this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2026
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cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/8915892

(original article in Swedish that reported this)

Posting this because I hadn't heard about it before and I'm probably not the only Mullvad user here, so might as well.

I'm not Swedish, but going off NATOpedia, it seems like the party is basically reinventing fascism from first principles:

The party claims to stand for a "class-conscious populism" which according to party leader Markus Allard takes inspiration from marxist ideology and unites the "productive" classes of society against the "Transferiat", with the "Transferiat" being a term coined by Allard to describe the classes of society that lives off transfers that are a net negative for society such as those who, despite having an ability to work, live off social welfare benefits, as well as those who work "made-up services"[...]

The party differs from modern day left-wing parties by seeing the working class as co-dependent with people working in enterprise and business and instead sees the classes that "live off transfers", as specified, as a large economic net-negative and an obstacle for a functional society.

visible-disgust Their ideology is nonsense fake-marxist revisionism to redirect anger at capitalism and turn it against immigrants and people who need social welfare (though they do back some generally left oriented social policies, their main thing appears to be racism)

Even if you're comfortable with funding this, it still begs the question of just how trustworthy Mullvad actually is.

I guess this still beats any of the dozens of Israeli VPNs that definitely spy on you, but it's not great emilie-shrug

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[–] SupremeDonut@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 hour ago

Consumers are nothing but fish in a barrel these days

[–] TheKaul@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

Clickbait title. It's one of the coowners who has donated his personal funds to this party. The other owner and other members of the company disapprove of the decision.

[–] SpaceMan9000@lemmy.world 2 points 57 minutes ago

Guess where part of your money is going to...

[–] willington@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 43 minutes ago* (last edited 41 minutes ago)

So is the nazi coowner getting ousted soon?

Right now we're at "Mullvad is part nazi, nazi adjacent, nazi lite, moderately fascist, feudalism-curious" stage.

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

I use sometimes only an Proxy to skip country restrictions, I don't use a VPN. If I need an VPN, I would probably use the SPN from the Portmaster which I use anyway.

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 23 points 8 hours ago

Be CEO of privacy company

Donate $500k to a right wing party publicly

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Mullvad

Reverse credit card charge

Yeah... About that....

[–] SupremeDonut@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

You mailed in cash didn't you

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 1 points 36 minutes ago

Kinda their best feature

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 19 points 11 hours ago

Even bigger yikes.

[–] FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website 116 points 15 hours ago (11 children)

This isn't good. It's also not entirely correct. Mullvad isn't financing this party directly. One of the owners took his money he made from the company and donated it to the loonies. He could've bought crypto with it, spent it in blow maybe, but he didn't. "Mullvad is financing this party" is not correct. "Your Mullvad fees may have ended up indirectly financing this party" is correct and an ongoing concern. So is their tepid response to the story breaking. I would still advise caution, hammer them with public outrage pressure on the socials, and hope they get rid of the loonie party donor before you bankrupt an otherwise serviceable VPN provider. If that guy is still there in a couple of months, by all means leave.

There is no shortage of c@<%s in the tech sector.

[–] trackball_fetish@lemmy.wtf 3 points 1 hour ago

Well there's one thing I do know: I sure as hell wouldn't trust that VPN operator

[–] _stranger_@lemmy.world 4 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

Here's the fix for you: "Giving your money to Mullvad is like drinking at a Nazi bar. The bar's great, but it's full of Nazis".

[–] SupremeDonut@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 hour ago

Sounds more l ike the owner of the bar is a nazi than the bar being filled with nazis

[–] Seleni@lemmy.world 5 points 3 hours ago

Yeah, but his donation was something like 72% of the donations to that party by money given. That’s not just a donation; that’s him funding his own private far-right party. And if he wants his own far-right party, it’s probably not just for looks.

This guy co-owns Mullvad. That all Mullvad is doing about it is wringing their hands and saying ‘oh, but it’s his money, there’s nothing we can do’ is, quite frankly, disgusting. It’s his money that he got from your company, in large enough quantities he can go out and buy himself some racists.

