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The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party
- gigatexal 3mo agoI used Mullvad before this because they passed a bunch of tests and legally denied claims to user data. I don’t have the reference but it was on HN. So who do people recommend now?
- andrewinardeer 3mo agoProton
- bakies 3mo agoguess I'll cancel my tailscale mullvad sub
- colesantiago 3mo ago[flagged]
- vrganj 3mo agoAbout that... https://www.reddit.com/r/degoogle/comments/1tzbizh/proton_is_funding_the_french_far_right_on_youtube/ https://www.reddit.com/r/degoogle/comments/1tzbizh/proton_is...
- colesantiago 3mo ago:/ Perhaps the alternative is to self host, but my friends can't do that. It is about time we compile a list of VPNs to avoid.
- SideburnsOfDoom 3mo agoI am now open to suggestions for a good VPM that isn't Mulvad. Or Proton. Why not Proton: https://pivot-to-ai.com/2024/07/25/proton-mail-adds-a-bitcoin-wallet-yes-really/ https://pivot-to-ai.com/2024/07/25/proton-mail-adds-a-bitcoi... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48447103 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48447103
- davidgerard 3mo agossh -D (really, that's what I do)
- techhut 3mo agoNetBird doesn't use Mullvad
- colesantiago 3mo agoThey are considering which is enough for me to not use Netbird. https://github.com/netbirdio/netbird/issues/1138 https://github.com/netbirdio/netbird/issues/1138
- pixel_popping 3mo ago[flagged]
- SideburnsOfDoom 3mo agoDon't be silly, everyone knows that left wing extremists are broke, and have no funds.
- SCdF 3mo ago[flagged]
- 10xDev 3mo agoAs economies shrink and jobs become scarce, we may reach pre-ww2 order.
- focusgroup0 3mo ago[dead]
- elzbardico 3mo agoDo you live in Sweden, do you know the context of the mass migration it ocurred there? the social economic effects?
- addedGone 3mo agoApparently it's not criminal to stay illegally in a country, they are delusional.
- Jysix 3mo agoNice to know, I'm gifting right now a subscription for all the member of my family.
- nisegami 3mo agoIt's funny how remigration never involves sending white folk back to europe.
- ndegruchy 3mo ago[flagged]
- XorNot 3mo agoI have Mullvad to avoid age check gateways, not super anonymity. I'll absolutely be taking my business elsewhere.
- Gud 3mo agoBecause of hyperbolic headlines?
- fsmedberg 3mo agoArticle by a news media outlet that is considered very far left (communist). Try finding the same claim or description in any national Swedish media. You won't.
- basisword 3mo agoWhat's going on? Proton faced a similar scandal recently. I think in their case sponsored a video by a far right vlogger. After that I saw people recommending Mullvad as an alternative.
- bl4kers 3mo agoTweet from Proton's CEO last year: "10 years ago, Republicans were the party of big business and Dems stood for the little guys, but today the tables have completely turned." He repeatedly said his statement was politically neutral.
- mrtksn 3mo agoI am surprised that people are surprised, all these services are by people for people who are marginalized. Therefore, they are either far-right or far-left. When its business, its more likely to be a far-right since they are more business-oriented. The far left folks usually make a repo and give it away or try to organize some collective effort.
- greggoB 3mo ago> for people who are marginalized. Therefore, they are either far-right or far-left. There are many types of marginalised groups, and many other reasons to want to use VPNs. Putting everything on a left-right political axis seems more than a tad reductive.
- mrtksn 3mo agoSure but far left and far right is a crude default way to generalize, the left folks will be especially annoyed by this but its still useful when the specifics don't matter.
- pixel_popping 3mo ago[flagged]
- vrganj 3mo agoThere's "personal life" and then theres being 75% of the funding of a party calling for ethnic cleansing...
- pixel_popping 3mo agoYou have sources about Ethnic cleansing or you are just talking about immigration which has nothing to do with ethnicity? Of course criminal immigrants that just cross the border should be deported, that's common-sense. You would really cross Japanese border right now and genuinely think you aren't committing a serious crime? Can you give some sources regarding the Ethnic cleansing?
- vrganj 3mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96rebro_Party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96rebro_Party > Some of its key issues include [...] large scale remigration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remigration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remigration > Remigration is a far-right concept referring to the ethnic cleansing via mass deportation of non-white minority populations
- pixel_popping 3mo agoHow can you "remigrate" Swedish citizens? They are citizens. Are you talking about immigrants (who are guests in the country)?
- SideburnsOfDoom 3mo ago> How can you "remigrate" Swedish citizens? They are citizens This is answered in the first para of the linked Wikipedia article. "remigration" is not the parent poster's term, your misunderstanding of it is not on them at this point. > Are you talking about immigrants (who are guests in the country) No. and also, that statement about immigrants is false as a categorisation.
- mortarion 3mo agoÖrebropartiet is not a extremist far-right party. All their policies is extreme far-left except immigration. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96rebro_Party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96rebro_Party
- vrganj 3mo ago[flagged]
- fsmedberg 3mo agoTry radical populist left-economic-leaning nationalists
- SauciestGNU 3mo agoNazbols then? Equally bad.
- anonym29 3mo ago>they're pro-ethnical cleansing of people already living there source?
- gpm 3mo agoFrom the wikipedia article linked above... > 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."
- anonym29 3mo ago"ethnic cleansing" is an emotionally charged term that conjures genocide in the popular imagination. It is not a good descriptive term for what can rightly be described as regressive or ultra-nationalistic migration policy.
- ktosobcy 3mo agoI'm still amused that so many people got brainwashed into thinking that VPNs give privacy :D
- gib444 3mo agoIf my house isn't a fortress I should just leave my doors open :D I'm so clever, everyone else is stupid
- ktosobcy 3mo agoNah. But for the supposed "privacy" you swap one "dumb pipe" for another pipe, which you have no clue about its operations beyond "trust me bro". Of course they may behave with good intentions and actually keep their promises but that's a rather huge IF. And then quite often people will still use their regular tracking-browser to access tracking-websites xD
- fsmedberg 3mo agoSwede here. That's not even close to accurate. Örebropartiet is not extremist, but I would absolutely label them radical populist left-economic-leaning nationalists. Please do some research and make up your own mind. They're a tiny local party active in Örebro municipality where their founder and leader loudly points out clearly wasteful use of government funds, or more or less corrupt decisions made by leading party figures in other parties on local matters. The party leader is known for ridiculing competing parties party members on debates. Where the Örebropartiet (Örebro Party) usually are called extremist is in questions regarding immigration. They are of the opinion that people that move to Sweden should not integrate but also assimilate, and quickly, find a job. For some people, this might sound extreme, but I would argue that more than half of the Swedish population (and its parties) nowadays share this view, similar to how Japanese people and society broadly want people that move their to assimilate.
- Capricorn2481 3mo ago> similar to how Japanese people and society broadly want people that move their to assimilate And it's super racist there too, I can assure you. My father in law is Korean but lived in Japan his whole life. There's no way to describe what he experienced except racism. People just hated him for being Korean. I have no respect for people that concern troll about some vague cultural purity to disguise their prejudices.
- ShinyLeftPad 3mo agoA friend of mine who is a non Japanese Asian lived in Japan and when asked said there's no racism. There's mild cases but if you are careful to follow the customs and speak the language, you are generally accepted as a Japanese in daily life.
- Capricorn2481 3mo ago> A friend of mine who is a non Japanese Asian lived in Japan and when asked said there's no racism Well I'm convinced.
- mhitza 3mo agoAny of the Swedes in here can corroborate the claims in the article about this right wing group? Especially about the extreme anti-immigration statements and put that in full translation and context? Also what this group leader has done in Örebro to contextualize this quote > ”I hope they will do similar things on the national level as in Örebro”, writes Daniel Berntsson to Flamman.
- fsmedberg 3mo agoThe claims in the social media post is pure bullshit. The party is a tiny (read: one person elected) radical populist left-economic-leaning nationalists. They have gained popularity for pointing out wasteful use of Örebro's municipalities resources, and their leader's fondness of lengthy ridiculing other parties politicians in lengthy debates, that he often publish on Instagram and YouTube.
- mhitza 3mo agoThank you for providing context. Are his public stances on immigration precisely stated as remigration, or does he describe a thing such as remigration without explicitly naming it as such? About his quote from wikipedia "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." which links to this video tweet https://x.com/AllardKlipp/status/2060109271635771457 https://x.com/AllardKlipp/status/2060109271635771457 can you give full context/translation?
- yaris 3mo agoHe says what is quoted when talking about criminals with immigrant roots. "Those [criminals] - they should get out, even if they were born in Sweden, because they do not have a connection to Sweden. They received a swedish passport but they have not become swedish [as belonging to swedish culture]. They are not interested [in becoming swedish] and here I'm ready to go on corpses...". Overall his stance on immigration (taken from this video) is not as extreme as one can imagine reading HN comments. It is extreme but not to the extent that he's ready to push out anyone whos granddad was not Andersson.
- whatever4789 3mo ago[flagged]
- elzbardico 3mo agoNow, the usual cry from blue sky spoiled rich kid fascists that are unable to understand that some people live in the real world, with real problems and because of that have ideas different from them.
- jaykru 3mo agoThe party in question: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96rebro_Party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96rebro_Party. Doesn't sound extremist far-right to me. Many of its positions would be considered center-left or even far left in much of the world.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- padjo 3mo ago"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" For all the stuff about free dentists this sounds pretty right wing to me.
- addedGone 3mo agoWhat's wrong about it? You expect me to be a jap citizen if I just over-stay there and have my children born there?
- Dylan16807 3mo agoYou? No, not for that alone. But if your kids spend the first dozen years of their life in a country, they should get to stay in that country.
- hagbard_c 3mo agoIF those children live according to the laws of the land, speak the language of the land, don't espouse views which directly go against the culture of the land and ended up becoming self-supporting there certainly is a good case to be made for them to be allowed to stay in the land. If they don't speak the language because their parents actively kept them from integrating into the land's culture which they (the parents) consider to be bad in some way, they (the children) violated the laws of the land and have well-filled rap sheets, they go out of their way to voice their dislike of the culture which allowed their parents in and they live on welfare because working is for 'svenner' they are very much invited to leave on the first ship or train of plane whether they like it or not.
- znpy 3mo ago[flagged]
- Capricorn2481 3mo agoYes very far left. "They should also be deported, even if they were born in Sweden, because they don't have a natural connection to Sweden. They are not Swedes. I am prepared to walk over corpses here, and that is what separates me from these other damn politicians." [1] [1] https://x.com/AllardKlipp/status/2060109271635771457 https://x.com/AllardKlipp/status/2060109271635771457
- tastyface 3mo agoI hate how right wingers are constantly trying to normalize viscous, abhorrent rhetoric like this. Ironically, they often claim to be religious... If any of my peers spoke like this, I'd cut them out of my life in an instant.
