantial support to a political party whose policies contradict Mullvad’s publicly stated position on several fundamental issues. These include expanded state surveillance, more surveillance cameras, an extremely restrictive immigration policy and a comprehensive policy of so-called remigration. That stands in clear opposition to a company that presents itself as a defender of privacy, freedom and protection from surveillance.

Mullvad cannot describe itself as a political company, campaign against censorship and surveillance, and at the same time claim that a political donation of this scale by its own co-founder and CEO can be completely separated from the company. Anyone who publicly promotes certain values must also be judged by how the company’s leading figures use the influence made possible by its economic success.

The statement “It was a private donation” is therefore not enough. It comes across as a convenient shield against taking real responsibility. It remains undisclosed where the five million kronor came from and how credible Mullvad can still appear when one of its most important owners financially strengthens a party whose policies contradict the company’s own publicly stated values.

“Private” does not mean without consequences, apolitical or detached from the company. Until Mullvad answers these questions openly, its statement remains inadequate, unconvincing and an attempt to downplay an obvious conflict of values.

Its seems everyone is mad that the company doesn't control its employees outside of their business practices. If my employer told me I couldn't donate money to someone because of politics I would tell them to go fuck themselves. What if your company told you you couldn't go to a protest or post "fuck ice" on your private socials?

I get it, he's a big guy in the company and he supports some nasty stuff. You should feel entitled to give your money where you see fit, but don't try to set a precedent of your employer controlling your life outside of work. That's truly evil.

Should companies freely fire people that don't agree with their politics?

Aren't we on Mastadon and Mullvad to escape being monitored and controlled? Quit trying to make it a one-way thing. If one side can't do it, neither can the other.

@mullvadnet@mastodon.online

"Mullvad does not condemn it"

It's a nazi bar, guys.

lost another customer will not help you make our privacy worse.

Bye and hello to Adolf when you finish in hell guy

I think this is not going well. This won't work out.

As you say, you are political.

I see two options for you:
1. Daniel leaves.
2. Loose quite a lot of customers (incl. me) and live with the fascist-brown background-colour Daniel gave you.

Such statements only worsen it.

Imagine you being a political activist seeking digital shelter in a VPN. Would you trust one with such background? I would not.

oh my actual god. This very definitely not the save that you seemingly thought it was. Linking to a blog post by your CEO where he defends bankrolling a right-wing party (and yes, forcible remigration and othering the poor is right-wing). 😮

As for this quote: “Do I like most of ÖP’s policies? No. Are they fit to run a country? No.” wtf

Is he bankrolling them? Yes.

You had every opportunity to eject your CEO for contributing to a party that wants a bulk of your customer base dead and you didn't. You could've read the entire room but you didn't even bother peeking in the door.

I will no longer recommend you to anyone ever again, renew my subscription, or touch your service again. You assholes fucked up big time.

You are just digging the hole deeper (pun intended)!

"It most likely was a bad idea; [..] But societies need a great diversity of ideas."

Not when the idea is forced remigration just because current Swedish legal system looks(?) not prepared for current migration flows.
Daniel's blogpost is even worse. So many words to sugarcoat fascism with "but I am just a conservative anarchist that wants to help". Simply awful.

Inaction is still action. Fuck Fascism and fuck you for enabling them.

#NotACentMore

not renewing my subscription with you was the right decision then.

Thank you for clarifying your support of fascism and making it easy for me to never recommend your services ever again.

This is such bullshit couching it as freedom of speech. I guess someone calling for the genocide of Jews is alright in your eyes? This is not just about free speech, however, this is a donation to a political party who wants to enact these fascist policies.

You also show your privilege - set aside our differences? I guess this was written by some rich, probably white, probably male employee. Not any of the people who would be forcibly sent out of Sweden by the political policies endorsed by this poor excuse of a human being.

You had your chance to be proactive - this will go on and we continue to use our freedom of speech to say what an atrocious company you are.

Boycott #Mullvad

#sweden #vpn #mullvad

This blog post doesn't address the controversy. You don't even describe the controversial action: you don't name Örebropartiet once in your article. The problem is not a political donation. The problem is a donation to a party that is fundamentally at odds with the stated values of Mullvad. In this article, you don't try to reconcile those conflicts of interest, or even mention that there is a conflict of interest.

"hello. we are a pancake company. we encourage you to love pancakes, eat pancakes"
< your founder donated millions of kr to Destroy All Pancakes Initiative? >
"yes . he donated to another culinary effort and we are not involved in that. pancakes are fundamental for society, so we fight for pancakes, and are tolerant of all other views."

Your customers aren't upset that your founder (by extension, you, because you're giving this guy money) is spending their money on things that aren't directly in support of pancakes. They're upset that you're spending their money on things that directly seek to destroy all pancakes. And you didn't even mention what they are upset about in your response.

Sensitive content Clicca per aprire/chiudere

no freedom is absolute. You are free of movement but their is a speed limit, for example. Speech is the same. You are free to express ideas but you are not free to express hateful content. Being for a remigration, supporting a fascist party is hateful speech.

You do not really care, imo. It is just a desperate try to damage control but it's kinda over now.

The only acceptable answer, in case you care : "fuck fascists" and fire that fascist in your company. Fascists are like a disease, you need to take your medicine to eradicate the virus.

You are free to accept this.

We are free do NOT accept it.

Deal with it.