this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2026
119 points (93.4% liked)

Privacy

5816 readers
72 users here now

Welcome! This is a community for all those who are interested in protecting their privacy.

Rules

PS: Don't be a smartass and try to game the system, we'll know if you're breaking the rules when we see it!

  1. Be civil and no prejudice
  2. Don't promote big-tech software
  3. No apathy and defeatism for privacy (i.e. "They already have my data, why bother?")
  4. No reposting of news that was already posted
  5. No crypto, blockchain, NFTs
  6. No Xitter links (if absolutely necessary, use xcancel)

Related communities:

Some of these are only vaguely related, but great communities.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] CommunistCuddlefish@hexbear.net 16 points 1 day ago (4 children)

5 minutes ago I read about the Proton guy donating to fascists. Now I read about the Mullvad guy donating to fascists. There's nobody who makes VPNs who isn't a fascist?!

[–] Ophrys@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago

Maybe njalla

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] cosmosaucer@hexbear.net 49 points 2 days ago (2 children)

what is it with vpn ceos n being fascists

[–] veniasilente@lemmy.dbzer0.com 42 points 1 day ago (7 children)

I think it comes with the being a ceo. Become a legal parasite, get a free fascism.

[–] Captainautism@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, it’s basically a requirement to be a CEO.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] therealdries@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 1 day ago (2 children)

They're not fascists. They are liberals - and like liberal elites throughout history, they are utterly incapable of defending their precious private property by themselves. That is what they need the hencherproletariat for - fascists.

Fascism does not beget fascism - liberalism begets fascism. The liberal economic order is popping rivets all over the place... so some of these elites are building bunkers in New Zealand, while others do what liberal elites have always done when their power and privilege is facing a threat from below - feeding growth hormone to the vilest and most violent elements of the working class - the hencherproletariat. That is why you see liberals like Trump, Musk and literally a "whose who" laundry list of liberal elites enabling fascists and inviting them into power structures - they are essentially holding auditions for Hitlers and Pinochets.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 8 points 1 day ago (3 children)

The word for someone that supports fascism is fascist

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] yakko@feddit.uk 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I just wish we could have clear political terms that don't get co-opted in bad faith.

[–] therealdries@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Feel free to explain what I "co-opted in bad faith..." as my text was specifically designed to be immune to co-optation either by liberals or fascists.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] redditmademedoit@piefed.zip 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I don’t have an opinion on whether Örebropartiet is fascist or not, honestly that might be giving them too much credit.

The party is really only known nationally for its front figure, Markus Allard – your typical anti establishment loudmouth that mostly attracts people that elsewhere would have been drawn to libertarian parties.

Allard is not politically stringent – he’s previously belonged to Vänsterpartiet (the Left) and his grandfather was a well known parliamentarian of Socialdemokraterna (social democrats). Allard, a self described Marxist, is best known for quasi intellectual rants about a ”transferiat”. Essentially it’s about how working people are leached on, not only by capitalists, but by unemployed, immigrants, civil servants and people in ”bullshit jobs” type of roles.

[–] Luminous5481@anarchist.nexus 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

I don’t have an opinion on whether Örebropartiet is fascist or not

if you're espousing racist right-wing policies like remigration, and saying things like "Sweden is for Swedes", and blaming all your troubles on immigrants, then that makes you a fascist. ethnic cleaning is fascist shit. that's what he wants, to ethnically cleanse Sweden. if you "don't have an opinion on that", then you do have an opinion on it, one that supports fascism by sitting back and doing nothing in the face of it.

Maybe they mean in the same way trump is not himself ideologically fascist, he's just doing it, and the moment he gets a call from mamdani calls him he'll be a (longian) socialist until he leaves the room.

Or not.

[–] ShutUpWesley@piefed.zip 30 points 1 day ago (1 children)

A constant reminder that a person can be right about one thing and wrong about another.

[–] BrilliantantTurd4361@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

And that who ultimately gets your money is important.

Or your vote; really shows the importance of options that reflects the nuance of opinions.

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 35 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Motherfucker... What is it with VPN providers and fascism? Are there any VPN providers that don't have fascist CEOs (or that don't sing praises about fascists) and have opensource clients?

Proton already has a CEO who likes Trump, so I don't trust it. I know of IVPN and Windscribe which have opensource VPNs. No idea about their bosses political leanings or donations.