If a lower-level employee makes some shit-ass racist comment on their own time, they tend to get canned immediately. Yet all this asshole gets is Mullvad shaking their heads and saying ‘well, it doesn’t align with our values, but what you gonna do?’ Bullshit.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 8 hours ago

"Your Mullvad fees may have ended up indirectly financing this party" is correct and an ongoing concern.

Is it really "may have"? Seems pretty clear that they have.

[–] Signtist@bookwyr.me 30 points 12 hours ago (4 children)

I mean, it doesn't really matter who actively takes the stance or not. The only question that matters is where the money you spend ends up, and whether you want it to end up there. If you don't want your money to end up in the hands of a far right party, you probably don't want to pay the company that pays the guy who pays a far right party.

Mullvad may say it doesn't support his views, but the main form of support is financial backing, and his own company is obviously going to pay him, so it does support him, regardless of whether or not it wants to take that stance. If you give the company money, then you're supporting it, allowing it to support him, regardless of whether or not you want to.

It's like Harry Potter; even if no corporate announcement is ever going to be made to agree with JK Rowling's anti-trans beliefs, your money spent on merchandise for the franchise still ends up in her hands, and is subsequently moved into the hands of the anti-trans organizations she supports.

[–] FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website 15 points 11 hours ago

You may be as outraged as you want. I just pointed out that Mullvad didn't do anything (to their detriment, at this point) like the title of the post suggested. That's misrepresenting the facts. If you feel like that distinction (a company endorsement vs. a private donation) doesn't make a difference, that's fine. I get that. I left Proton when their CEO was praising the regime of 47 for tech regulation. I just believe we should be mad for the right reasons. Facts are good.

It's been pointed out here in the thread that the majority of the donation to the horseshoe loonie party may in fact have come from other income streams, as Mullvad doesn't pay an awful lot. I don't know if that's true but that would put another spin on the story as well.

There is no shortage of c@>=s in the author community either. Let's not mention her name again. She's probably a lot richer and therefore a lot more impactful with her magic money than this mad meatball. In my estimation, a dollar spent in the famous magician universe will have a lot more negative impact on the trans community than a comparable amount of kronor at Mullvad for immigrants to Sweden. The bigger threat there are probably the Sweden Democrats and they're already in parliament as the second largest fraction.

[–] psycotica0@lemmy.ca 8 points 10 hours ago (3 children)

I don't care about Mullvad, but this is an interesting philosophical question. How far does that chain of money carry responsibility? Like, what if you donate to a hospital, and a nurse at the hospital uses their wages to buy bread, and the owner of the bread factory is problematic?

Definitely some fraction of my donation went to the bread factory owner's politics, but is it my responsibility? Should I withhold donations to the hospital until they've pressured the nurse to buy a different brand of bread, or let them go?

Definitely the bread factory owner has a bunch of money, and money is power, and that money was given by customers in exchange for bread, so at some point if we want their power to diminish steps must be taken. But is the hospital donor's money the right lever for that? Does it outweigh the benefits?

What if the bread factory's owner is fine, but has a worker who spends their money on a problematic cause. Is it still the hospital donor's responsibility?

[–] obelisk_complex@piefed.ca 6 points 9 hours ago

This is just one step, though. Money to Mullvad goes in part to the cofounder who is a racist piece of shit.

But to your question, I think the "dilution" question has a different answer for everyone. Have you seen "The Good Place"? Philosophy is the major theme and this is one of the major philosophical questions they deal with. Great show, recommended if it's unfamiliar to you.

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[–] lithiumground@lemmy.world 0 points 4 hours ago (1 children)
[–] chortle_tortle@mander.xyz 1 points 4 hours ago

Do they have a VPN?

[–] nevyn@slrpnk.net 39 points 15 hours ago (10 children)

Your headline is misleading.

One of the founders (and co-ceo) of Mullvad made a substantial donation to an unhinged political party. Mullvad did not, and Mullvad claim to be against it.

