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submitted 1 month ago by zaylon@sopuli.xyz to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

Daniel Berntsson, founder of Mullvad, gave a personal donation of 5 million SEK (roughly 450,000€) in 2025 to Örebropartiet. This enormous donation accounted for 72% of the party’s revenue in 2025.

How does this affect Mullvad’s legitimacy as a company advocating for a free and open internet, while also funding a political party whose agenda seem to contradict these values? The official party website (in Swedish) can be found via the link below.

https://orebropartiet.se/om-oss/

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[-] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 42 points 1 month ago

Av vänstern anklagas vi för att vara fascister och av högern anklagas vi för kommunism

Accused of being fascists from the political left and communist from the political right...not exactly a reassuring description IMO.

[-] electric_nan@lemmy.ml 83 points 1 month ago

Calling nonwhite migrants "parasites" is a pretty clear signal which end of the spectrum they're actually on.

[-] Zak@lemmy.world 47 points 1 month ago

So nobody can agree if they're far-left or far-right, but everyone agrees they're far-authoritarian?

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[-] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 23 points 1 month ago

So, they’re socialists, only national?

[-] Luminous5481@anarchist.nexus 25 points 1 month ago

so like, national socialists. who do we know who also called themselves that?

[-] sudo@programming.dev 7 points 1 month ago

Accused of being Nationalist from the left and being Socialist from the right. What a novel idea. A nEw PoLiTiCaL tHiRd WaY!

[-] birdwing 32 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Wondering if it's time that we as an anti-authoritarian left community, establish our own VPN...

[-] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Anything shared here would inevitably be (or become) a honeypot. If you want a community-driven VPN, it would need to be something like Tor. Individual nodes being hosted by the community, and a zero-trust system to ensure no single node sees enough traffic to ID users.

But the issue with this is that a malicious actor (like the government) could simply spin up enough nodes to be able to capture the system. A zero-trust system like Tor is only secure because it is large. It’s not economical for a single actor to run enough nodes to reliably capture all three connections in the chain. But if it’s a small group (like Lemmy) starting up their own system, then it would be trivial for a larger organization to simply outnumber the two or three dozen safe nodes.

[-] Jason2357@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 month ago
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[-] pineapple@lemmy.ml 30 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Dang, Mullvad instantly loses its credibility of the go to lemmy shill VPN overnight.

[-] prole 12 points 1 month ago

If people were shilling for Mullvad, then they wouldn't give a shit about this would they?

[-] Kenvexity@lemmy.ml 28 points 1 month ago

Im sorry, but people here in the comments seem to be complaining to complain. If both Mullvad and Proton are known to fund/support fascist parties, then what do you suggest we leftists use? And dont just blindly recommend eastern spyware VPNs either. Maybe we just go back to distributing newspapers and using radio, just like our comrades back then did

[-] sudo@programming.dev 9 points 1 month ago

And dont just blindly recommend eastern spyware VPNs either

Do these even exist? Who gives a shit if the PRC spies on me? I'd happily use a North Korean VPN if they had IPs that weren't geoblocked.

[-] TiredTiger@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 month ago

Anyone have experience with iVPN? I've generally heard it's good, but I'm not sure how it compares. Looks like it's the same price as Mullvad at least, and also accepts cash and monero as payment options. I'm just wondering about how many servers they have comparable and how often they got blocked by major websites. I'm thinking that'll probably be what I switch to, unless it has some major problems I'm not aware of.

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[-] pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 month ago

Bruh Proton never gave money to fascist parties. In fact, if you look at their donations, they're all left wing.

[-] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 month ago

They may be talking about the CEO being on Trump’s dick, though that’s just a guess.

[-] pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 month ago

https://medium.com/@ovenplayer/does-proton-really-support-trump-a-deeper-analysis-and-surprising-findings-aed4fee4305e

Yeah Andy Yen was specifically talking about Gail Slater's antitrust support while the democrats had ties to corporate lobbies and voted on the wrong side of things. He apologized for appearing to be republican.

If you look at proton's finances they all donate towards left organizations, promoting freedom and privacy, even donating to a liberal news organization.

I'm sick and tired of all these people bashing on proton because of one tweet that was taken out of context.

Bash on Proton for not being open source enough but don't bash on them for this same tweet over and over again.

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[-] eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 month ago

I use AirVPN, personally. They put money where the mouth is and haven't donated to any Nazis either.

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[-] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 21 points 1 month ago

Thanks for the heads up. Switching to Proton because of this. Mullvad has been bad lately anyways with most of their servers getting blocked every where.

The only thing keeping me on them was their reputation of being a bit less cooky than Proton but this pushed me over the edge

[-] birdwing 39 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Proton's CEO praised Trump, just saying. There's IVPN which is Gibraltese.

[-] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 47 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Proton CEO praised something Trump did which isn't a great look but debateable.