[–] dev_null@lemmy.ml 1 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

No, the Proton CEO doesn't like Trump. It has been debunked so many times and yet is still repeated...

He liked who was appointed for leading the antitrust division of a US deparment. And yes, the person was appointed by Trump. Later that person was fired by Trump for doing their job well.

[–] Luminous5481@anarchist.nexus 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

it’s not naming a source.

The Flame emailed Daniel Berntsson and he admitted that the donation was from him. The Flame is a newspaper that's over a hundred years old, I think that makes them somewhat reputable. and if it's not true, then we'll see a statement from Mullvad and probably a lawsuit, don't you agree?

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I see. Alright, if he admitted it to them, then that's good enough for me. He might even make a public comment about it.

Means I have to move on from Mullvad.

[–] Luminous5481@anarchist.nexus 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

well, I think speaking to a newspaper is a public comment. and judging from the Mullvad subreddit, there's a whole lot of people from Europe who don't think it's a controversial opinion at all. which doesn't really surprise me, considering the recent news from places like the UK with the race riots by white supremacists, fire bombings, and things like the growing popularity of the AfD in Germany.

they're doing the nazi thing again, just this time they're all doing it together. yet they'll still claim they're better than the US somehow, despite having popular political parties that very publicly support ethnic cleansing.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] sgibson5150@slrpnk.net 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] scytale@piefed.zip 16 points 1 day ago (12 children)

First, Bitwarden. And now Mullvad. Those were like the only two “good” things left that I use. Sigh.

[–] Luminous5481@anarchist.nexus 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

for Bitwarden, a much better replacement is Vaultwarden. it's very easy to run yourself, or you can find other servers elsewhere run by people. best part about it is that since every client acts as a full backup, if a server shuts down then you can just transfer your data elsewhere with no issues.

I know someone who runs their own server, which is what I use.

[–] lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 1 day ago

Vaultwarden needs its own client, and soon. BW is absolutely going to stop allowing non-official servers at some point.

load more comments (11 replies)
[–] ZWQbpkzl@hexbear.net 8 points 1 day ago

Reminder that a lot of VPN providers resell mullvad. I think Mozilla is one.

Also if you're looking for commercial privacy software then you're going to rub some shoulders with.

libertarian-approaching

[–] leraje@piefed.blahaj.zone 10 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Wikipedia article on the party he donated to. Started off as a quasi-Marxist, became red fash seems to be the summation.

[–] Pelicanen@fedia.io 1 points 8 hours ago

Markus Allard, and as an extension Örebropartiet, has always clearly been populist. He makes it out to be a matter of "common sense" and "eliminating wasteful spending" (two very common talking points for populists) to afford more important things, like healthcare and elder care, but buried underneath it all there's always been the idea that wasteful spending includes anything related to immigration or providing asylum. He is a racist who just wants to sell his idea to non-racists under the guise of a responsible economic policy.

A ""Marxist"" party with fascist policies is a fascist party. Pure Nazbol shit!

Immigration and remigration policy quote

Markus Allard initiated heavy debate in 2025 by claiming that Sweden is "the land for/belongs to the Swedes" and that the Örebro party favors a large scale remigration policy. He also criticized the Sweden Democrats for, according to him, allowing too many immigrants into the country under their watch as confidence and supply to the Kristersson cabinet.

In 2026 ÖP party leader Markus Allard sparked controversy on several occasions. In a debate hosted by Studio3 with Liberal member of parliament Martin Melin, Allard asked: "why won't the Liberals push for deporting 100 000 social welfare-Somalis?" and in the same debate said that "Sweden belongs to the Swedes. We have to make sure that we take care of our own damn people and we must deport these damn parasites who sit and live at our expense." [45]

In a podcast segment about immigration and deportations Allard stated his opinion and said that "They will also be forced to leave, even if they are born in Sweden, because they have no natural connection to Sweden. They are not Swedish." [46]

Mass deportation of 100,000's of thousands or millions of people seem pretty clear cut fascism. It looks like technically the donations were made right before those quotes, but I doubt that came out of nowhere suddenly starting in 2025 and if it was, then that's on the CEO to make a point to distance themself from the party and correct their mistake through meaningful actions.

[–] myrmidex@belgae.social 10 points 2 days ago

Anyone has any decent anglophone sources on this yet?

load more comments
view more: next ›