When called out on it, they then doubled down on this dogshit take: https://archive.ph/quYyb
If there's a way for the rest of Proton to force him out, now would be a good time to save face.
Maybe. Can board members of a non-profit "impeach" another board member?
Not sure if they have the guts to oust its founder.
Probably not and he doesn't have the self-awareness to resign, so it's a real shame. I doubt their "mission" will change from these comments, but it leaves a sour enough taste to force people to look elsewhere, me included.
Same here, I've been with them for 5 yrs+. Change is inevitable.
I was thinking about perhaps moving things to Proton, being European and all, and touting privacy etc. Looks like that won’t happen.
I'd like to know what maga is going to do for the little guy besides more grifting.
Point at different things and try to blame what they're doing to them on it.
Here is our official response [...] the reality is that Republicans remain more likely to tackle Big Tech abuses.
lol
how? explain how you even come to that conclusion. big tech is running the republicans!
I'm thinking that they must mean tackling the abuse of big tech. Like taxes, and regulations, and pesky things like the justice system. Accountability is woke.
PROTIP: Canceling your subscription gives you a place to tell them how you feel (even if you don't end up following through with it).
But damn, where to go from here? Self hosting my own email server and password manager is a little out of my wheel house.
I... very much do not like this. But the reality is that tech companies are FULL of libertarian tech bro types who only care about "policy" as it equates to their bottom line. And a LOT of companies are going to suck up to trump in the hopes of not being made an example of by the wannabe mafia administration. And the follow up response is still bullshit but it is useful idiot bullshit, if that makes sense.
Gonna look for alternatives but not optimistic.
And a LOT of companies are going to suck up to trump in the hopes of not being made an example of by the wannabe mafia administration.
I could almost excuse that if they were American, but they are Swiss, as is Andy.
I wouldn't say he's being "Maga", but this is some "Libertarian" dumb fuck that has no clue what's happeneing in politics.
If you scroll through his twitter, he did praise some things that Biden did, so it seems like he might just be bootlicking whoever is in power as appeasement
Edit: He also seems to be pro-Ukraine and supports the activists in Hong Kong, so basically a Libertarian that leans to the political right. (And also being a huge dumbass)
I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it. It was the chief.
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“What? Is the mayor trying to ban trans fats again?”
“Worse. Somebody just stole four hundred and forty-seven million dollars’ worth of bitcoins.”
The heroin needle practically fell out of my arm. “What kind of monster would do something like that? Bitcoins are the ultimate currency: virtual, anonymous, stateless. They represent true economic freedom, not subject to arbitrary manipulation by any government. Do we have any leads?”
“Not yet. But mark my words: we’re going to figure out who did this and we’re going to take them down … provided someone pays us a fair market rate to do so.”
“Easy, chief,” I said. “Any rate the market offers is, by definition, fair.”
He laughed. “That’s why you’re the best I got, Lisowski. Now you get out there and find those bitcoins.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m on it.”
I put a quarter in the siren. Ten minutes later, I was on the scene. It was a normal office building, strangled on all sides by public sidewalks. I hopped over them and went inside.
“Home Depot™ Presents the Police!®” I said, flashing my badge and my gun and a small picture of Ron Paul. “Nobody move unless you want to!” They didn’t.
“Now, which one of you punks is going to pay me to investigate this crime?” No one spoke up.
“Come on,” I said. “Don’t you all understand that the protection of private property is the foundation of all personal liberty?”
It didn’t seem like they did.
“Seriously, guys. Without a strong economic motivator, I’m just going to stand here and not solve this case. Cash is fine, but I prefer being paid in gold bullion or autographed Penn Jillette posters.”
Nothing. These people were stonewalling me. It almost seemed like they didn’t care that a fortune in computer money invented to buy drugs was missing.
I figured I could wait them out. I lit several cigarettes indoors. A pregnant lady coughed, and I told her that secondhand smoke is a myth. Just then, a man in glasses made a break for it.
“Subway™ Eat Fresh and Freeze, Scumbag!®” I yelled.
Too late. He was already out the front door. I went after him.
“Stop right there!” I yelled as I ran. He was faster than me because I always try to avoid stepping on public sidewalks. Our country needs a private-sidewalk voucher system, but, thanks to the incestuous interplay between our corrupt federal government and the public-sidewalk lobby, it will never happen.
I was losing him. “Listen, I’ll pay you to stop!” I yelled. “What would you consider an appropriate price point for stopping? I’ll offer you a thirteenth of an ounce of gold and a gently worn ‘Bob Barr ‘08’ extra-large long-sleeved men’s T-shirt!”
He turned. In his hand was a revolver that the Constitution said he had every right to own. He fired at me and missed. I pulled my own gun, put a quarter in it, and fired back. The bullet lodged in a U.S.P.S. mailbox less than a foot from his head. I shot the mailbox again, on purpose.
“All right, all right!” the man yelled, throwing down his weapon. “I give up, cop! I confess: I took the bitcoins.”
“Why’d you do it?” I asked, as I slapped a pair of Oikos™ Greek Yogurt Presents Handcuffs® on the guy.
“Because I was afraid.”
“Afraid?”