This has been all over mastodon for days.

[–] daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 hours ago

But I need to be angry against something and isolate myself in a corner on society where everything is evil but me!

[–] M137@lemmy.today 5 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

It has been here on Lemmy too, several threads on the front page without the misleading title. OP either did that on purpose (them not replying here at all gives that more weight IMO) or they didn't even try to see if it had been posted and didn't read anything in the article and posted without caring if the title is ture or not. The post should be removed.

[–] nevyn@slrpnk.net 1 points 13 minutes ago

I meant lemmy, I have only just started using both with the aim of dropping reddit and bluesky, and apparently I am confused.

I agree the post should be removed.

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Although this was a private donation and not Mullvad as a company, it's still bad. I've been a Mullvad user for a few years now and I dislike the idea that some of the money I've paid to them, no matter how little overall, might have been used to support a political party that pushes for "remigration".

I may have very indirectly helped finance a fascist party, and I'm not okay with that. I'd like Mullvad to take steps to ensure that this can't happen again. Until then, I can't be sure where my money will end up.

[–] sorter_plainview@lemmy.today 15 points 14 hours ago

Mullvad issued a response. Which IMO is shitty.

Source

Statement from MullvadMullvad is a political company. We fight for freedom of speech, freedom of information and the right to privacy. These are firmly held values of the founders of Mullvad.

Mullvad protects the right for people to express things we don't agree with. We protect the right of everyone to access views we don't agree with.

We also live these values by being tolerant in our daily work. Everyone is welcome to collaborate with Mullvad if they share these narrow core values. As employees, contractors, customers, suppliers, lobbyists, campaign partners or whatever it might be. No matter what their other opinions are and no matter whether the founders or anyone else in Mullvad dislike them. The founders themselves fundamentally disagree on several important issues.

This is what allows us to advance our common causes. Being in a tolerant and intellectually open environment is also liberating and promotes truth seeking.

The more people do this, the better a place the world will be.

It should be obvious that Daniel's private donation to a political party is not part of Mullvad's values or mission, in the same way that someone's opinions on animal rights, taxes or public healthcare policy isn't.

That said, if you no longer want to be a Mullvad customer for philosophical reasons, we think it's important to honor that, and will gladly refund you.

[–] RoddyStiggs@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Nobody using Mullvad is going to have their credit card tied directly to it. Much less are they going to start calling financial institutions and government agencies and tell them they're a Mullvad user.

You need to get way more subtle with your propaganda, corpos.

[–] mathemachristian@lemmy.ml 7 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Sure lets entrust our privacy with infrastructure owned by a fascist...

[–] Artemis_Mystique@lemmy.ml 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

clearly you don't know how Mullvad works

[–] mathemachristian@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Enlighten me how under a fascist takeover it couldn't be undermined to track undesirables... even if, the owner is a fascist?! Clearly your life wouldn't be in danger when tracked by a fascist...

[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

Technically they could be lying about their privacy policy, and technically it's not impossible that they've colluded with the government to lie about police finding nothing in raids, and saying "well they will lie about it because they're fascists" is myopic and stupid. Moreso than being fascist, they're fanatical about privacy. I guess it's possible for them to switch their entire infrastructure up to make verbose permanent logs on hard drives instead of running on RAM, but I feel like if they were doing that we'd be seeing a lot more pedophiles getting caught sharing CP

[–] mathemachristian@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

saying "well they will lie about it because they're fascists" is myopic and stupid.

Why?

Moreso than being fascist, they're fanatical about privacy

and they will be forever and ever? There's one move fascists have, coast on good will until it's time for the rug-pull. A lot of fascists started out genuinely believing in some cause but sooner or later they all turn. What with contradictions sharpening and all

[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 hours ago

Why?

Because you don't know anything about the infrastructure of their operation. It's as yet impossible for them to track traffic through their servers.

and they will be forever and ever?

As long as it's one guy making personal donations and not the company as a whole, yes

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