this post was submitted on 06 May 2025
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Proton = Trump support
So no for me.
Their CEO approved of an appointment Trump made, and criticized Dem on the issue -- doesn't make him a Trump supporter. If we can't tell the Dems off when we think the GOP does better, how can we proceed?
Proton itself never directly commited on anything from Trump in a positive way.
Their current CEO Andy Yen posted this Tweet. Yes he is an idiot and even doubled down on it with the Proton account Now I am not from a country with a 2 party system, but last time I checked agreeing with one statement from somebody doesn't mean you support them. Heck finding common ground is often a way to find compromises.
Do what you want and don't support them if you don't want them, but don't act like the company Proton is a Trump supporter. Heck there are a lot of articles on the Proton site which are pro privacy and pro consumer.
Andy Yen went out of his way to criticize Democrats on antitrust, which is how you can tell it's actually a pro-Trump position unsupported by the actual facts.
I like Gail Slater. She's possibly the best choice among people who Trump likes, to head DOJ's Antitrust Division. She has bipartisan bona fides.
But to say that Democrats, after 4 years of Lina Khan leading the FTC, and a bunch of the reforms that the Biden FTC and DOJ made to merger standards and their willingness to sue/seek big penalties for antitrust violations, aren't more serious than Republicans about reining in big tech consolidation and about stronger enforcement of antitrust principles, completely flips around the history and is a bad faith argument.
Andy Yen could've praised Gail Slater, and that would be that. Instead, he took a post by Trump that didn't even mention Democrats, and made it about how the Democrats are bad on taking on big tech. That's the problem everyone had with it.
Anti Democrat does not mean pro Republican/trump. I personally hate both but the latter much more.
Well yeah he did support a Trump statement and went out of his way to do it. Later stupidly doubled down on it by using the official response.
But, and this might be because I am not American and live in a country where politics aren't so black and white, but I fail to see how that means you are a MAGA nut/Trump supporter or what not. Especially not because he hasn't taken action (will be hard to do anyway since he is not American).
And there is a strong governance structure with Andy Yen only having 33% power on final says since he is 1 of 3 people in the Proton Foundation which is the shareholder of the Proton company.
I'd use their VPN even if Hitler owns it. It's private, secure and they stand to their values with respect to that. Why would I care about political views? Politics don't change the service on a technical level. Literally don't give a shit.
Except politics, actually, can change the service. For example, surrendering data in secret. Or installing backdoors.
Not that I think Proton is gonna do that (or at least hope so), but thinking "why would I care about politics, they don't affect the app on a technical level" is incredibly naive and potentially incorrect.
With an over-the-top example, it's kinda like saying "why should I care about the politics of my landlord after they support the "Increase Tenant's Rent" party, it doesn't change the service"
If your threat model depends of political idiologies then you should reconsider your threat model.
Yeah, my 2 year plan is up in June. I haven't decided what I'm switching to. I've heard good things about Mullvad's privacy policies and politics, but I've also seen reviews that a bunch of sites and services have them blocked.
I'm open to suggestions at this point.
Mullvad is the gold standard
That's what I've been seeing. I don't use Netflix anyways and I mostly just have a VPN for when I'm on a university or hospital campus and I'd like to keep my internet usage private. (Or when sailing the high seas for books.)
Except that Mullvad is hostile to the torrent infrastructure since there is no port forwarding. No thanks!
Fuuuuck.
This article goes into it some more, please pick your own opinion: https://medium.com/@ovenplayer/does-proton-really-support-trump-a-deeper-analysis-and-surprising-findings-aed4fee4305e
This article keeps getting posted but it really just shows the author doesn't understand the issue that was presented. It goes as far as brushing of the criticism almost immediately. Truth is Proton decided they would publicly praise a running fascist leader for goodboy points
Proton didn't decide anything, Andy Yen posted ONE tweet and then doubled down on it with the Proton Reddit account which was deleted.
I know the US is really into this "us vs them" or Republicans against the Democrats or whatever you want to and that is fair, that's how US policies sadly work which is also one of the reasons why the country is basically corrupt. For most people agreeing with one statement a politician made doesn't mean anything. I can agree with some things Geert Wilders said, but that doesn't mean Ill vote for him.
