- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
Summary
Proton Mail, known for its privacy-first email services, faced backlash after CEO Andy Yen praised the Republican Party and its antitrust stance.
The company initially posted and deleted a statement supporting Yen’s comments, later claiming an “internal miscommunication” and reiterating its political neutrality.
Critics question Proton’s impartiality, particularly as it cooperates with Swiss authorities on legal data requests.
Privacy advocates warn that political alignments could undermine trust, especially for Proton’s users—journalists and activists wary of government surveillance under administrations like Trump’s.
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Removed by mod
Same for me. Was it kind of stupid what the CEO said? Yes, sure, but who the fuck does not do that from time to time?
I also hate this mentality, that if you agree with a decision a party / person made, then that means you agree with everything they stand for. Bitch, no!
Good first post
Good catch. Someone else here in the comments detected a hint of astroturfing… perhaps they were onto something
Edit: they opened a Lemmy acct to make that post, fwiw
Nicely said.
I had my doubts, I mailed Proton and they responded with a statement Yen his opinion isn’t that of Proton, his comment while using the Proton account was a mistake which has been deleted and Proton changed to a foundation so no one, including a CEO like Yen, can change what Proton stands for.
Thank you for clarifying!
Nice try, fed.
Due respect, your take is obtuse at best or you’re a shill. The company, with current leadership in place, just cannot come back from the first statement, it illustrates a fundamental detachment from objective reality, to the point that you’ve lost any and all credibility, permanently.
In a business based on trust, this is just so clear. Poop
Yep, a complete drama over nothing that got many people start a witch hunt. We already reached the point in which the guy is now a Nazi for having chosen a username with 88 in it, despite the fact that he is Taiwanese AND born in that year. Basically this is the well-meaning, internet vigilantes version of “bill gates injects 5g microchips with vaccines”.
It’s what happens when politics becomes faith.
Sir, this is Lemmy’s. We don’t allow reason here.
I don’t get why anyone would stay on a site they thought reason wasn’t allowed at.
I’ve been frustrated several times at what I perceive as Lemmy bias that borders extremism, but on the whole it’s perfectly reasonable. Essentially every response to the parent comment agreed with it (I have yet to see someone disagree but perhaps I haven’t scrolled enough).
Lemmy isn’t big enough to feel you need to stay, as Reddit was when comments like this were plentiful.
It’s just an old lame internet joke.
Look, reason my ass
Reason is fine, doesn’t mean everyone has to agree.
Then here’s what Proton’s team said on Reddit
are you REALLY asking us to care about their PR damage control? They can literally cherry pick anything and say anything that’s true and try to tie it back into their argument. What stands is his initial heartfelt public statement.
Zero of the statement praises Trump or praises Republicans
Great pick by @realDonaldTrump . 10 years ago, Republicans were the party of big business and Dems stood for the little guys, but today the tables have completely turned. People forget that the current antitrust actions against Big Tech were started under the first Trump admin.On Twitter (your know, the fascist communication network)
Tagging Trump directly (ohh look at me, I’m a good boy, give me contracts, invite me over)
your definition of Zero and mine are WILDLY different.
I feel like I’ve read from hundreds of Lemmy users total agreement that the Democratic party
Yes, the standard far right argument, no no they’re both bad so this isn’t bad.
of the sad reality that Republicans with their very hard-on-Silicon-Valley rhetoric are more likely to actually
There it is, you’re not even going to sugar coat it, No no, the Republicans WHO ARE DISMANTLING DEI AND MEDIA FACT CHECKING
are going to
ctually reign in the big tech companies (more )than the Democratic party
GTFO, or at least come up with a half reasonable argument. That’s serious not even worth the time to post on…
TL;DR: storm in a teacup, I’ll be keeping my Proton mail account.
If you’re for real, (and I expect you’re just more damage control), sounds like you’re in a good place with like minded friends not worried at all about their safety.
p.s. yes this is my first Lemmy post.
