this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2025
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Privacy
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They have a large following on Mastodon so this doesn't really make much sense. I'm inclined to believe that they left due to the hate they were getting because of the recent controversy.
What is the recent controversy?
CEO is what I describe as a Right-wing Libertarian. Dude not only praised the trump FTC appointee, but also said "republicans are on the side of the 'little guy'". Andy Yen is one of the members of the Board of Trustees of Proton Foundation, the non-profit that owns a majority of Proton AG. He initially used his personal account, then later used the official account (so I'm assuming the other board members did not object to it), then later "apologized" for it and said he would use his personal accounts. The reddit account has a username with the number 88 in binary, which led some to speculate its a nazi (88 = HH = Heil H*tler) dogwhistle, to which Andy Yen says its his year of birth 1988. Kinda weird, but he could just be that clueless, who knows 🤷♂️.
From what I could gather from his public statements, including twitter: Andy Yen is also supportative of Ukraine and have donated to Ukraine, and is supportative of the Hong Kong protestors, and is against Russian censorship and against US red state's Age Verification laws.
My view is: Andy Yen is an idiot, and there shouldn't be any immediate threats, but its still not a bad idea to pre-emptively move, if you can, just in case he pulls a "Musk" and does the salute tomorrow.
I mean this part I give him a pass on. It was right for people reading him to raise an eyebrow, because political signalling like that does happen, especially in a context where he's making comments like he made. But in this case it was just a nothingburger.
It doesn't make his "wasn't intended to be a political comment" excuse any less gibberish though.