- eudamoniac 3mo ago[flagged]
- tastyface 3mo agoJust don't be surprised when your children refuse to talk to you.
- eudamoniac 3mo agoFortunately I brought/bring my kids to ethnic ghettos and homeless encampments at early ages so they are not helplessly sheltered from the truth of these matters. We are not so rich that we can afford all the luxury beliefs. I also have skin in the game so to speak. How old are your children?
- yaris 3mo agoThe quote is taken out of context. The sentence starts with "Youngsters that are criminals - they should get out". And before "walk over corpses" he says that "they got swedish passports but have not become swedish [culturally]. They are not interested in it".
- freediddy 3mo agoDid anyone actually look into the "far-right" party that this purports to be? The Örebro Party (Swedish: Örebropartiet, ÖP) is a local populist political party in Örebro, Sweden, led by Markus Allard. It holds seats in the Örebro municipal and regional assemblies, focusing on local populist policies such as reducing politicians' salaries, stricter migration, and free dental care. Sweden has undergone a horrible transformation in the last several years where gang warfare and especially bombings have skyrocketed. Most of the new gang violence in the last several years is from migrants from North Africa and the Middle East, after Sweden implemented a generous immigration policy. https://nct-cbnw.com/an-explosion-a-day-in-sweden-what-is-going-on/ https://nct-cbnw.com/an-explosion-a-day-in-sweden-what-is-go... There's nothing to indicate that this party is "far right" at all. It's a populist-based party but the stance on immigration is definitely linearly correlated to the violence that was brought in by immigration. Lowering politicians' salaries and free dental care doesn't sound very far right to me.
- hogwasher 3mo ago[flagged]
- ar_lan 3mo agoThis is a bizarre thread. People are surprised that a privacy-oriented businessman is right-wing is very strange. "Millions" in the title is also misleading in this context - it's millions in Swedish Kronor, which is roughly $500K USD. A lot, but the title seems intentionally misleading. I've also never really understood the cycle of boycotting things because you don't like how an individual spends their own money. Almost every company will employ people who have values you severely disagree with, and put money toward those causes. And turning to Proton as the alternative is... a choice?
- jlongr 3mo ago[flagged]
- ar_lan 3mo agoYou're misinterpreting what I said. Being dense, honestly. The start of this thread was primarily people saying they were taking their money elsewhere - and then suggesting Proton, whose CEO was in the hot seat for praising the Republican party. It makes no sense to have such a violent reaction to something like this and not consider that competitors could be similar. The reality is that in general, your money is always going to somebody you don't want it to go to.
- jlongr 3mo agoOh so let's just be reductive about the issues that are important to us. Let's just throw our hands up in the air and say "Pobody's nerfect!" BFFR
- lightbulbish 3mo agoI'm Swedish, but never heard of Örebropartiet before. I tried looking into their website and it doesn't say a lot. Translated from Swedish wikipedia: --- Örebropartiet was founded by Markus Allard in the spring of 2014, when he was recently expelled from the Left Party and the Young Left. [...] Among the party's main issues are reduced politicians' salaries, reduced bureaucracy, civil servant responsibility, assimilation policy and the repatriation of people who do not adapt. --- I think it is very reasonable to demand that people try to integrate when coming to a new country - learn the language, get into the culture. As a Swedish person I think this is missing from our integration politics, which is an often talked about topic in the last years. In the end this is a political question and sadly instead of engaging in dialogue the reaction to these questions feels like it most often leads to polarization and division. Inclusion means also including people with different beliefs and respecting their opinions, even if we don't share them. Through understanding comes empathy. Can recommend "The Righteous Mind" by moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt who discusses this in a book. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Righteous_Mind https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Righteous_Mind Fun fact: we get a dopamine release when taking an opposing stance and then seeing (subjective) proof of our stance. It requires self-discipline and fighting your impulses to avoid polarization.
- AlecSchueler 3mo ago> I think it is very reasonable to demand that people try to integrate when coming to a new country - learn the language, get into the culture. What kind of things might be involved in a mandate for people to "get into the culture?"
- port11 3mo agoIt’s a hot topic, but in Belgium some people are taught how to take the bus, do their taxes, and not harass women. One of my Dutch teachers led the integration course and said this stuff was really difficult to land. If you come from a culture of groping women, not doing is gonna be a challenge. I get it. But we’ve also built mosques and have pagan festivals and allow public servants to wear their choice of religious attire. I think it’s a balance, but nobody is ever happy with wherever you set the balance. When I learn the local language, I’m happier; it’s nice to talk to people. Not everyone agrees. Tja.
- hackinthebochs 3mo ago[flagged]
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- rationalist 3mo ago> It's always taken as an axiom by leftists that immigration is an unconditional good, but never actually defended. I'm not sure that is correct. Before Trump, "left" politicians (in the U.S.) campaigned on controlling immigration and deporting illegal immigrants.
- hackinthebochs 3mo agoNot in my experience, at least not at the national level. It's been said that Obama deported more illegals than anyone that came before. But Democrats couldn't run on that record because it was toxic to the progressives.
- UtopiaPunk 3mo agoThe USA has never had a leftist president. No president of the USA has ever sought to end capitalism. I think you know that, and that you are alluding to that with quotation marks. But I'm not sure how the person you are replying to is using the term "left." I feel it is important to clarify when discussing how the Left views immigration. Clarification aside, I agree with what you said.
- tastyface 3mo agoI live in a "white" country and I like my nonwhite neighbors, some immigrant, some nth-generation, even ones who mostly socialize within their ethnic/cultural enclaves. I believe they belong here as much as I do. I don't want to give any money to racists who want to expunge them for some perceived ethnic transgressions. These parties are one step removed from extolling the virtues of the glorious Aryan race, and we all know where that leads.
- 3mo ago
- kfreds 3mo agoHi, Mullvad has two owners, founders, and CEOs - Daniel Berntsson, and me, Fredrik Strömberg. All posts I've seen yesterday and today, including the newspaper articles, talk about Mullvad as if Daniel is the single owner, founder and CEO. It should be obvious that Daniel's private donation to a political party is not part of Mullvad's values or mission. If you have any questions, comments or concerns you're welcome to comment on this thread, or email our customer support. See below for the response you'll get from support: ----- Mullvad 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. In that case, reach out to support.
- alexseman 3mo agoThanks Fredrik, will actually be switching to Mullvad.
- lbnzuni 3mo ago[flagged]
- everfrustrated 3mo agoIndeed I see this as a positive. There is a common meme that the CIA might well run VPN companies. It would seem less likely for Mullvad.
- sourcecodeplz 3mo agoarchive link? the post got deleted
- Risse 3mo agoThey might be having some capacity issues, it was 404 for me for a while but now it's back. Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20260629105534/https://det.social/@lostgen/116820546568940358 https://web.archive.org/web/20260629105534/https://det.socia...
- sourcecodeplz 3mo agothanks, i got to the actual article that was linked: https://web.archive.org/web/20260628170131mp_/https://www.flamman.se/techprofil-ger-miljoner-till-orebropartiet/ https://web.archive.org/web/20260628170131mp_/https://www.fl...
- cryo32 3mo agoWell guess I won’t be renewing my subscription this month then. Any other verified sources?
- Risse 3mo agoSomewhat of a verification, here's Mullvad's response to the post on Mastodon: https://mastodon.online/@mullvadnet/116822244689326681 https://mastodon.online/@mullvadnet/116822244689326681
- cryo32 3mo agoThanks. Also fuck.
- ethbr1 3mo ago(Mullvad reply content copied here) >> 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. To be fair... I'm not sure how you could take any other position as a privacy-first VPN. By technical nature, you have to believe pretty hard in 'people's business is their own business and not mine.' I'd rather have a founder who believes whatever, but supports others rights to disagree vehemently, than one who agrees with what I believe but is less flexible on allowing others choice.
- microgpt 3mo agoWill you be creating a VPN?
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- cryo32 3mo agoYes. With blackjack and hookers.
- orliesaurus 3mo agodoes it change your trust in the company? For some people, the answer is obviously yes. For others, they'll judge Mullvad purely by its track record, audits, and technical design. Honestly, you could say the same about the CEO of ANDURIL in the US - the Oculus guy...but he just cares about the US and wants to make money by making weapon systems etc. Is he a bad person? Is he a patriot? Who knows, I ain't gonna play the ultimate judge game - but he did release a cool gameboy clone which is literally the closest I will ever get to his work... [1] [1] https://modretro.com https://modretro.com
- echelon 3mo agoWanted to mention the Analogue since ModRetro was mentioned. https://www.analogue.co/products https://www.analogue.co/products https://www.analogue.co/editions https://www.analogue.co/editions I think these look a lot cooler, though they're less hackable.
- hootz 3mo agoYes, not only trust but my willingness to contribute money towards his paycheck. I don't want my money to end up in far-right parties.
- exitb 3mo agoIt's not only about trust, but also about not wanting to give money to an entity that will pass it on to a political party you don't want to support.
- pluc 3mo agoLook at Zuck and Musk. Their platforms are still used by millions. It's only "us" that care about the pedigree of our tech founders, most people couldn't care less.
- microgpt 3mo agoThere has to be some reason that so many projects are started by right wing people. Something in their personality that makes them both RW and willing to start lots of projects.
- mrtksn 3mo agopreviously discussed[flagged: 251 comments]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48687508 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48687508
- lompad 3mo agoDamn. Well, if that gets confirmed I'm going to get my company off mullvad.
- amarant 3mo agoIt's confirmed. And the party in question is quite extreme, at least by Swedish standards.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- yaris 3mo agoAccording to polls[0] the party gets ~20% votes in their region. IMHO 20% of voters can't be "extreme" [0] https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/orebro/orebropartiet-nast-storst-i-ny-matning-liberalerna-tappar-mest https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/orebro/orebropartiet-nast-... (swedish)
- microgpt 3mo ago> IMHO 20% of voters can't be "extreme" Was the NSDAP "extreme"? They got 43.9%
- yaris 3mo agoThey got 43.9% in what Wikipedia marks as "semi-free yet questionable election". Also more correct question IMHO would be "was the NSDAP extreme in 1933?" and the answer is probably "no as much as by today's standards".
