Jörg Seidel
That's absolutely sad to read. The CEO of @mullvadnet is not only financing the far-right Swedish Örebro party, but he even is their main financer. 70+% of their money is his donation. He is the reason why they go nationwide this year.
For obvious reasons i cease to trust this service. Also i do not finance parties that aim for forced deportations.
https://www.flamman.se/techprofil-ger-miljoner-till-orebropartiet/
Håkan Geijer
@mullvadnet @astro @lostgen quit your job and quit playing defense for fascists
Mullvad VPN
Mullvad is a political company fighting for free speech, free information and privacy, with two equal co-founders, co-owners and co-CEOs who fundamentally disagree on many issues. Daniel's donation to a political party is private and not part of Mullvad's mission. We protect the right to express and access views we disagree with. We welcome anyone sharing these core values, whatever their other opinions. We are happy to refund others who don't, where we can.
Astro 🐾
well that sucks. i do not use mullvad and now i am glad i don’t .
Token Sane Person
@lostgen @mullvadnet@mastodon.online Mozilla's VPN is a rebadged Mullvad. So not good.
Lillian Violet
@mullvadnet @lostgen And yet can you guarantee that all money that I give you flows to preserve the freedom of everyone to be freely able to express, live and have privacy? You cannot, since it is proven a large sum went indirectly into making a party that cares about none of those things and actively wants to dismantle human rights.
Caring about only some human rights is impossible, and pretending they are not inherently linked is intellectually dishonest. This isn't a mere "difference of opinion", I'd like to ask you how one could be pro free speech information and privacy when one would like to discriminate based on nationality, deny people entry and housing based on where they come from and discriminate based on place of origin/language/skin colour (these are all personal identification information!!).
You can't! Because they are conflicting goals!
Mullvad VPN
Mullvad is a political company fighting for free speech, free information and privacy, with two equal co-founders, co-owners and co-CEOs who fundamentally disagree on many issues. Daniel's donation to a political party is private and not part of Mullvad's mission. We protect the right to express and access views we disagree with. We welcome anyone sharing these core values, whatever their other opinions. We are happy to refund others who don't, where we can.
Daniel Aragay 🇸🇪🇪🇸🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🔻
@mullvadnet @astro @lostgen The co-founder argument misses the point. Nobody questions Daniel’s right to fund whoever he wants. The issue is trust asymmetry in a security product.
Mullvad’s users who need it most — undocumented people, activists, journalists in hostile environments — are exactly those targeted by the party he funded. A co-CEO of a privacy company actively financing the expansion of state power over vulnerable people isn’t a “private matter”. It’s a governance conflict.
A judge can defend free speech and still recuse themselves from a case where they’ve donated to one of the parties. Same logic applies here.
The question isn’t his opinions. It’s whether he should remain in a position of trust over infrastructure that protects the people his politics endanger.
Elena Brescacin
@lostgen @mullvadnet As a woman, and blind person, I don't care that Mullvad's co-founder made a PERSONAL donation to that party. Because what he gets in his own pockets, comes from all disabled / lgbt / black / women... who rely on their VPN and other services, to feel safe.
In the hope to feel safer online, we literally have filled the wallet of a guy who has contributed "personally" to finance a very racist, ableist, homophobic, supremacist Sweden party.
That said... Hate speech is not free speech. Supporting politicians who think that homosexuality is immoral (or worse a crime), that non-white / migrant people have less rights than white, thinking of rolling back diversity and inclusion policies (including accessibility and disabled people's rights), well, these are not opinions. This is HARM, and no politician should support it.
I'm blind, I rely on accessibility, and, I use my freedom to speak, to say what I really think: instead of financing that crap, you should finance disabled people's safety on and offline.
You should replace a person who is in favor with those philosophies. I feel double betrayed by you:
first, because at the moment, as far as I know, Mullvad is the best VPN service for accessibility to blind and with the most substainable/affordable payment conditions.
But then, I discover that it's yet another accessible technology but who licks the boots of MAGA and similar. It means that we, blind folks, are basically leashed. "you have no one but me", and you know what it means? It means control. It means that those fascists could, one day (far or near) ask for our data. How could I trust a company this way?
If you care of your business and reputation, you should at least find something better to say, to get out from this shit. I won't be silent from here; I always suggested mullvad to blind people asking for an accessible VPN, now I won't do any more but I'll warn about this political matter.
I won't ask for refunds, I have no longer energy to lose from here. 15 euro don't make me fail. After the current payment expires, I'll simply go away.
#accessibility #ableism #boycott #disability #blind #inclusion #wtf
JP
@mullvadnet @lostgen tell your PR team that this statement is worse than saying nothing.
> We protect the right to express and access views we disagree with. We welcome anyone sharing these core values,
"a group of people doesn't deserve human rights" is not just "a view" someone holds, it affects everything they do, their decision making and that of any org they hold power in, the impact they have on the world. you are complicit in your CEO's actions and the consequences will be dramatic.
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