Ahh so more damage control. Gotcha!
Their PR Department can do better
“Tagging Trump” because it was an answer (quote? Not sure what is the xitter term) to the tweer where Trump announced the pick for antitrust.
I do disagree with the person you are answering to, he did praise republicans. He did in a very narrow context and for specific (although opinable) reasons and he praised Trump for having made that specific pick.
Personally, I don’t see what the big deal is.
Thank you for the summary.
I knew interacting on Lemmy would be hard but… Common people! Downvoting for a “Thank You”? Reasonable doubt for pulsewidth?
Anyway, pulsewidth PMed me (and probably the other commenters under him) and I think he wanted to point out his good faith. He comes back on the praise point and admits his fault. He is a bit disappointed to have been straight up banned from !news@lemmy.world .
Lololololololololol, bad look.
How about literally right wing propaganda
If by reigning in big tech you mean a cartel style system where companies need to provide funds to Trump to continue existing, sure. But there is no chance that the Republicans will reign in big tech : they are big tech.
You are leaving out the part where Andy Yen said that the tables have turned and the Republicans are now the party of the small people.
Andy Yen’s statement is downright pathetic and misleading. People are right to stir up shit because that’s the only thing corpos understand.
This isn’t a storm in a tea cup, this is the CEO of a company telling us who he really is and people choosing to tell him to get fucked.
Your post reeks of astroturfing.
the Republicans are now the party of the small people
He didn’t. He clearly meant small tech in that context, opposed to big tech\monopolies. Not only this is the only interpretation that makes sense, but he said this himself in a clarifying (personal) reddit comment.
Stop bootlicking
From Andy Yen directly:
“[…]10 years ago, Republicans were the party of big business and Dems stood for the little guys, but today, the tables have completely turned.”
There is no place for interpretation here, the message is clear. If he wants to back pedal because he got slinged shit, so be it, but it doesn’t detract from the fact that he said that the Republicans are now the party of the small guys.
Stop spreading misinformation
I will quote his own words:
Unfortunately that was misinterpreted. If you go back to the original tweet in question, it is clear from the context that that is about “little tech” vs "big tech
I know we are in the internet in 2025, and nobody has the right to clarify their opinion anymore, one strike and you are out, but still.
To me it was obvious from the context to be honest, without even needing his own explanation (that you call backpedaling because good faith is never assumed). But then again, I was not looking for reasons to be outraged.
It’s hilarious though that reporting the authors own thoughts you call misinformation. Instead drawing your own conclusions that are explicitly denied by that person is supposedly objective. If there are no more rules of logic then everything goes.
Also this is not bootlicking, it’s just a timid defense of rationality in the face of people building castles in the air.
Yeah because cozying up buddy buddy with Trump is a castle in the air.
It’s not like the guy was cooked on the spot and spouted an incohenrent sentence.
The guy took the time to tag Donald Trump to show him how he’s not like the other girls , wrote out his message and thought that this was good enough to press send.
There is a lot of deliberate actions that leads to this and takebacksies are a lot more difficult to justify.
In that case, there is a little space for interpretation and Andy Yen is clearly in damage control.
It is not little joe from Arkansas owning a potato farm tweeting that shit, it’s the CEO of a supposedly “neutral” company, that deals in privacy, tagging his buddy Trump. Shit like that can’t get a pass.
Lucky for him, there are enlightened people like you that loves the smell of fresh polish directly from the boot.
Oh no, he tagged trump (did he? Or did he reply to the tweet in which trump announced the antitrust pick?). This 1 second action changes everything. I am glad we have already moved the goalpost. Why tagging trump would change the context of his message it’s really a mystery to me.
Look, for me it’s simple. He has expressed himself in a way that was easy to misinterpret. He clarified his thoughts, I judge him for his thoughts.