- graemep 3mo agoThey were definitely extreme by the standards of the time. Their aim was explicitly to completely revolutionise European politics, culture, religion.... everything. One comment I heard recent (on The Rest is History podcast, I think Tom Holland said it) they were the most radical movement in European history. Their ideology implied at the very least getting rid of whole populations. They wanted to reset to an imagined ancient culture and rewrote history to justify it. Mostly imagined, anyway - Sparta was the one real example they looked to.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- thendrill 3mo agoI love how we pretend to live in a free democratic society where everyone is free to make up their own mind and vote for what they believe... ...as long as they don't have opinions that differ from ours, in that case we might punch em in the face...
- misnome 3mo ago> "punch em in the face" Very weird interpretation of "voluntarily choose to not continue supporting them financially" Presumably you want everyone to be forcibly compelled to finance the political parties they disagree with? And you would define this as a democratic society?
- thendrill 3mo agoPunishing a company because someone does something in their free time with their own money ....
- krapp 3mo agoThat's how markets work. People have the right to choose to do business, or not, based on whatever criteria they value.
- flohofwoe 3mo agoNot doing business with a company (for any reason btw) is not 'punishment'. Nobody is taking away anything from the company or any people involved with that company.
- gpvos 3mo agoThe guy owns half the company, so a significant part of the money I'm paying is involved. Yes, it is quite ethical to decide based on matters like that. It's not an employee or minor shareholder.
- yde_java 3mo agoHaters will now say that the far right will destroy exactly that: "our" democracy. The Western morality is a joke, and many HN readers comment like an infant. I feel ashamed.
- unsupp0rted 3mo agoI’m not Swedish. Does Mullvad do what it says on the tin? That’s all that matters. The CEO’s extracurricular activities are none of my business.
- leokennis 3mo agoLet's draw this to its ultimate conclusion. Would you subscribe to an excellent VPN service, if it was run by [insert universally abhorred brutal dictator from history here]?
- yaris 3mo agoA thought experiment: Let's think of the other extreme as well: exactly the same excellent VPN service, is run by an almost-the-best-person-in-the-world who has just one small quirk that makes them not 100% perfect for you (they pat kittens not as often as you'd like them to do). Obviously there is a border between your extreme and mine, which border defines "use" and "no use" cases for you. And now: wherever this border is - should it be the same for everyone?
- leokennis 3mo agoI agree there might be a more or les arbitrary border, and it will probably be in different places for different people. However the original statement: > The CEO’s extracurricular activities are none of my business. Basically says that no border should exist, and it makes no difference at all who provided the service as long as the service itself is excellent. That is a fundamentally different argument that I very much disagree with.
- microgpt 3mo ago[flagged]
- loloquwowndueo 3mo agoEvery time you use a kitten to support flawed logic, a kitten dies.
- deleted 3mo ago
- eckesicle 3mo agoI saw this a couple of days ago, here's the original article that broke the news, in Swedish: https://www.flamman.se/techprofil-ger-miljoner-till-orebropartiet/ https://www.flamman.se/techprofil-ger-miljoner-till-orebropa... It includes a short statement from the CEO.
- lukewarm707 3mo agoI disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
- hootz 3mo agoThere are some things that I won't ever defend your right of saying them, to be honest.
- teekert 3mo agoAgree. This is more of a "ST Voyager 'Nothing Human'"-case.
- qtk8 3mo agoBut does this swedish Party say any things like that?
- Ghoelian 3mo agoYes. They want to get rid of immigrants for example.
- ahartmetz 3mo agoThat is like saying that the judicial system wants (all) people to go to prison. It leaves out the rather crucial "which people".
- addedGone 3mo agoIllegal immigrants?
- solid_fuel 3mo ago[flagged]
- ahartmetz 3mo ago
- decide1000 3mo agoIf this is real I will stop my monthly subscriptions.
- pluc 3mo agoTheir stance seems to be "people can do things on their own personal time": https://mastodon.online/@mullvadnet/116822244689326681 https://mastodon.online/@mullvadnet/116822244689326681
- cryo32 3mo agoAnd we can choose not to fund those things.
- 0xy 3mo ago[flagged]
- sourcegrift 3mo ago[flagged]
- dang 3mo agoWe've banned this account for posting flamewar comments and ignoring our request to stop. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They're here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
- albertgoeswoof 3mo agoLeft wing parties historically are not pro immigration as it increases the labour pool and reduces individual worker powers. Right wing should be boosting immigration to give businesses cheaper labour and erode worker rights. Explains why they UK immigration rose massively with the tories. Many parties outright lie about this to grow their voter base, but the difference in policy vs promise is huge.
- microgpt 3mo agoUh, according to Wikipedia this party wants to kick out all the non-native Swedes from the country (aka "remigration"). That's definitely far right.
- KomoD 3mo agoWhat? I don't support a lot of the things they say, but to my knowledge, that is not what they have said. Are you Swedish, or did you come to that conclusion solely from a Wikipedia article? Here is a recent interview with Markus Allard (the party leader for Örebropartiet): https://samnytt.se/markus-allards-plan-for-sverige-utvisa-kriminella-invandrare-som-ar-fodda-i-sverige https://samnytt.se/markus-allards-plan-for-sverige-utvisa-kr... Where he says: > Markus Allard stresses that he does not see immigrants who behave themselves as a problem. On the contrary, he believes that the debate too often focuses on people who are already functioning well in society, while politicians fail to deal with the groups that are responsible for crime or long-term benefit dependency.[0] > According to him, the focus should be on those who create problems for Sweden, not on people who work, follow the laws, and are a functioning part of society.[0] He also explains that he believes that being born in Sweden alone should not automatically make someone Swedish, and that it should instead be based on ties such as culture, history, and identity. You can machine translate the article because I feel this comment would be too long otherwise. It should be pretty close to what he is saying. and: > He therefore advocates a greatly reduced influx of immigrants, repatriation for criminals and long-term welfare-dependent people, and reforms that make it easier for productive Swedes to start a family and have more children.[1] -------- And here are the original statements in Swedish: [0]: > Markus Allard betonar samtidigt att han inte ser invandrare som sköter sig som något problem. Tvärtom menar han att debatten alltför ofta fokuserar på människor som redan fungerar väl i samhället, medan politikerna misslyckas med att hantera de grupper som står för kriminalitet eller långvarigt bidragsberoende. > Enligt honom bör fokus ligga på dem som skapar problem för Sverige, inte på människor som arbetar, följer lagarna och är en fungerande del av samhället. [1]: > Han förespråkar därför ett kraftigt minskat inflöde av invandrare, återvandring för kriminella och långvarigt bidragsberoende personer samt reformer som gör det lättare för produktiva svenskar att bilda familj och få fler barn.
- stefanfisk 3mo agoTo be fair, Örebropartiet can also be called an extreme left party. It’s complicated… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96rebro_Party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96rebro_Party
- hootz 3mo agoI don't see how, given their answers to simple questions as described in the "2026 run up to the elections" section, this party could ever be considered a leftist party.
- wongarsu 3mo agoThey are very pro education. But that's basically the only thing, all the other answers are enthusiastic right wing answers
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- jarek83 3mo agoHow populist party can root for education? Educated people wouldn't go in populist direction. Of course, it the education stays unbent to their views
- wongarsu 3mo agoThey are far too small to have any chance of influencing education. The simpler explanation would be that there is a strong nationalist current. Think "our people are the best, let's make them even better and throw out the others"
- drptech 3mo ago[dead]
- shimman 3mo agoWhy wouldn't educated people be swept up by populism? They're human like the rest of us. Maybe you should stop thinking that having an education makes you a moral person, it just means you have an education.
- sourcegrift 3mo ago[flagged]
- rdos 3mo ago[flagged]
- krapp 3mo ago[flagged]
- tomhow 3mo agoOK, but please don't post low-substance comments on HN. Telling us you “don't care” about a topic achieves nothing other than instigating a generic tangent, which is against the guidelines. Please take a moment to read the guidelines and make an effort to observe them if you want to participate here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- hypeatei 3mo agoDiscussed three days ago (251 comments): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48687508 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48687508 The other owner replied here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48696800 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48696800
- graemep 3mo agoThe party in question seems to be an anti-immigration strongly secularist left wing party with Marxist roots. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96rebro_Party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96rebro_Party I am not sure "far right" is an accurate label. Maybe populist? Its a mix that would probably get a lot of support in other European countries.
- microgpt 3mo ago[flagged]
- Citizen_Lame 3mo agoAlso they are anti EU and NATO. Lot of astroturfing here.
- graemep 3mo agoThose are left wing positions. Until 2023 the UK's Green Party's policy was to leave NATO, and there is still a lot of support in the part for that. When the UK's Labour party was socialist they were anti-EU. If you look at campaigned for what in the 1975 referendum on EEC membership its pretty clear: for example, Thatcher campaigned to remain, Tony Benn campaigned to leave. The remnants of the old left remain anti-EU even now.
- microgpt 3mo agoThey're neither wing. A foo-wing person could want to leave the EU because it's too bar-wing for any values of foo and bar.
- graemep 3mo ago> Lot of astroturfing here. The guidelines say "assume good faith" https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- tumetab1 3mo ago
- easytiger 3mo agoFar right? It's run by a literal marxist communist.
- rightbyte 3mo agoPeople change. Mossulini was a socialist in his youth.
- peterfirefly 3mo agoAnd then he became a Socialist with power. Seems to me he remained a Socialist.
- rightbyte 3mo agoYes. Until the 1WW.
- microgpt 3mo agoWhat does he or she want to do with immigrants?
- steinvakt2 3mo agoA headline and 20 comments and no mention of what this party actually stands for. Only simple labels such as "far-right". Ehh. The Republican Party in America is EXTREMELY far right by Swedish standards. So maybe one should base this on the actual substance rather than labels?
- msk2k 3mo agoCompanies funding far-left parties seem to be much bigger problem.
- microgpt 3mo agoWhich companies fund Deutsche Wohnen Enteignen? Let me know so I can boycott them
- artisinal 3mo agoSteven Schuurman (Elastic) has given millions to left parties in Germany and The Netherlands.
- microgpt 3mo agoWhich ones? What are their policies?