That's wayyy less bad than Mullvad donating $500k to a Nazi party which advocates for remigration.

[-] birdwing 30 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It's not just praise though, Proton claimed Trump was standing up for the little guys which is rich considering that the fascist is a billionnaire, supporting the wealthiest to repress the labourers even more. And besides that, it's also insane.

Hitler was somewhat an environmentalist, but cheering on Hitler for being that is insane, because that is ignoring all the other heinous shit he did.

[-] novafunc@discuss.tchncs.de 18 points 1 month ago

Proton did not claim anything; the CEO of Proton claimed that Republicans (not Trump) would do better on big tech anti-trust.

This view is not that crazy given that the person Trump appointed was doing her job quite well. Too well to the point that Trump removed her from the position later on.

[-] birdwing 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Bullshit, Trump is the most big tech and corrupt claimant to Usonian president since a hefty while.

And Trump IS what the RINOs are nowadays, those that the pro-fascist CEO praised. Republicans are those like Bill Weld and Charlie Baker from Massachusetts.

[-] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 month ago

What's worse, cheering on something Hitler did or donating to Hitler?

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[-] TiredTiger@lemmy.ml 20 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Apparently they've now posted a response:

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.

In context, this seems...tone-deaf. "It's okay! Immigrants are welcome to work for Mullvad even if the founders 'dislike' them." Yikes.

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.

I would argue that those three things aren't even all on the same level, and that's without even addressing the fucking fascism of 're-migration' policies.

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

Unless you were smart enough to pay anonymously, in which case you're welcome to doxx yourself, I guess.

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[-] dropdrip@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

A VPN does not protect the user from the type of sophisticated mass-surveillance that exists now and will only become increasingly more sophisticated without political critique. Users who are confused about the criticism of a capitalist-company when its benefactors are known to further entrench a beneficial political-ideology are simpletons who do not grasp the relationship between the Western-democracies and its political mass-surveillance organs that go on to spawn the private-surveillance companies that do get public critique (Google, Microsoft, Apple, Palantir, et al.).

No, a VPN is not better than nothing. Do more. Do better. Adopt real solutions like GNUnet. Liberate your computers with free software.

inb4 simpletons just want to use a VPN to watch mah netflix. Ok boomer.

[-] Godric@lemmy.world 24 points 1 month ago

Mentions GNU

Condescending asshole about it

You wouldn't believe it

[-] dropdrip@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yes. I am just tired, comrade. Once can argue about the tone, but the reality is there needs to be a rectification on computer-education on a scale that only a government can enact. I can not do it. I can just rebuke.

Juvenile views do need to be rebuked. If you believe you can regain a portion of control back via payment to an entity, whilst still living in ignorance of the substrate you wish to increase control over you are a moron. You are merely paying for a belief.

I can not understand the user's insistence on ignorance. All the users here are aware, to differing degrees, of the abuses that are inflicted on them due to this ignorance, yet there is a crowd who adamantly refuse to use their eyes; they wish merely to do the same things they were doing before, with no change in their own behaviors. They will continue to be abused.

I think the reality is they have no interest in the topic.

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[-] StumblingWasabi@lemmy.today 20 points 1 month ago

Points for mentioning a solution, but being condisending and talking down to people isn't a great way to get them excited about becoming involved. It's better to let people in on the joke rather than make them the joke.

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[-] jjlinux@lemmy.zip 13 points 1 month ago

So, anyone that doesn't have the technical expertise to start moving to a more private online experience is a simpleton. Thanks for clearing that up for all of us simpletons. GNUnet is nowhere near ready to even begin to be a part of anyone's digital life, ansd the developers say so themselves:

Please be aware that this project is still in an early alpha stage when it comes to running software – its not an easy task to rewrite the whole Internet!

While it's great to put the word out hoping that more people gets involved, vexing others has the opposite outcome.

All this to say, fuck you, get off of your high horse.

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[-] FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website 17 points 1 month ago

Regardless of what this dumb party is, it's first and foremost a donation by a private person. Who happens to run Mullvad. So in the medium term this should have no bearing on the company and how it operates from their point of view. The article hints at disagreement on the board about many things. So if this news story turns into subscribers leaving by the thousands, I would sooner think the "generous" donor might be pushed or bought out.

The tech sector is run by people too. Some of them are mad. Our modern outrage economy demands drastic and public knee jerk reactions to be on the good side. If you're considering leaving Mullvad, voice your concerns to them first. Put pressure on and wait and see for a bit. If they all turn out to be Nazis in trenchcoats, by all means leave. But they could correct this internally (push out/buyout) and then there is no need to destroy an otherwise okay VPN provider just because one of the founders turned into meatball Melon Usk.

