This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
So if I use Mullvad, some of that is funding far-right politics?
Yes, although frankly it's really fucking hard to name anything that isn't these days. Like, you probably can't even go grocery shopping without some of that money finding us way to alt right politics.
People can look up how various grocery store brands fund the republicans here: https://shophowyouvote.com/
At this point it’s safer to just assume every purchase you make is funding far right politics.
This is a frustrating pposition to be in, particularly when few people are willing to offer viable alternatives in such threads.
I don't want to let a purity test be the reason I impulse switch to a less effective VPN, but don't want to indirectly fund things I don't support. Yes, money I spend on Mullvad might go towards shit I don't want, but what else is on par with Mullvad that doesn't have some other downside?
Afaik IVPN is really the only alternative. I'll be switching to them soon when my account expires.
Before I switched from proton VPN to mullvad VPN, I thought I remembered when doing research there was only a few providers that said they did no logs, and had proof either through 3rd party audits or shown they couldn't provide anything when court ordered.
Does IVPN have proof they do not log? Because im in the same boat, I dont want my money supporting fascists, but i also dont know of any alternative to switch to?
Besides switching back to proton VPN (which id rather not get into any controversy around them)
but don’t want to indirectly fund things I don’t support.
The only safe way to do that is to not spend at all. Unless you find a co-op, your money is going to some owner(s) who will use the money as they please. Commercial VPNs are mostly privacy snake oil and ways to get access to media, so abstaining for a while isn't unreasonable.
"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'm not sure what they mean by this. Plenty of corporations do make animal rights, taxes, public healthcare, etc. an important part of their values and mission. Why would it be obvious that they're not?
Besides, we do want Nazis and fascists to be pariahs. Putting pressure on Mullvad not to associate is a good thing.
Specially in Nordics. Social corporate responsibility is a very long tradition in Nordics, specially with due to stuff like co-operative customer, producer or worker owned companies, state enterprises and so on.
Including leadership teams behavior. Companies do get flack for what kind of persons they hire as leadership, since it is (pretty reasonably) assumed their mindset and worldview affects their conduct while leading the company.
Plus not only is he leader, he is owner so again money to company's pocket is in the end money to his pocket.
One can't claim "we are responsible company, while having opposite kind of CEO/leader". It is his private matter he has these opinions, what isn't private is him being company leader. Company doesn't want his private opinions affecting the company, get rid of him as leader.
It would be one thing, if he was "lineworker" employee. Then person can have private opinions don't affect company. However he isn't mere salary employee in the depths of server hall lifting and plugging in servers to racks and cleaning cooling equipment clean. He is company leadership.
I agree (though I still think it is a good thing to fire fascists, even when they are lowly employees lol)
If they are rich they are almost always a right wing asshole. Why would anyone be surprised by this?
Wealth needs limits
I always say there should be a hard cutoff at a million a year and you should be taxed 100% at anything over that.
Yeah, literally 99.999% of products you buy in 2026 fund right wing fascism, and most of it you can't escape because they own the entire supply chain.
Ain't capitalism fun?
Considering the far-right push to obliterate privacy, current and historically, it’s a really poor look for a company with a privacy product.
It’s rumoured that Australia will look to banning VPNs next for “protecting the children” after recently mandating proof of age laws to a bunch of services like social media and pornography.
It should be obvious that [founder's] private donation to a political party is not part of [his company's] values or mission
Riiiiiiiiiight, because it always shakes out like that
I made the switch to IPVN and it's felt exactly the same. Maybe even better. Same price. Servers in multiple locations. Allows routing through 2 VPN servers. No logs. No money going to racist ideology.
Mullvad can claim whatever they like about their values, but they are a for-profit company. The profits of the company are being used to fund racial segregation. If they believe in their values they'll switch to a non-profit foundation. Until that time they can get fucked!
I'm seriously worried about what's going on around this.
There is quite the push here for people to move to VPNs under the legals jurisdiction of surveillance heavy states, not just the US and UK but also places like Gibraltar and the British Virgin Islands which are British Overseas Territories with the same laws as Britain except were they passed specific local legislation that overrides British Law.
We're talking about places with Information Courts which issue secret mass surveillance orders to companies based in or operating there and it doesn't mater if that VPN is no logs because for all you know they've been forced to install realtime surveillance equipment/software and they can't even tell you because BY THE LAW OF WERE THEY OPERATE if they did so they would end up in jail.
I would expect that the kind of people who would leave Mullvad because one of it's owners is a far-right nutter are also the kind of people who don't want everything they do and say tracked by the likes of the US or UK.
Further, the push is pervasive. For example https://vpn.techlore.tech/ is supposed to help you choose a good VPN, only if you look at those VPNs based in British Overseas Territories (Gibraltar, BVI) they're listed as "Not 14-eyes" which that's bullshit - I was actually curious and went and look at how Legislation works in Gibraltar and, as I wrote above, they have the same as in Britain except were they wrote their own legislation that overrides British legislation, which means that (unless somebody can point me out the legislation in Gibraltar that overrides it), the very same legislation that support the mass surveillance activities in Britain as a member of not only the "14-eyes" international surveillance agreements but the actual "5-eyes" one, applies to Gibraltar and hence to the likes of IVPN.
Frankly, looking for a replacement for Mullvad whilst having some awareness of the mass surveillance shit in supposedly democratic nations is scary as fuck, since most VPNs, for all their (possibly theatrical) "No logs" and whatnot, are actually in places with Information Courts which can issue secret court orders forcing them to install mass surveillance equipment.
Absolutely, if all you care about is avoiding lawyer letters because of pirating stuff, any "No Logs" VPN will probably do, but if you're worried about the rise of the Far-Right then it makes sense that you're not into there being a real risk that all you're doing over your supposedly "No logs" VPN is in fact being logged directly into NSA or GCHQ systems (in the kind of country whose governments think being a leftwinger is "extremism" or even "terrorism"),
Switched to IVPN, but might make another switch to NymVPN: https://f-droid.org/packages/net.nymtech.nymvpn
I have already quit my subscription. Haven't taken the time to find an alternative yet. I'm stocked up on media for the time being.
“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.”
The part being unsaid here is “that Daniel's private donation to a political party is NOT INCOMPATIBLE WITH Mullvad's values or mission” (pardon the double negative)
That’s what I have issue with. They’re saying Daniel’s own personal purpose/mission (the donation being an expression of that) is compatible with their mission, or at minimum does not conflict.
What does “freedom of speech” have to do with expression of Mullvad employees? Mullvad isn’t a government. Free speech doesn’t mean freedom from consequences. If Daniel’s own personal mission/purpose is incompatible with Mullvad’s, severing their relationship with him would be appropriate and not a violation of his freedom of speech. Of course, this goes back to, it’s not incompatible.
The “tolerance” bit, Daniel’s own personal mission/purpose as expressed by his donation is inherently inhumanely intolerant. Again, Mullvad is indirectly stating that intolerance is not incompatible with their mission/purpose, which makes the “tolerance” bit a contradiction. They might as well have people working for them that believe you have zero right to privacy.
I am currently testing out AirVPN. Seems pretty good so far.
I have prepaid Mullvad so will use that until it expires. Then they never get my money again.