- Aachen 3mo agoDutch person living in Germany. I'm not aware of a party in NL/DE labeled left whose values don't boil down to that everyone (and future generations) should have a chance to live a good life, with different ways of getting there. I, too, would be curious what GP considers problematic about funding them the way that I find it problematic for any individual to fund this party/person who calls refugees parasites
- wongarsu 3mo agoThe wikipedia article about the party is pretty interesting [1]. "The party has also been described as both right-wing populist and left-wing populist as well as left-conservative" The party was founded after the founder was thrown out of the Left party for liking a far-left extremist group on Facebook and not backing down from that. Since then the party has evolved to also include goals traditionally attributed to the right, like large scale remigration and a stricter immigration policy. The party also seems inconsequentially small, even at the municipal and regional level. They have 0 seats at the national level 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96rebro_Party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96rebro_Party
- hackinthebochs 3mo ago[flagged]
- gpvos 3mo ago"Mullvad AB and its parent company Amagicom AB are 100% owned by founders [1 person] and Daniel Berntsson [...]"[0] So I'll assume he owns about 50%. Well, that ends my usage of Mullvad.[1] I appreciate that probably many of Mullvad's employees have different views, and obviously Berntsson has every right to his opinions and to express them, and I also appreciate that someone can have control over an opinionated company and run it for one particular set of reasons but not for other causes that someone believes in, but in the end I just don't want my money supporting anti-people causes. [0] https://mullvad.net/en/about https://mullvad.net/en/about [1] If it was a small amount, say less than 5% or maybe 10%, I might have decided differently. But it's still millions, so probably not.
- kfreds 3mo agoI'm sorry to hear that. Yes, Daniel and I own 50% each. > obviously Berntsson has every right to his opinions and to express them Indeed. > and I also appreciate that someone can have control over an opinionated company and run it for one particular set of reasons but not for other causes that someone believes in That is exactly the case. > but in the end I just don't want my money supporting anti-people causes. As is your right. Daniel made his choice and now you make yours, as a number of other people in this thread has done. Some believe this party is left-wing, others right-wing. Some approve of it, others don't. Personally I don't, and as I've said elsewhere in this thread I wish he hadn't donated. As do many of our colleagues. To be fair though, there are also colleagues who do seem to approve. And then there are those who don't seem to care either way. Still, I'm glad you recognize the possibility that Daniel and I are able to keep our personal opinions separate from the mission of our company. This is something we live in our daily work as well. As a workplace I'm glad we're not a monoculture of 100% like-minded individuals.
- kypro 3mo ago[flagged]
- pyuser583 3mo agoAren’t Swedish political parties mostly publicly funded?
- belorn 3mo agoParties get goverment funding based on election result, with a minimum floor of 2.5% votes in national elections. This party is way too small for that, and is primarily focused on local election.
- pyuser583 3mo agoOk so it’s basically a political startup. It sounds like once the party gets actual influence, its real funding will be determined by the Swedish people. Doesn’t this make the situation less harmful, or at least fundamentally different from say Elon Musk?
- belorn 3mo agoCalling it a political startup is not that unfair. I would add that in practice it is even less significant that one may think. Parties for local government has an incentive to make loud declaration of national policy in order to present themselves as more legitimate compared to national political parties. However, local government do not have any actually power to implement such policies. Local government decide things like "should we build a new public bath house", or "should we create a local investigation if the that one large road through the city should a speed limit or 30 instead of 40". In terms of practical immigration policy, what a local government control is things like encouraging access to housing, specific integration initiatives that is local to that region, and other details for when immigrants arrive to that specific municipality. In this case we are talking about a municipality the size of 160 000 people. Thus this funding may increase the probability that they will get more than the 5 seats out of 65 that exist in Örebro County Council, which they got from a total of 7000 votes in the latest election. If they manage to get 12% of the 160 000 votes, they will also get one bonus seat in the parliament which is a special rule in the Swedish election system. That single seat out of 350 could in theory do some harm if the election results happens to also be very close between the two blocks of left and right wing parties.
- pu_pe 3mo agoAny suggestions for a VPN service with similar security standards as Mullvad?
- PunchyHamster 3mo ago> The Örebro Party (Swedish: Örebropartiet, ÖP) is a political party in Sweden. The party was initially only a local party in Örebro, Sweden. Markus Allard is the party leader. According to Allard the party cannot be placed anywhere on the traditional left-right spectrum. Some of its key issues include lowered wages for politicians, ending the tax payer funding of various sculptures, monuments and art, large scale remigration, a stricter immigration policy, and free dental care.[3][4] I see no problems
- raffael_de 3mo agome neither ... Mullvad is fantastic.
- yaris 3mo agoI try to turn it other way in my head, like if Mullvad got to know somehow political views of some of their customers and say "We don't like what you say, so we decide to end our business with you. We don't want our infra to be used to spread opinions like yours."
- piva00 3mo agoThey could do it, some people would align with that stance, and some wouldn't. Exactly how it plays out being a customer: now we've discovered he supports a far-right party here in Sweden, I can choose to not support the CEO with my money and let others know about their political leaning to decide by themselves if they want to support him and his business aware that their money might got to far-right parties. I don't see any issue with your flipped argument, it's the same thing, no?
- yaris 3mo agoI imagine that if a company really denied a customer due to disagreement on some views there would be similar flood of comments like "my views is my problem, I pay you money you must do business with me". Maybe I'm wrong though
- omnimus 3mo agoCompanies can absolutely refuse a customer and many do. Companies will often have public rules about not doing business with weapons manufacturers or tobacco producers. They also can refuse business due to political stance. They can even give different prices to different customers.
- dijit 3mo agoAs long as its not a protected class, by the letter of the law you’re right, but we’re not discussing law: we’re discussing human response. If you were kicked off of a VPN provider (or, even a site) for financially supporting a non-proscribed political organisation: how would you talk about it.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- bill_mcgonigle 3mo agoLeft/right doesn't matter much for a no-logs VPN. Up/Down (authoritarian/libertarian) is what matters there. If he has high allegiance to the extant power structure then promises should be questioned. If he is for radical decentralization and antiwar then I'm more likely to trust promises made about privacy and autonomy. Then there's international confusion about left/right. Scandinavia is known as a good place to run a business because businesses regulation is much lighter than places like the US which are heavily regulated. In the US business regulation is "left wing" in Scandinavia it's "right wing". We'd use a 14-dimensional vector for political positioning if we wanted to be studious but most folks are just looking for a friend/enemy distinction. Even many of the comments here looking to dump a well-regarded service if either "tastes great" or "less filling" is confirmed. The false dialectic as means of control and all that jazz.
- DrProtic 3mo ago[flagged]
- mattrighetti 3mo agoI use Mullvad because it physically prevents anyone from logging my data. What a co-owner does with his personal money in a local Swedish municipal election has zero impact on the code protecting my traffic. Did a quick research - calling a party that campaigns for a 30-hour work week and socialist dental care 'far-right' just because they have a strict immigration policy shows how carelessly people throw labels around these days.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- microgpt 3mo agoHow does it physically prevent Mullvad from logging your data?
- mattrighetti 3mo agoThey're known to run everything in RAM, nothing gets stored. You pull the plug and everything is gone. Of course, you have to trust the company on that.
- microgpt 3mo agoSo nothing prevents them
- mattrighetti 3mo agoBy that logic, nothing prevents your ISP, your OS, or your hardware manufacturer from logging you either. Ultimate trust is an illusion in tech.
- microgpt 3mo agoCorrect and we know several of these parties do log you.
- 3mo ago
- iamnothere 3mo ago[flagged]
- rationalist 3mo agoIt seems like there is someone or some group, that doesn't want people using the best VPN available.
- henior 3mo agoThis is like the third duplicate I saw in a week
- Molitor5901 3mo agoAren't far-right parties opposed to government control and censorship? Ideally a provider should be politically neutral, but I'm wondering if it's preferable to have one that is opposed to government control and censorship.
- pseudalopex 3mo ago> Aren't far-right parties opposed to government control and censorship? Not more consistently than other parties.
- lmc 3mo ago> Aren't far-right parties opposed to government control and censorship? They say they are, but their behaviour once they get into power suggests otherwise.
- Shortness8 3mo agoSome commentary here: https://korben.info/en/mullvad-cofounder-funding-far-right.html https://korben.info/en/mullvad-cofounder-funding-far-right.h... Daniel Berntsson is still involved with Mullvad and part-owns Mullvad's parent company with his co-founder.
- reassess_blind 3mo agoThat article calls the party far-right, which for US based readers will imply they have the same ideology and policies as the US “far-right” concepts. Is that actually the case? I’m not familiar with this party, and it’s difficult to get a grasp on whether they are Nazi-level pure evil, or an otherwise reasonable party with stricter views on immigration policy.
- flanked-evergl 3mo ago[flagged]
- bigyabai 3mo agoJust a friendly warning from an American; surveilling you is a bipartisan effort.
- devindotcom 3mo agoI understand Mullvad has historically been a leader in privacy among the big VPN options. What are some other equally affordable and user friendly options that you all have been satisfied with? Think for someone who saw Mullvad advertised during the Super Bowl but looking to leave because of this news.
- cassianoleal 3mo agoI've been quite satisfied with AirVPN [0]. [0] https://airvpn.org/ https://airvpn.org/
- khriss 3mo ago+1 on AirVPN. They are amongst the handful of companies which successfully resisted the war on torrenting (targeting VPNs that allowed persistent ports) and still allow for port reservation. Mullvad, like most other VPNs gave in in the end and removed port reservations.
- microgpt 3mo agoI wonder how AirVPN doesn't run out of ports since you reserve a static port number across all nodes (which is also a fingerprint). They seem to be almost all allocated. Do they just plan to never have more than 64512 customers?
- khriss 3mo agoI believe the ports reservation is tied to a specific node, not globally. The config is via a Wireguard config file you download.
- leumon 3mo agoivpn
- Insanity 3mo agoI haven’t used Mullvad, so can’t say how it compares to ProtonVPN but I’m happy with Proton. It is super easy to set up, even on Linux and iOS devices.
- spockz 3mo agoIs it so hard to imagine that someone willing to take such a principled stance on privacy that they start a company to provide a privacy focused vpn company that they also hold other extreme views? It takes a certain kind of personality to become a founder especially more do for such a strongly principled company and adhere to it.
- distracted_boy 3mo agoThis comment reminds me of Sweden < 2015, where any critique of immigration labeled you as a supporter of the Swedish Democrats (SD) and possibly a Nazi.
- bigyabai 3mo agoMullvad's principle was that they protected speech. It wasn't a political imperative, and they enjoyed business from all sides of the political aisle perusing this product. Now the apolitical appeal is fading. It's not hard to understand why VPNs, one of the most commodified businesses on the internet, struggle to find customers without that kind of niche reputation that Mullvad once had.
- rwyinuse 3mo agoWhat counts as an "extreme view" is relative. If my country had seen such a surge in gang violence as Sweden has, I too would support mass deportations of migrants with a criminal record, and much harsher migration policy. It's not that extreme of a stance considering how bad the situation has got in Sweden. I don't want to live in a society where teenagers are regularly hired as hitmen and shootings & explosions are a weekly, if not daily thing.