I don't use Mullvad but I have used Proton VPN and am now using AirVPN. It's my experience that if you're using VPN to stream Netflix content or the iPlayer from the UK, you'll be equally sol on other providers because the streamers have gotten better at spotting and defending against VPNs. So switching in a huff may still leave you disappointed as well.

[-] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 month ago

Yeah, the only issue is that any profits from paying for their service will eventually line the person's pockets. It's not like the company is directly doing it, or spreading the bullshit.

Makes it a slightly different issue, but it is still an issue

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[-] vapor_body@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 month ago

I mean, moderates are invariably SuperHitler, especially in Scandinavia where their social welfare is synonymous with creating apartheid, but I don't see why that would bother most Lemmy users :0

[-] prole 6 points 1 month ago

How did 9+ people even parse this comment?

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[-] Mikelius@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

So I'm definitely not familiar with swedish politics, but does this site actually represent the entire party? The party site is just a very vague description of some group of people that sound like they're anti left and anti right at the same time. The Wikipedia article on the party doesn't really help make sense to what they expect to accomplish, but again that could just be my ignorance to it.

Would love to know more about all this, with more reliable sources if possible (vs a website that just says something without really providing sources). Mullvad is about trying to protect privacy with fighting big brother, and I'm really not seeing anything about the party that indicates it wants the opposite.

[-] orc_princess@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 month ago

They're practicing the rhetoric strategy known as Bonapartism, which is when you claim to be neither left nor right, but a third way, which is nonsensical as realistically you gotta stand for something. As for this party's actual views, they're social fascists (socialdemocracy for me, fascism for thee). They're wildly racist.

[-] lime@feddit.nu 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

note that this is a local party, and as such their policies are focused on their local area only. apparently they plan to be on the national ballot this year but i've not seen any policy changes to reflect that. reading from an interview the founder did in 2022, he had to start his own branch of the left party youth wing because there wasn't one where he lived, and as soon as they became official he found out that they didn't like his opinions so he was forced out. as for what those opinions are...

– Vi började fråga oss vad som var relevant i människors vardag. Är radikalfeminismen relevant? Nej. Är frågan om hur många kön som finns relevant? Nej. Är gamla mossiga resonemang om huruvida Sovjet var en arbetarstat relevant? Nej.

Han upprördes av skatteslöseri och kommunala skrytprojekt som genomfördes samtidigt som utanförskapet växte.

– Jag tog frågan till nutid. Vilken klass tjänar egentligen på den förda migrationspolitik som lett till utanförskap och kriminalitet?

"we started asking ourselves what was relevant in the daily lives of people. Is radical feminism relevant? No. Is the question of how many genders there are relevant? No. Are tired old arguments on whether the Soviet Union was a worker-led state relevant? No."

He was upset by wasted tax money and bragadocious projects the local government spearheaded while social exclusion kept growing.

"I brought the question to present day. What class makes money from the immigration policies that have led to exclusion and criminality?"


He's coined a term for the class of people he says are the main tax money wasters; "transferiat", as in the macroeconomic concept of transfer payments. these people, he says, just profit from the system without adding value. as examples, he lists "genusvetare, mångfaldsstrateger, HBTQI-certifikatörer [,] i viss mån även journalister (inom public service). Det finns även ett lägre skikt av transferiatet – de bidragsberoende, framför allt den stora massan av arbetslösa invandrare som kommit att hamna i utanförskapsområden": gender studies graduates, diversity strategists, LGBTQ-certifiers, journalists in publicly funded media, and unemployed immigrants.


...honestly i was with him for a while there. i thought he was gonna go on a tirade against "bullshit jobs", but instead he went off the deep end. later on he cites "public art" and "community centers in areas where more limmigrants live" as a waste of taxpayer money.

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disgusting? yes

surprising? no

libertarians and borderline-criminals have always shared the privacy space with anti-capitalist lefties, since before the Bolsheviks bulk-ordered their red shirts.

[-] whatiswrongwithyou@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 month ago

“Voting with your wallet” in this circumstance, to the extent it has any effect at all, will only hurt you and other privacy conscious people.

No ethical consumption under capitalism, etc.

[-] Luminous5481@anarchist.nexus 22 points 1 month ago

you don't need a VPN company to use a VPN. and using the "no ethical consumption" line is pretty fucking gross when you're talking about buying shit from nazis.

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[-] RoddyStiggs 8 points 1 month ago

Okay.

Let me know when it affects the service.

[-] JustEnoughDucks@slrpnk.net 30 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

A company that you trust with your privacy (one aspect) has been caught in league with mass surveillance loving fascists? Yeah I am sure that those are a perfect mix and it won't lead to mass surveillance of its users like the dozens of VPNs now under Israeli mass - surveillance - fascist control.

It is just a complete coincidence that the people pushing more and more mass surveillance are buying up (and in this case winning over the controlling part of) the ways for normal people to avoid mass surveillance.

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this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2026
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