You want to judge him for what you think he meant? By no means, go ahead. Just don’t pretend it’s a fact, because it’s literally an opinion. A legitimate one, but still an opinion. The fact is that he said something and clarified that he meant something. Whether he is sincere or not is an opinion, but it doesn’t change the fact.
For the rest I don’t care to convince you or anybody else, I don’t care of Andy Yen either. What I do care is people damaging one of the very few tech companies out there that are positive exceptions to a shitty industry. I think this is way worse than a tweet - even if it praised republicans in a general sense.
Besides this, I also hate this aesthetic of purity. MacCartysm in modern sauce.
He has expressed himself in a way that was easy to misinterpret
Absolutely not. There wasn’t a nuance hard to grasp in Andy Yen’s message. It is a pretty straightforward message.
Look if you want to continue using the service, by all means do, but stop acting like other people telling Proton and Andy Yen to get fucked that they are exaggerating.
Corporations are fucking us over and being outright evil, and when one of their CEO comes out and spout absolute dogshit takes, people like you come out of the woodwork to tell people that it’s fine and people are overreacting. You gain nothing from sucking up to millionaire CEOs that don’t give two shit about you.
What’s the saying, “When someone shows you who they are, trust them the first time”?
Andy Yen showed us who he was and lots of people told him to get fucked.
deleted by creator
I thought hosting your own mail server was difficult cause you need to be trusted by the incumbet mail providers or get blocked by them.
Welp… Just paid them 80€ for a year and was in the process of migrating my gmail accounts to it. I guess I just lost 80€ and I’m migrating to somewhere else then…
You should be able to cancel and get a partial refund. Reach out and ask.
And also during that discussion with their support team, state your reason for leaving. That will get a lot more attention than the rest of us whinging online where we can easily be ignored.
I’m going to do this with all mail domains and account with them.
I don’t care how publicly they state their neutrality, when push comes to shove, that nazi sympathizer is going to side with the enemy and all of us who thought we had a safe haven are at risk. I’d rather cut my losses.
I’m also annoyed with how they pile so much into the service that for some of us, they’re extras which aren’t needed. I just want to simplify my email into Tuta now I think, and Mullvad for VPN. While having those together was convenient, it’s no different on my phone or pc to use two different apps for those.
I will very clearly state why I’m taking my business elsewhere.
I’m also annoyed with how they pile so much into the service that for some of us, they’re extras which aren’t needed.
I agree, it’s ever-more loaded up with crap that I won’t use. I’m a free plan user and rarely use the service. Between the never-ending nagging to upgrade that I get on the website, the discount deals that end up being “one year only then full price” and their intentional crippling of the service (# of aliases, domain support, etc) that basically requires you to subscribe to one of their expensive plans just to get the functionality of other competing providers, there’s no way I’d ever give them money. And now there’s the kissing the Orange Diaper Baby butt on top of all that. It’s going to be fun giving all these Nazi tech bro services the boot. mailbox.org is looking pretty good, unless they turn out to be AfD bootlickers.
“one year only then full price”
You can say what you want, but this is mostly the norm with subscriptions. Not only that but legally they can often index the price as well. I haven’t seen a single subscription in Europe that keeps Grandfathering prices with the exception of Old School Runescape where people claim it.I haven’t verified it
But. We still have the possibility of saying: NO. NO. I will NOT pay you for this service as is.
In Proton’s case, they said they are pro privacy. They built off that back.
Now, if the guy in charge of the ship is known to be fond of icebergs… time to find a new ship and a better captain.
It’s ANNOYING to move services. Agreed. It’s annoying to be having to fight so hard for basic privacy. Agreed.
If you don’t consider it and just comply: you’re potentially putting yourself at risk.
There is still no proof that they aren’t complying with their own privacy standerds. Just because the CEO is a dick doesn’t mean the entire company has to be a dick. If everything is properly arranged the CEO shouldn’t even be arranged to push things that go against the believes and statements of the company in the situation of an European company with the structure of Proton.