- olelele 3mo agoFor real tho, I think the current crime wave has more to do with power struggles in the drug market than anything else. Sweden has had terrible integration policies coupled w segregating all immigrants in the suburbs. The drug consumption of everyday Swedes is fueling the crime wave. Cocaine consumption is at an all time high. The former prime ministers son was caught w coke at home. But only the marginalized are penalized for it and forced to work supplying the rich inner city kids who get off the hook..
- ai_slop_hater 3mo ago[flagged]
- winstonwinston 3mo agoWhen it is about paying money for a commercial service I think it is valid point to vote with your wallet. Otherwise if it was a free service, it would not really matter as the whole VPN provider industry is dubious and comes down to the same tech stack and outcome.
- roelschroeven 3mo agoBoth far-right and far-left are bad, and often in many ways actually quite close to each other.
- selectively 3mo ago[dead]
- hackinthebochs 3mo ago[flagged]
- everfrustrated 3mo ago[flagged]
- tekla 3mo agoAlready had this topic discussed several times this week.
- arjie 3mo agoI wonder, if you model political positions as nations, whether trading benefits you all or whether autarky leads to long term relevance.
- BitWiseVibe 3mo ago[flagged]
- culi 3mo agoWhat are some other ways they've been known to be "right-adjacent"? The Örebro Party in question actually split from the Left Party and describes itself as leftwing. The founder describes himself as a Marxist. > While Allard has described himself as a Communist, and a Marxist, at its founding in March 2014 he defined the Örebro Party as "broad left". At that time the party considered itself a "local party that wants to carry on the labour movement's ideals", and "not interested in administrating the current society".
- lyu07282 3mo agoForced mass deportation of immigrants and anyone not ethnically swedish (= dark skin) even if they are citizens, as well as calling anyone using social safety nets parasites, is just your standard far-right racist populism. There is zero class consciousness if you throw the weakest people with the least influence in society under the bus for your populism. It's almost definitionally entirely the opposite of Marxism, since that's precisely about recognizing social conflicts caused by things like immigration and poverty as a bourgeoisie plot to divide the working class, to deflect it away from the actual problem. That's why rich people donate to far-right parties in the first place, it's in their class interest to do so.
- jceg 3mo ago[flagged]
- DetroitThrow 3mo agoHe's entitled to his political views and just as we're entitled to potentially use or not use his service because of them :) Not sure why it's such an issue to discuss the political views of the beneficiaries of services we use. I understand it's mostly uninteresting as far as comment sections go, but it's always bizarre to see a defense of political association when often the impetus for sharing this type of information is for people/consumers to exercise their right to associate with business based on their political outlook.
- well_ackshually 3mo ago[flagged]
- lokar 3mo agoIf we are going to allow elites to gather vast fortunes avoiding fair tax, and then use that wealth to exercise outsized influence on politics, it’s fair for consumers to factor this into how they spend their money.
- iamnothere 3mo agoNotice how these people almost never go after the management of major multinationals, or even places like car dealerships and real estate firms. It’s almost always companies and projects that are critical to freedom and privacy. That should tell you all you need to know.
- dbl000 3mo agoA bit naive, but I'd guess that privacy supporting projects might tend to attract people on the political extreme so you see people are more passionate about this? The average person who wants (or sells) a car probably doesn't have many strong feels on politics. The average person who goes out of their way to be to buy a specific privacy focused VPN is probably a bit more in tune politically and likely to have stronger feelings.
- bingemaker 3mo ago[flagged]
- daneel_w 3mo ago[flagged]
- mrhottakes 3mo agoPolitics is how a society organizes itself. That seems relevant to a message board that discusses society and technology.
- jubilee33 3mo agoMullvad has always been a bit suspect with regard to their settings or lack their of, however what are you trying to insinuate? That founders are not political? That one "wing" of some hypothetical bird is in some way disconnected from its mirror wing? Regardless making something such as a VPN is and has been commoditiezed in current year to such an extent that whatever may be your motives, you can only do good by encouraging the userbase to not pay for said services.
- TZubiri 3mo agoThe mechanism of VPN is pooling together many users and making them indistinguishable to the outside, providing plausible deniability. Outsiders can see a user belongs to the pool, but they can't tell if they are 'good' or 'bad'. It's a similar mechanism that cryptocurrency, or money laundering uses. It's very possible for 'good' users to be recruited into the pool for no other reason than to provide plausible deniability for the 'bad' members. If I wanted to run an ilegal operation like cybercrime or drugs, I would probably use a VPN and a crypto pool, and try to get legitimate users to desire using VPNs for reasons like gaming latency, or avoiding taxes on 1K/month income. It's well known that Mullvad provides lower than market prices when compared to competitors, and that they offer stricter no logs policies. Yeah, maybe they are providing a basic privacy right, or maybe they are providing shelter for criminals. Tradeoff old as time. But with prices possibly being subsidized, it makes sense that their incentive model is not to collect fees for usage, but to provide a wide enough user pool such that the anonimity is more effective. What's interesting is that both far-right free-market anarchist users and far-left Not for profit Free Software socialists appear to be shocked that their anonimity pools contains them both. Kind of like how the lights went up at the club at 6 am and you realize who you've been smooching in the dark.
- culi 3mo ago> far-right free-market anarchist There's no such thing as rightwing anarchism. In the entire history of anarchism, it's always been a strictly and explicitly leftwing movement.
- TZubiri 3mo agoI know what type of anarchism you are referring to, spray paint a circled A, live in a farm, free love anarchy. but what about free market capitalism, anarcho capitalism, the austrian economic school, the chicago boys, Milton Friedman, Javier Milei..
- culi 3mo agoYou just named the fathers of neoliberalism. Perhaps you can start here if you're actually interested in anarchism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_anarchism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_anarchism Anarchism is David Graeber, mutual aid, Makhnovshchina, The Conquest of Bread, Zapatistas, Rojava, James C Scott, the Mexican Revolution, the IWW, etc. You will not find "anarcho-capitalism" on the Anarchist Library because it has absolutely nothing to do with the Anarchist tradition. It's a total neologism and misnomer. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/special/index https://theanarchistlibrary.org/special/index Anarchism has always been explicitly and critically opposed to capitalism and capitalists (literally often assassinating them) and market-driven hierarchies
- drbscl 3mo agoWikipedia of the party in question: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96rebro_Party# https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96rebro_Party# Doesn't really sound all that far-right to me. Nationalist, sure. I'm not Swedish though, so I would be interested in the thoughts of those who are actually affected by Örebropartiet's policies.
- ZeroGravitas 3mo agoSpot the odd one out: > Some of its key issues include lowered wages for politicians, ending the tax payer funding of various sculptures, monuments and art, large scale remigration, a stricter immigration policy, and free dental care.
- throwitaway222 3mo ago[flagged]
- pesus 3mo agoSource that every single left wing party in the 90s wanted to get rid of every single person of a non-white background?
- throwitaway222 3mo ago[flagged]
- pesus 3mo ago[flagged]
- throwitaway222 3mo ago[flagged]
- redlewel 3mo ago[flagged]
- thepaulmcbride 3mo agoThere are literally dozens of us that either live outside the US or are from other countries
- daneel_w 3mo ago[flagged]
- thepaulmcbride 3mo agoSure you can. This is kind of like not voting and lots of people live their life like that. However, if people use their ability to shape and influence the world by voting with your ballot as well as their wallet I think that is equally valid.
- dgellow 3mo agoThere are other VPN providers, I can still use the tech, but I will for sure not give my money to a company whose owners support racist policies
- aoshifo 3mo agoNo I cannot. When my money is being used to sow hatred and division in the world, I will take my money elsewhere. Unfortunately, the list of unusable services is growing by the day. But to me standing up for what I believe in is more important than the convenience of using a good service.
- woodruffw 3mo agoGiven that VPN services are essentially an unalloyed commodity, the only differentiator they can provide is their politics. Mullvad has made this a loud and clear part of their branding (again, because they’re selling a commodity), so to me this seems like a pretty natural counterpart to their business strategy. In other words: if you use politics to differentiate yourself in a market that lacks natural differentiation, you probably shouldn’t be surprised when your consumers have opinions about your politics. Especially when those politics are, at least on their face, noxious.
- culi 3mo agoThe Örebro Party (Örebropartiet) split from the socialist Left Party in 2014. Some of its key issues include lowered wages for politicians, ending the tax payer funding of various sculptures, monuments and art, large scale remigration, a stricter immigration policy, and free dental care. > While Allard has described himself as a Communist, and a Marxist, at its founding in March 2014 he defined the Örebro Party as "broad left". At that time the party considered itself a "local party that wants to carry on the labour movement's ideals", and "not interested in administrating the current society". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96rebro_Party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96rebro_Party
- rvz 3mo agoStill waiting to cancel Big Tech for donating to Trump [0] and they donated more than a million+. So why haven't we cancelled Big Tech yet? [0] https://www.commoncause.org/articles/big-tech-is-donating-millions-to-trumps-inauguration/ https://www.commoncause.org/articles/big-tech-is-donating-mi...
- daneel_w 3mo agoTo the people using Mullvad I have two sincere and unpopular questions: do you actively scrutinize and examine the key people of every service and product you use, or is it just a reflexive change of footing whenever you happen upon news like this? Also, do you really switch, or is it just a heat of moment kind of thing and an opportunity to profess yourself?
- mrhottakes 3mo ago[flagged]
- anthonyrstevens 3mo ago[flagged]
- mrhottakes 3mo ago[flagged]
- daneel_w 3mo ago[flagged]
- anthonyrstevens 3mo ago[flagged]
- bix6 3mo agoIf alternatives exist some of us are willing to make changes to not support the worst of the worst when their behavior is revealed. I used to like Musk, now I see Tesla and am disgusted. Maybe he was always like this but the personal line for me was the salutes. I’m sure many others have lines as well.
- daneel_w 3mo agoHow do you know the political party of the story is "the worst of the worst"? You don't.
- dang 3mo agoThere have been multiple posts about this and hundreds of comments, so there is clearly appetite to discuss it, although none of the submitted links have been very detailed. I've merged the other threads into this one, so you'll see some anachronistic timestamps below.
- sph 3mo agoThe post linked has been removed, so I don't know what more we can speculate upon, 650+ comments in. It's strange to see HN mods allow this much attention to a political, and contentious issue.
- irthomasthomas 3mo agoThe comment from the other Mullvad founder is here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48696800 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48696800
- dang 3mo agoWhat has been removed? The links I saw didn't have much information but as far as I can tell they're still up. From an HN point of view the idea is to give the discussion a place, since the community obviously wants to have it.