There are other articles about the whole situation, but I believe that the Tweet says more than the bullshit some people have been shouting on every post regarding Proton. Share the Tweet yes, but don't share the bullshit.
How are you going to say that Proton didn't say anything and then acknowledge that the official Proton social media accounts were making statements like this:
That's the context you keep brushing under the rug. The official Proton position is not just that Trump made a good choice, on this one thing, it's that you should vote for Republicans over Democrats.
Yes, it was official corporate Proton position to delete that comment. But it was the official Proton position to make that comment in the first place.
I don't brush anything under the rug. I actively shared the Tweet that started this hole BS.
Well fair, maybe I should have shown their response. They doubled down on it, but they also deleted it. Both of the American parties are a shitshow, but then again America is just corrupt anyway. Trump didn't even have 50% of the votes.
Saying "Proton = Maga" or whatever doesn't shed light on the issue either. In the end I believe more in actions than words (and i have faith in a decent governance structure) and I believe that people should take their own conclusion on the matter based on the Tweet and well yeah I should start linking the Reddit post again.
The moment Proton itself starts to fuck things over I am out of there as well, but currently I prepaid just before this came to light, but I use my own domain so mhe
I get that. But my point is that you can't claim that Proton's CEO is acting independently of the Proton corporation itself when Proton's official corporate accounts chimed in on his side on this.
Not on antitrust. The Biden administration was one of the strongest advocates for consumers on antitrust issues we've seen since Robert Bork convinced Reagan to tear it all down.
Anyone who says otherwise is trying to lie to the American public about it, and should be called out for actively advocating for false MAGA propaganda. Andy Yen did it, and Proton agreed with it.
Proton’s official account also deleted the comment and Yen created a new account for himself so Proton did what eas really required by any rule book or whatever you wanna call it in situations like this.
So no I wouldn’t say Proton agreed on it.
Call him out for his tweet or Protons post fair, but that doesnt him a MAGA supporter. It just makes him a supporter of a bullshit statement. And it definitely doesn’t make Proton MAGA. Nuances are needed to make it so people can have their own opinions formed and we don’t get a black or white/good or bad view on the world.
"Proton didn't decide anything" He is the God damned CEO of the company.
Proton is not responsible for everything Andy Yen does, Andy Yen has to take responsibility for everything Proton does.
But his power is limited anyway since there is a governance structure by using the non profit that is shareholder of Proton. This is not America.
Never said I was American. Proton as a team has kept him on so that's their answer. He did not have to make a post at all complementing Donald but he did and that fact says A LOT.
It says a lot to you, but not to a lot of people. Stop barading the company for your own opinion
Who else's opinion should I barade them with then? I was a loyal customer and this was something I felt ruined their reputation to myself and anyone that should be looking to find a solution that doesn't show sympathies for fascist regimes. And I feel the Medium article I initially commented on brushes those concerns away and focus on "but are they MAGA?"
I am sorry, but I find it so absurd that people can literally kick somebody or a company down because of something relatively small. Most companies can be found dirt on, what are you going to do? I am just saying that there is more to the story than just calling somebody a MAGA supporter which these days is basically calling somebody a Nazi
I don't know what to say to you. Something small? I have lost faith if fascist sympathies is small. God help us
I can say the same thing about you mentioning god. Religious conservatives have been an issue in the US (and outside the US as well) for years. But I am not going to call you out publicly for doing that either.
Now fascists are different, but agreeing with a more economic focussed standpoint doesn’t mean you have sympathy for fascists. I am progessive-center right aligned in politics, what are you gonna call me a Nazi? The US politics don’t lend for people to have specific directions with their votes.
Proton the company and the foundation are still on the consumer side of the while discussion and besides a deleted Tweet that aint gonna happen.
Thanks for sharing this!
It really does appear that the "Proton is MAGA" thing is just quote taken out of context nonsense.
Yeah no problem, everybody is allowed to make their own decisions, but I feel like everybody should at least see the actual Tweet.
Edit: apparantly people don’t want the truth to be shared? Share the dang Tweet people.