“Afraid of an economic future free from the pernicious meddling of central bankers,” he said. “I’m a central banker.”
I wanted to coldcock the guy. Years ago, a central banker killed my partner. Instead, I shook my head.
“Let this be a message to all your central-banker friends out on the street,” I said. “No matter how many bitcoins you steal, you’ll never take away the dream of an open society based on the principles of personal and economic freedom.”
He nodded, because he knew I was right. Then he swiped his credit card to pay me for arresting him.
You can generally tell what way someone leans when they say "Dems" but spell out "Republicans".
What the hell does he mean "we campaigned extensively"? Republicans did? And why is he including himself in that? He's not an American and therefore shouldn't be campaigning for a goddamn thing. And if he's quoting JD Vance then that part should actually be in quotes.
Who do Schumer's daughters lobby for? What's the name of the lobby? What have they lobbied for that's actually passed and was it supported by Democrats and Republicans? Like is he gonna post actual policy or anything that Republicans have put forth for antitrust? Or is he just spouting off and doubling down in order to be defensive with little to no actual facts to back up his claims.
He could have talked about Gail Slater's track record and why she's a good fit. Instead he talked some nonsense straight from the mouth of JD Vance and pulled some random whataboutism.
Don't you have a PR team? Like Proton, as a whole should be trying to fix this.
I also love that a user literally came with receipts and he has yet to respond.
Andy here, since it's my original post that's being reposted here, let me comment further.
My post is talking about Gail Slater, who is by all measures, actually a good pick, with a solid track record of being on the right side of the antitrust issue. Yes, she happens to be nominated by Trump, but her record speaks for itself.
This is not going to be a popular opinion, but on the specific issue of antitrust, Democrats fell short. In 2022, we campaigned extensively in the US for anti-trust legislation. Two bills were ready, with bipartisan support. Chuck Schumer (who coincidently has two daughters working as big tech lobbyists) refused to bring the bills for a vote. In the aftermath of this failure, great people like former Democratic rep David Cicilline left congress, leaving few strong voices for antitrust left in the Democratic party. In the meantime, at a 2024 event covering antitrust remedies, out of all the invited senators, just a single one showed up - JD Vance.
By working on the front lines of many policy issues, we have seen the shift between Dems and Republicans over the past decade first hand. And that's a missed opportunity for Dems, because by and large, support for cracking down on corporate monopolies is popular on both sides of the political spectrum. Unfortunately, corporate capture of Dems is real and in the end money won. It is hard to see how this changes, and Republicans are likely to lead the antitrust charge in the coming years.
From that perspective, and going back to my original post, Gail is a great pick. One should not equate our support of Gail for Proton not being neutral anymore. We continue to call out bad behavior from both sides, whether it's Dems or Republicans, on our core issues. Just a few weeks ago, we were called out for being in bed with Soros because we gave money to too many "liberal" organizations: https://proton.me/blog/2024-lifetime-fundraiser-results No, the Proton Foundation isn't the new Soros either (even if we may coincidentally fund some of the same things sometimes). We simply stick with our strongly held core believes, and leave politics out of it, because the issues we care about, should be apolitical.
The thing about people like Andy is they see everything through the lens of how it affects their business. Gail Slater could be the most evil person in the world, but as long as she's "good on antitrust" then he thinks she's a good pick. Someone not being in thrall to a fascist is more important.
In an updated version of his post he talks about how JD Vance agreed with Lina Khan on tech antitrust. He doesn't mention (either through ignorance or explicit neglect) that Vance is behind tech antitrust because he believed that they were "woke" and would fact check obvious lies by him and his party. He wants them broken up based on viewpoint discrimination, not because he has a problem with large tech companies spying on us and violating our privacy. Vance probably doesn't believe that anymore given the right turn the big tech companies have made in the last 2 months. As long as big tech is doing what the Republican party wants, they're going to get a free hand.
Either Andy is too stupid to understand this or he thinks we're stupid enough to believe him.
I'm having a hard time believing anything they say when the incoming administration they seemingly support is constantly making threats of invading our country.
I can't hate the followup response. It is legitimately more important to support good policy (such as antitrust) than any particular team. Even if Trump and his entire administration are a joke (and they are), that doesn't mean the Democrats are the good guys here or that we shouldn't stand up for good policy just because it came from his administration. Praising the actual people who made the actual good policy decisions does not absolve Trump for all his shit and we shouldn't pretend it's as cut and dry as that.
All that said, giving Trump any fucking credit does seem ridiculous. The man would fuck over his mother for a dollar. I don't see why he'd give a shit about antitrust unless it benefited him somehow.
Read the replies. His response is bs
That the democrats don't stand for the little guys anymore is something I agree with, but to then say the republicans do is wild
Damn, and I just switched to proton because they have port forwarding and moderate NAT so that I can effectively seed torrents.
I wouldn’t say he embraced Trump, I’d say he is pro-breaking big tech, since that would probably help Proton.
Bernie Sanders even came out and said “hey, if Trump wants to cap credit card interest rates, I’m with him on that.”
Trump says a lot of shit to appeal to working class people. I don’t disagree with reminding him of what he said and holding him to those things, if he’s now going to be president.
It's a completely brain-dead assessment. Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg are all Trump supporters.
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