- sph 3mo agoThe Mastodon post itself. I get a 404 error. It was fine when this reached the frontpage yesterday or when was it. Looks like the author deleted it. EDIT: nvm it's rate limited
- naturalmovement 3mo ago> From an HN point of view the idea is to give the discussion a place, since the community obviously wants to have it So where do you draw the line? Just this week I saw multiple offtopic Epstein schizoposts by 10+ year old accounts that were alternately flagged and vouched. Should we allow that too? My takeaway is this is a highly politically charged rant on a niche social media site — exactly the kind of discussion we're meant to avoid. Things are rotten below ground and you give an inch, they'll want a mile.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- emsign 3mo ago[flagged]
- addedGone 3mo ago"a racist", you haven't even read anything, that's straight defamation and a dumb take. And let's play along, why can't you trust a racist with your privacy?
- emsign 3mo ago> why can't you trust a racist with your privacy? Isn't it obvious? They might use that data against you. Even asking such a naive question raises an eyebrow.
- addedGone 3mo agoUse what data? I literally don't see the correlation with trust and racism. Can you be clear on the kind of data a "racist VPN owner" could use against me?
- emsign 3mo agoYour IP if you visit websites that identify you as anti-racist or non-white. Then give that IP to a racist government like in the US. Trump denoted Antifa as terrorists for example.
- addedGone 3mo agoSo you are saying that Mullvad founder would basically actively log people that are NOT racist and send that to the US gov, yes? Makes total sense.
- a34729t 3mo ago[flagged]
- guerrilla 3mo agoIt doesn't take much purity to not be a fascist.
- pesus 3mo agoApparently that's asking too much of people these days, if the not at all suspicious flood of comments defending ethnic cleansing is any indication.
- al_borland 3mo agoPeople who engage in these antics would quickly find that there isn’t a single company where all the employees align with all their values. They would then either need to accept their hypocrisy or reject society completely to live in the forest somewhere.
- wepple 3mo agoI think that’s the point
- well_ackshually 3mo agoRevealing that capital is catastrophically misallocated to people whose deep desires are to inflict suffering on others? Oh no, please don't do it, that would be terrible. We could almost figure out a solution to this capital problem. Maybe something involving a common ownership and a sense of class. The one time HN is accelerationist in the right one. Be proud, comrade, you're making the world better even if you don't know it
- drptech 3mo ago[dead]
- pesus 3mo ago
- rglover 3mo ago[flagged]
- pesus 3mo agoIt's not a "witch hunt" to be against ethnic cleansing and not want to financially support that.
- lancebeet 3mo agoI've never really gotten the impression that Allard or the Örebro party support ethnic cleansing. What makes you say this? I'm not sure if any of their suggested policies would even be considered that controversial outside of Sweden.
- actionfromafar 3mo agoHello MAGA.
- Dylan16807 3mo agoAn important part of making "vote with your wallet" work is that people need an awareness of what their wallet is voting on. Telling people not to talk about problems with companies lets companies get away with way too much.
- dmantis 3mo agoSuch a convenient time frame with all think-of-the-children bs wave to point fingers at the one of the best VPN services our there with spotless reputation and raise a hysteria with duplicated stream of posts, isn't it? Surely just a coincidence.
- deaux 3mo agoSad that I had to scroll down so far to see someone pointing this out. This is the least organic comment section I've ever seen on HN. Also very convenient that the manner of moderation has kept this on the front page for most of 3 days, quite unheard of.
- seethishat 3mo agoI pay for and use Mullvad VPN. I believe they value everyone's privacy and I believe they are competent technologists. I don't care about politics. I will continue to buy and use Mullvad VPN.
- deejaaymac 3mo agoAgreed. I use mullvad because I believe they are the best off the shelf choice. If I stopped using things because of the owners opinions, then I'd live in a cave.
- devindotcom 3mo agoyou value privacy, but you don't think privacy is a political topic? VPNs, encryption, and other privacy tools are regularly under attack or protected by legislation and policy that is actively debated and lobbied for. I think that you do care about politics, you just don't care about this particular topic or policy. That's your prerogative of course, but don't pretend you are wholly above the fray. I suspect if a company's founder had donated millions to a party aiming to mandate backdoored encryption you would suddenly find yourself to be a very political person.
- yunnpp 3mo agoAnd what does that have to do with the guy leaning right? He runs a VPN. If you care about privacy, that should be sufficient to support it, his other opinions aside.
- himata4113 3mo agoI think this is more nuanced than this article or mullvad themselves present it as. What you give to mullvad as a form of payment will end up in the pockets of the funding members which allows them to make relatively large political donations, but it's also not as deep as presented. What gets seemingly glossed over how involved large companies are in pushing parties like orebro into relevancy. As a basic example, youtube started pushing a LOT of anti-immigrant videos. I never watched them since after few minutes it's obvious that it is clear ragebait, but I keep getting them recommended without showing any interest in them and they're all clocking in anywhere from 300k to millions of views. There is virtually no way to resist the temptation of being anti-immigrant/racist/whatnot when you see abusive behavior exploiting the good will of the european union especially when there is state level abuse to extract additional funding from the shared support pool. This being extremely unpopular gives motivation to keep all of this under wraps as much as possible which only fuels the fire when "information" is made available on social media platforms where you benefit from blowing this out of proportion and then if you try to question it you are labeled which naturally breeds resentment. -- Scrolled for few minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6-zhxpNsVQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6-zhxpNsVQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARKZMX4iGZ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARKZMX4iGZ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmlI4ICp-OI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmlI4ICp-OI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX-IKLSFH_I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX-IKLSFH_I
- hagbard_c 3mo agoOh yes, sure, the party started by avowed Marxist Markus Allard is 'far-right'. For those who can read (or know how to translate) Swedish here's an article [1] on marxist.se - well-known hidey hole for far-right extremists - on how the expulsion of Markus Allard from the communist party (they call themselves 'the left party' but they're one of several communist parties in Sweden) is an 'attack on the left'. Allard is a traditional leftie, someone who thinks in terms of class struggle and power to the people. He also happens to be rather outspoken about the failure of Swedish parties on all sides to handle the problems related to the excessive migration Sweden and Europe have been dealing with for the last few decades. This has put a target on his back for the everyone-I-don't-agree-with-is-Hitler crowd so his party is of course 'far-right'. Well, if that is what 'far-right' means it doesn't seem all that problematic so I wonder why people always complain so much about the claimed rise of the 'far-right'. See what that leads to, you obsessive labellers of those who dare to question the desired narrative? When everything is far-right the term has lost its meaning just as claims of 'racism' or '*-phobia' have lost theirs. [1] https://marxist.se/uteslutningen-av-allard-en-attack-mot-vanstern/ https://marxist.se/uteslutningen-av-allard-en-attack-mot-van...
- dsign 3mo agoSlightly tangential on Swedish society, there are similarities between USA and Sweden. There's a large segment of society that is white and very blond, and there's a largish segment which is not. Along that same line there are all kinds of divisions: economic, education, religious, sets of values, and of access to things and possibilities. What pisses me off is that the cast of "CEOs of successful companies" live in an sphere of privilege where they really are not bothered at all by the brown people. They in fact have plenty of places to go, a vast archipelago, out of reach for anybody who can't afford a boat. Though they get all the benefits, including cheap qualified labor from people who had to leave their homelands displaced by poverty, conflict and war. I'll switch VPN provider too. One of these days we will elect somebody who is corrupt and morally corrupt, incompetent and poorly educated and who'll promise to screw us over many times and in many positions, and we will let him just do so so that there are concentration camps for the brown people.
- hottakeoftoday 3mo ago[flagged]
- InsideOutSanta 3mo agoIf you think about what you said for just a second, you'll realize that, even ignoring how off-putting it is, it makes absolutely no logical sense.
- microgpt 3mo ago[flagged]
- hagbard_c 3mo agoWhy do 'pro-remigration opinions' make no logical sense? They very much do for those people who: - categorically refuse to assimilate or integrate into the host country's culture - refuse to learn the language(s) of the host country - ...which makes these people unemployable other than in government services dealing with other people from their own cultural and linguistic area - ...which makes them a burden on their host societies - ...not to mention the group of people who just refuse to accept employment because they get so much welfare from the state and local council that they don't see the need to do so (which goes against the culture of working when you can so that those who really can not work can be supported by those who can and do, the original concept of generous welfare states like Sweden) When I moved to Sweden I did a few things, on my own accord and at my own cost. I bought a box of second-hand books (dirt cheap at Red Cross shops) including an encyclopedia, I started listening to Swedish radio and I enrolled myself in a Swedish language course at the open university. Within a few months I understood most of what I heard on the radio, I could speak well enough Swedish to not have to switch to English every third sentence and I had finished the box of books including the encyclopedia. I volunteered at the 'vägförening' (private road community, something you get to deal with when living in the countryside where the communal road network has not penetrated), volunteered as a swimming instructor at the local swimming school, help my neighbours fixing their tractors and other agricultural implements while borrowing some of theirs, etc. I still do things differently from the average Swede, e.g. I'm more likely to speak my mind and less wont to avoid conflicts. If I had moved to Canada as I originally planned I'd have done the same (i.e. I'd have learned better French than I currently speak) and I'd have assimilated mostly into that culture while keeping some of my specific cultural traits. Had I moved to, say, Hungary or Finland I'd probably have had a bit more trouble learning the language but that'd only have added a few months to the process. When in Rome, act as the Romans. When in Sweden, act as the Swedes. If you insist on antagonising them by acting very much unlike them, by refusing to learn their language while abusing the overly generous welfare system for years it should not surprise anyone that people start calling your bluff.
- duncangh 3mo agoWhy doesn’t Apple just make a built in iOS native vpn that can be toggled (effectively) from the swipe down menu control and is paid monthly or part of iCloud
- srik 3mo agoI doubt they’ll go beyond the currently bundled Safari iCloud Private Relay, which I quite appreciate actually.
- VortexLain 3mo agoAnd which they disable in any country with significant internet censorship, where having a VPN actually matters.
- srik 3mo agoI believe their motivation leans towards tackling advertising based exploitation.
- honeybadger1 3mo agoSigh, people that bring politics to the forefront with everything are so miserable.
- tamimio 3mo agoWelp, that vanishes my support for mullvad, despite I did recommend it to many of my friends who doesn’t want/can setup their own. Im not against people having different political opinions, I personally agree with things from each side and disagree with them both too on other matters, plus having my own third option that doesn’t fit any side. But I am certainly against a company marketing itself as a “defender of personal and human rights and freedom”, yet they are sponsoring a party that obviously doesn’t hold these values, this company will report individuals in the future to deport them maybe, 5 years later they are reporting others for disagreeing with whatever agenda that party is having, it’s always a slippery slope, never think it will end at xyz and that’s it. Goddammit it’s like companies are ALWAYS destined to turn to evil one way or another, it’s just how long it will take is the question. It’s a reminder that you should always host your own, trust nobody, none.