Currently I am unable to switch anyway due to time restrains and such, so I am just gonna see if we hear anything about the next audit regarding privacy.
It does make sense that a country located in Switzerland has this type of being “neutral”, it’s seems very similar to what the country was doing in WW1 and WW2.
Anyway, I’ll be keeping my Proton account. It works pretty well and I have more faith in the laws in Switzerland than in the EU. Saying that I still have more faith in the EU than the rest of the world if it comes to privacy. If anything changes in the future I’ll be moved in about an hour or two.
Interestingly, if I set my VPN location to Switzerland, I can watch YouTube videos without logging in. Everywhere in the US requires me to log in and be subjected to advertisements first.
it’s seems very similar to what the country was doing in WW1 and WW2
In WW2, they got quite rich storing Nazi loot.
Exactly my point.
Considering Porton AG is owned by a foundation it is harder for the CEO to get rich of it so Ill just wait and see what happens
Yeah I definitively know which service is not getting my donations or subs this year. I’ll continue using their free service for a while until I can migrate most stuff. After all it’s all their cost. If they want to be nazis, the least I’ll be is a load to them.
Maaaan, what the fuck?!?
I cannot fathom being that stupid to believe that Republicans are anti-monoploy when they give huge corporation massive tax breaks and removes barriers for mega mergers
I think at this point in the USA it’s very clear:
If you’re “politically neutral”, you’re Republican.
I (and very many others) may not agree with the democrats, but since we only got two parties there, it’s damage-control. And any sane person (that would like to have a non-dystopian future) votes against Trump…
Ok Trumper.
What did he mean by this
they’re Swiss
Yes, I know, I’m also not from the USA from a “neutral” state (Austria)…
Actually, especially if you’re European, even the democrats are more right-leaning, i.e. comparable with the conservative parties here.
No one is actually politically neutral…
Neutrality only ever helps the aggressors. Hitlers Europe strategy was predicated on the Swiss doing nothing in response to the annexation of Austria and occupation of France.
Sure hope their praises don’t include giving your data to their heroes
They would hand over your liver for an atta-boy and a small government contract.
Protrump Mail?
For me, the most-used Proton service after email is their calendar. What privacy-friendly calendar alternatives are there that you can recommend?
Self-hosting Nextcloud with Calendar plugin…
Both my new service candidates, mailbox.org and posteo, offer calendars. However, I’m in a holding pattern currently since they are German based. Fuckface is meddling in their elections now, which happen at the end of Feb. so I’m holding off to see how much ground the Afd gains.
With this president flattery will get you everything. If you don’t publicly praise him he will come for you and your users.
I am not saying that I love the endorsement, I do understand it.
Proton is based in Switzerland. If anything, I get the message that the only services that are Trump-proof are based in China or France, because everybody else has lost their fucking mind.
Services in China may be Trump-proof, but they’re sure as shit not CCP-proof.
They are not acting like a bunch of unpredictable religious lunatics tho. So as long as I don’t mention Tianammen Square I should be 👍
But he has absolutely no reason to do so. That’s like VPNs bowing to Trump.
The lack of risk, especially when the average Proton user is actively looking for privacy/security from tech companies who bow to government, makes this endorsement even more sinister than it should be.
The only way to get rid of those bastards is to never comply with any pressure they bring to bear, short of literally pointing a gun at you. Kissing the ring makes you one of the enablers.
He literally had to say nothing at all lol
I can see this for like Apple or Google, but…
Proton?
What beef could Trump and conservative influencers possibly have with it? And even if they did, it’s not even an American company, it’s Swiss.
Yeah Proton already burned that bridge. “Politically Neutral” is no longer an option for them.
And today I got an email saying they’re donating a million dollars to support non-profits for privacy and freedom. Timing, timing, timing.
Imagine being so fucking brainwashed you believe Republicans are for “the little guy”