- kfreds 3mo ago> But I am certainly against a company marketing itself as a “defender of personal and human rights and freedom”, yet they are sponsoring a party that obviously doesn’t hold these values No. Daniel made this donation privately. I own and lead the company too. Both I and several of my colleagues don't like that Daniel made this donation. You are misrepresenting the facts. > this company will report individuals in the future to deport them maybe, 5 years later they are reporting others for disagreeing with whatever agenda that party is having, it’s always a slippery slope, never think it will end at xyz and that’s it. You can choose to believe that, but it doesn't make it true. > Goddammit it’s like companies are ALWAYS destined to turn to evil one way or another, it’s just how long it will take is the question. It’s a reminder that you should always host your own, trust nobody, none. I'm sorry you hold this world-view.
- aleda145 3mo agoÖrebropartiet is like the weirdest party in Sweden. It's named after "Örebro", a Swedish city with 125k population. The party's founder, Markus Allard, used to be far left politician before turning far right. Their party program is all over the place. They stand for free dental care, direct democracy and deporting immigrants. Marcus is also known for profanity and foul language in council meetings. An oddity in Swedish politics is that if a local party manages to get 12% of the votes in a constituency they are eligible for getting a seat in parliament, and can skip the regular 4% popular vote rule. Örebropartiet actually has a chance to get into national government next election (Fall 2026) since their local support is quite strong. Times are weird
- hnarn 3mo ago> Markus Allard, used to be far left politician before turning far right. Less weird than you might think, Mussolini was one of the most prominent socialists in Italy before turning fascist.
- khurs 3mo agoA big question I suppose is what Mozilla are going to do in reaction? As Mozilla VPN is white labelled Mulvad I think
- subarctic 3mo agoThey already ousted their own ceo over a political contribution so I'd imagine they'd do something here too, sadly
- pipes 3mo agoThis "far right" slur on any party that is anti immigration makes me immediately suspect this party probably isn't far right. It's a shame, because real racist extremists/nazis benefit from this lumping together of legitimate concern about immigration and actual Nazis.
- aoshifo 3mo ago[flagged]
- daneel_w 3mo agoWhat if the focus of their pro-remigration stance is families deemed impossible to integrate due to their persisting criminal activities and rejection of functional societal norms? Because that's the exact demographic this one policy of that party is concerned with.
- tumetab1 3mo ago> Being anti-immigration in a country that is shrinking is just stupid. No, it's not.
- anukin 3mo agoIt’s a far left party based on what I read online. Their only right wing stance seems to be on immigration
- alecco 3mo ago[flagged]
- qweqwe14 3mo ago[flagged]
- actionfromafar 3mo agoYeah, that must be it. No other possible explanation.
- qweqwe14 3mo ago[flagged]
- actionfromafar 3mo agoIt must be frustrating to have so many idiots around you.
- qweqwe14 3mo ago[flagged]
- yunnpp 3mo ago[flagged]
- microgpt 3mo ago[flagged]
- iamnothere 3mo agoLove all the Godwinning in this thread, it just shows normal people how ridiculous it all is. (By the way: I doubt most privacy advocates care much about this. Those of us who travel in the underground are used to running into not-so-great people, many of whom seem to do way worse things than donating to political parties! But feel free to expend more resources on your campaign.)
- chrisvalleybay 3mo agoIf you know that he will spend his money in support of that party, and you still buy services from him, you are helping him promote whatever views he holds. As simple as that. There is no cop out.
- distracted_boy 3mo ago[flagged]
- OrvalWintermute 3mo agoSeems to be intentionally defamatory From the Wikipedia article on the Orebro party “ Split from the left The initiative to found the Örebro Party was taken in early 2014 by Markus Allard, who is also the first party leader. Allard had previously held positions as substitute member of the Örebro municipal council and district chairman of the Young Left in Örebro; in December 2013 he was expelled from the Left Party and its youth wing Young Left for "liking" the Revolutionary Front, a militant revolutionary socialist and anti-fascist organization, on Facebook and refusing to disavow it when questioned.[6] Allard has stated that the real reason for his expulsion was that he was perceived as a threat to the established party bureaucracy.[7][8] While Allard has described himself as a Communist,[9] and a Marxist,[8][10] at its founding in March 2014 he defined the Örebro Party as "broad left".[9] At that time the party considered itself a "local party that wants to carry on the labour movement's ideals", and "not interested in administrating the current society".[11]” Colours: Red Black This sounds like a socialist, anarchist or Ancap group that believes in borders
- NoImmatureAdHom 3mo agoMullvad does an excellent job, and I support them.
- kfreds 3mo agoThank you.
- NoImmatureAdHom 3mo agoI get that this is in the news (or at least the nerd news), but really...do y'all canvass the companies you buy things from, figure out on net who the people who work for them support in politics, ask whether that's what you like, and move your business around based on that? It seems crazy to me. Part and parcel of having a pluralistic society is that we treat each other the same in public-facing parts of life without regard for stuff like sex, political positions, etc. You gonna refuse to accept mail from the postman who supports something you don't like? What about the ice cream shop?
- OkayPhysicist 3mo agoThis guy isn't just the CEO (someone who "works for them"), it's a cofounder with 50% ownership. Personally, I avoid buying anything from the KKK bake sale.
- NoImmatureAdHom 2mo agoThat's a pretty unfair read in my opinion. Whatever the Mullvad guy supports (it is...a bit difficult for me to understand), it isn't the KKK. It isn't even close to the KKK. Not comparable. And he owns half the company, which means he has a lot of control...but the company is much more than ownership. It employs a lot of people and does a lot of good work. The good work it does is totally unrelated to the guy's political leanings. Whereas, a KKK bake sale is by and for the KKK. You buy muffin, $ from muffin less muffin costs --> KKK.
- Aachen 3mo agoI don't know the verb canvassing (I'm not a native speaker) but assuming you mean something like vetting each company I buy from: that seems impossible. One can only do so much. Seems important to do what you can, though. I could understand the viewpoint that this person's earned money is theirs to spend; I can also understand people that don't want to fund this and are happy to have heard of it (even if the damage has been done now) The argument, if I've understood it correctly, sounds a bit like the common pattern of asking someone who tries to buy ethical products whether they're impeccable/perfect themselves. Like asking someone who is in favor of a local wind turbine whether they've ever flown or such. You can only do so much as an average individual
- negergreger 3mo agoNice to see some tech leadership with strong moral fibre. I'll definitely renew with mullvad too in the future.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- simultsop 3mo agoIt is a trend now, loby your way to lawmaking. Then set the laws as you need. No surprises.
- eudamoniac 3mo agoWhy are leftists so histrionic? If we had a thread made every time an executive espoused far left opinions we'd overload the HN servers. Why is an executive being far right even news?
- iamnothere 3mo agoBecause their puppeteers know exactly what buttons to push when they need a good smear campaign. (And because lumpens despise the pro-labor left.)
- sph 3mo agoI am leftist [1]. It’s not a coincidence that leftist groups in the world always devolve to infighting and splintering, while right-wing parties have no issue getting their radical ideas through because they don’t spend all their energy deciding who is part of the ingroup and who should be cancelled for wrongthink. 1: this is why I don’t usually label myself as such, as I am aware that the world is more complex than red and blue thinking.
- CheeryBaker 3mo agoFredrik, I just wanted you to know that while I dont support Daniels views, I believe you guys at Mullvad are doing the right thing. I despise cancel culture, but I understand people want to "vote with their wallet" . I will be staying a Mullvad customer.
- fakeBeerDrinker 3mo agoThis is great news. New Mullvad subscriber here!
- justicehunter 3mo agoDoes not feel good to support such a cause. Will cancel mine and give ivpn a go. It really is a shame, I was happy with mullvad and their mission. I just wouldn't sleep well if I kept using it
- kfreds 3mo agoI'm sorry to hear that. Thank you for the compliment. Good luck.
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- teravor 3mo agomullvad's mistake was to respond. it's all universally performative, the only reason it elicits reactions (1000+ comments here) when the view of a megacorp don't is because people anticipate the ability to elicit a response from a smaller company like mullvad. rule number one: ignore any and all political controversies, don't respond in any way. deviation is nearly always punished. unless it's part of some PR campaign with a side-risk of backfire.
- bigyabai 3mo agoMullvad did not respond, as far as I'm aware. One of the owners has chimed in with their opinion, but I have not seen any official acknowledgement from Mullvad, the business entity.
- deaux 3mo ago> mullvad's mistake was to respond. it's all universally performative, the only reason it elicits reactions (1000+ comments here) when the view of a megacorp don't is because people anticipate the ability to elicit a response from a smaller company like mullvad. You're underestimating the large influence of paid actors/FUD here. It's no coincidence that in this very thread, normally supposedly intelligent people conveniently forget that about half the companies they buy stuff from have blatant MAGA-like CEOs. HN didn't suddenly suffer from a 20 point IQ drop.
- rwyinuse 3mo agoThe party seems to have some bizarre policies, but on migration can't really blame them considering how badly Sweden has failed to integrate humanitarian migrants. There is so much gang violence, so many people of migrant background marginalized and living on welfare without any hope of a better future. I will gladly continue buying from Mullvad. There is nothing wrong with forced deportations. Without them anyone can come, claim asylum, and stay indefinitely if their country of origin doesn't want them back. That is simply idiotic waste of tax payer's money, and in case of criminals, also a hazard to public safety. Pretty much every Western European country does forced deportations, especially those of criminals.
- jrflowers 3mo ago> takes inspiration from marxist ideology[42] 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 lmao This is like the song Tequila by The Champs but instead of a long instrumental it’s John Galt’s speech and instead of “Tequila!” it’s “Marxism!” https://youtube.com/watch?v=U_JFLb1IItM https://youtube.com/watch?v=U_JFLb1IItM It is amazing that if you say “Marxist” after any possible combination of words some people will go “oh wow that is leftism” Utter gibberish, like a picture of Ayn Rand wearing an ironic Hugo Chavez shirt.
- yeah879846 3mo ago[dead]
- dzonga 3mo agolack of nuance in human affairs - is what ends up killing these conversations & making them explosive.
- brachkow 3mo agoMullvad does more for internet privacy than any other company. There are a lot of people saying that they will not use Mullvad anymore. What are they going to do? Support ExpressVPN or some spyware VPN with unknown owners? To achieve what – reduce the roster of companies fighting for a free internet to 0? Remember, currently individuals elected by you, from parties ranging from goodest to kindest, are voting for passport internet and chat control, with little to no well-funded opposition. I dislike that Mozilla is spending their money sponsoring random political organizations while asking for money here and there. I dislike that EFF is sometimes busy with American politics more than internet freedoms, and I dislike that Alexandra Elbakyan believes in some kind of esoteric stalinism. But despite all that, I still support all of them! Because they are doing good things that nobody else does. There is a "what kind of American are you" meme that is usually applied to people who have zero tolerance for people with different political views. Of course, it applies only to evil people??? No! If you think that "canceling" organizations on the matter that their leadership is kinda suspected of maybe supporting something that doesn't 100% align with your last ballot is a good deed, this meme is actually about you!
- deaux 3mo ago> Mullvad does more for internet privacy than any other company. There are a lot of people saying that they will not use Mullvad anymore. What are they going to do? Support ExpressVPN or some spyware VPN with unknown owners? To achieve what – reduce the roster of companies fighting for a free internet to 0? Exactly. This blatantly obvious fact being conveniently ignored by hundreds of comments here, is not organic.
- _blk 3mo agoBut that Bill Gates [Foundation] is a larger sponsor to WHO than all nations short of the US (at least prior to the currently elected govt) wouldn't dare making the news this far left into the interwebs... Just sayin' - figured I'd invest a few karma points into self reflection ;) love y'all
- 999900000999 3mo agoOnce I meet a Swedish girl whose parents were from XYZ. She went on a rant on how new refugees from XYZ were ruining everything. That’s the immigration debate in most of the world. The moment a new immigrant gets their citizenship they often feel they’re the last good one and all pathways need to be shutdown. I’ll switch to a different vpn. It’s one thing to donate a nominal amount as a private citizen. It’s a whole different matter to be the primary source of funding.
- skjoldr 3mo agoThis discussion is completely and irrevocably poisoned by the lack of general understanding of the distinctions between citizens, non-citizen permanent residents, legal immigrants, illegal immigrants, asylum seekers, economic immigrants, and war refugees under temporary EU protection (Ukrainians). Especially the differences between the situations in the US and the EU. This whole comment section is, sadly, full of people writing pure nonsense. Please educate yourselves on this big and important topic before posting.
- reassess_blind 3mo agoGiven your understanding on these topics, can you give your opinion on whether this party (in particular their immigration stance) is as far-right extremist as the articles claim?
- kfreds 3mo agoI disagree. This thread contains tons of empathetic people who seem to understand each other, and disagree with each other. It's a breath of fresh air. Sure, there are also some angry posters who don't seem to lean into curiosity, but together we can make them the minority.
- throwawaypath 3mo ago[flagged]
- docmars 3mo ago[flagged]
- throwawaypath 3mo agoThere's nothing wrong with promoting or protecting the interests of native or indigenous people over those of immigrants or foreigners. This is not a far-right fringe belief, though some are trying to paint it so.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 3mo agoWhere do you have documentation of this party even doing this thing? The Wikipedia entry linked elsewhere does not talk about this perspective at all
- throwawaypath 3mo agoYou reply to the wrong comment?
- MadSkull 3mo agoThe real far right are talking about melting down immigrants and using them to fill pot holes. This guy is your best blocker to this and will surely restore balance.
- sph 3mo agoI am anti-racist, son of immigrants, son of a mixed race couple, yet what scares me is the mobbing of people against other that have a different opinion than yours, as seen in this thread. Plenty saying they cannot in good conscience support Mullvad, while directly and indirectly giving money to people like Bezos, Musk or Cook, among others, or supporting politicians from both aisles, who have the power to do much worse at a greater scale. I call this hypocrisy, and it is widespread in social media driven mob mentality. Intolerance about intolerants turns you an intolerant. I like Mullvad the company, and I know that people might support politics I find despicable. Such is life outside of silly internet echo chambers.
- kfreds 3mo ago> what scares me is the mobbing of people against other that have a different opinion than yours, as seen in this thread. I am dismayed by the anti-intellectual climate in the world as well, but HN is an oasis of empathy and curiosity compared to other platforms. Look at the people I've engaged with. Many of them vehemently disagree with Daniel, and with my position. They understand it, compliment Mullvad, and say they unfortunately have to leave. That's the way political discourse should work. > Plenty saying they cannot in good conscience support Mullvad, while directly and indirectly giving money to people like Bezos, Musk or Cook, among others, or supporting politicians from both aisles, who have the power to do much worse at a greater scale. I call this hypocrisy, and it is widespread in social media driven mob mentality. Good point. We should probably be more open about how much good Mullvad has done over the years. I've been so focused on just doing stuff, and not telling people about it. > I like Mullvad the company, and I know that people might support politics I find despicable. Such is life outside of silly internet echo chambers. Thank you.
- thisislife2 3mo agoInteresting. My friends and I were recently discussing the rise of right-wing parties and leaders around the world, and we observed that many of these controversial elected leaders also have an "Anarchist" trait. These leaders have enacted policies that deliberately cause a lot of social and / or economic upheaval - bordering on anarchy - which have ultimately resulted in mass transfer of wealth from the lower classes to the rich, and widened the gap between the poor and the rich. And, unsurprisingly, many of these right-wing parties and leaders are backed billionaires (and now trillionaires). Factor in the role of BigTech and their social media platforms, that have aided their rise, it does seem like even these corporate leaders who aren't necessarily enamoured by such political ideologies still feel the need to tacitly support them because they recognise that it provides them more opportunities for capitalistic exploitation ...
- hashstring 3mo agoSo, where are we moving? Proton? Need some good recommendations!
- dumdellidum 3mo agoEveryone hating, I hope you check every company you use to make sure their political stance align with yours. No AWS or Google Cloud if you're pro-abortion, for example: "Together, Amazon, AT&T, Citigroup, Coca-Cola, Comcast, CVS, General Motors, Google, T-Mobile, Walgreens, Walmart, Wells Fargo and Verizon have spent at least $15.2 million to support anti-abortion politicians, according to publicly available political spending disclosures." from https://truthout.org/articles/companies-like-amazon-and-cvs-have-donated-millions-to-anti-abortion-politicians/ https://truthout.org/articles/companies-like-amazon-and-cvs-...
- tomburgs 3mo agoAdmittedly I had never heard of this party before, but after looking into them calling them far-right seems to be quite a leap. If you didn't know, Sweden used to be extremely welcoming to asylum seekers and refugees about a decade ago. What they got out of it were gangs, their youth being exploited to enact crimes (due to leniency towards minors), and neighborhoods that even the police doesn't dare drive through. Having a party that calls for integration and adaption to Swedish values, and at worst remigration, seems rather tame. Especially so if you just take a look across Øresund and see what's happening in Denmark.
- Parae 3mo agoYou're confusing causation and correlation. There are no links between asylum seekers, refugees and gangs, and crimes. What leads to crime is not welcoming refugees, it's leaving people on the back in a state of precariousness.
- akimbostrawman 3mo ago>There are no links between asylum seekers, refugees and gangs, and crimes. Criminal statistics and per capita would disagree
- Parae 3mo agoIt is a consensus among sociological studies. Statistics are not studies. It means nothing.
- akimbostrawman 3mo ago>Statistics are not studies. It means nothing. Hilarious. Ofc hard numbers mean nothing without a study by some leftist think tank funded by my taxes to frame the numbers in a way to make excuses.
- leereeves 3mo ago> leaving people on the back in a state of precariousness. What do you mean? Don't they benefit from Sweden's generous educational and welfare systems in addition to extra support for migrants?
- ulfw 3mo agoIt is getting almost impossible to consume media or use tech products without supporting a nazi sympathizer or supporter or downright nazi himself nowadays
- olelele 3mo agoThe Örebro Party seems similar to Bundnis Sara Wagenknecht in Germany. They are a splinter group of mostly older Linke who are anti immigrant. There is also this super weird fringe on the legit extreme left here, the Anti-deutsche antifa who are pro-Israel and islamophobic.
- cloudie78 3mo agoA question to everyone who’s cancelling their subscription over this because “my money ends up financing politics I disagree with” How many hands does the money need to pass through before it’s considered okay?
- blitzar 3mo agoFrankly I am suspicious of anyone throwing money into politics; left / centre / right. Small scale donors dont even get off without drawing my ire - finding out someone you know donated to a politician / party is like finding out they sent money to a nigerian prince to unlock their share of the inheritance.
- tremorscript 3mo agoOh no :-( but why the far right? You can sponsor sensible politics and politicians so that we get more of those. I am a very happy customer since the service is extremely very good, the vpn problem was solved and I am so sorry but the smallest amount that I pay even if it is 0.01 cent cannot go to support the far right(or the far left). Sorry. But now the problem is to find a decent vpn service that is not private equity or malware.
- bingoMen 3mo agoNo one is free until everyone is free. Daniel Berntsson is acting against freedom, he has chosen to vote for and support a party that protects only the /freedom/ of a small part of the world and seeks to “defend” it at any cost—through racism, stereotyping, and the criminalization of people fleeing exploitation and war. Europe is rich only because every corner of the world is exploited by Europe and the US. Now the tables have turned, and they want to protect what they have stolen.
- pidgeon_lover 3mo agoI will be buying a Mullvad subscription because of this. Keep up the good work! Private individuals should have the right to free speech/expression, whatever that is, and that is a value I admire this VPN company for standing up for. Too many companies pay lip service to the current political fad du jour, and it's annoying. I like an apolitical company that does its thing and doesn't pretend more.
- sergiogjr 3mo agoI thought people were paying for Mullvad for a service. "Oh, my money is going to fund a political party I disagree with". You pay for a service, and thinking you now have a say on how the service provider decides to use the money they've received is such hubris. "But instead of using the money I gave the company to buy healthy food for his kids, he chose to buy processed food. I'm out." It's sad, almost immature.
- andsoitis 3mo agoFrom the wikipedia article on the Örebro Party: "Some key issues for the Örebro Party locally include strong secularism, a 30-hour workweek with retained pay, lowered wages for politicians, expanded social housing, abolishing preschool-fees, making public transport free of charge, ending taxpayer funding of what it sees as wasteful sculptures, monuments and art and introducing free dental care. Nationally the party has set out large-scale remigration, closing the Swedish borders to immigration, a stricter assimilation policy and ending taxes on energy and fuel as some of its key issues." And the party leader has described himself as a Communist and Marxist. What makes them far-right? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Örebro_Party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Örebro_Party