this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2026
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Privacy

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[–] cosmosaucer@hexbear.net 48 points 1 month ago (2 children)

what is it with vpn ceos n being fascists

[–] veniasilente@lemmy.dbzer0.com 34 points 1 month ago (7 children)

I think it comes with the being a ceo. Become a legal parasite, get a free fascism.

[–] Captainautism@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah, it’s basically a requirement to be a CEO.

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[–] therealdries@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 month ago (7 children)

They're not fascists. They are liberals - and like liberal elites throughout history, they are utterly incapable of defending their precious private property by themselves. That is what they need the hencherproletariat for - fascists.

Fascism does not beget fascism - liberalism begets fascism. The liberal economic order is popping rivets all over the place... so some of these elites are building bunkers in New Zealand, while others do what liberal elites have always done when their power and privilege is facing a threat from below - feeding growth hormone to the vilest and most violent elements of the working class - the hencherproletariat. That is why you see liberals like Trump, Musk and literally a "whose who" laundry list of liberal elites enabling fascists and inviting them into power structures - they are essentially holding auditions for Hitlers and Pinochets.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 7 points 1 month ago (3 children)

The word for someone that supports fascism is fascist

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[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 31 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

Motherfucker... What is it with VPN providers and fascism? Are there any VPN providers that don't have fascist CEOs (or that don't sing praises about fascists) and have opensource clients?

Proton already has a CEO who likes Trump, so I don't trust it. I know of IVPN and Windscribe which have opensource VPNs. No idea about their bosses political leanings or donations.

Edit: I can't read Swedish, but I ran it through DeepL and it's not naming a source. Donations seem to be public but anonymised.

[–] Luminous5481@anarchist.nexus 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

it’s not naming a source.

The Flame emailed Daniel Berntsson and he admitted that the donation was from him. The Flame is a newspaper that's over a hundred years old, I think that makes them somewhat reputable. and if it's not true, then we'll see a statement from Mullvad and probably a lawsuit, don't you agree?

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I see. Alright, if he admitted it to them, then that's good enough for me. He might even make a public comment about it.

Means I have to move on from Mullvad.

[–] Luminous5481@anarchist.nexus 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

well, I think speaking to a newspaper is a public comment. and judging from the Mullvad subreddit, there's a whole lot of people from Europe who don't think it's a controversial opinion at all. which doesn't really surprise me, considering the recent news from places like the UK with the race riots by white supremacists, fire bombings, and things like the growing popularity of the AfD in Germany.

they're doing the nazi thing again, just this time they're all doing it together. yet they'll still claim they're better than the US somehow, despite having popular political parties that very publicly support ethnic cleansing.

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

That's not a public comment. It's on the record, but it's not public. Public would be putting it up on his public blog, writing it on Xitter or other social media, and so on.

Anyway, for now, this is good enough for me to switch. I'm not going to knowingly fund fascist supporters.

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[–] ShutUpWesley@piefed.zip 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

A constant reminder that a person can be right about one thing and wrong about another.

And that who ultimately gets your money is important.

[–] scytale@piefed.zip 13 points 1 month ago (4 children)

First, Bitwarden. And now Mullvad. Those were like the only two “good” things left that I use. Sigh.

[–] Luminous5481@anarchist.nexus 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

for Bitwarden, a much better replacement is Vaultwarden. it's very easy to run yourself, or you can find other servers elsewhere run by people. best part about it is that since every client acts as a full backup, if a server shuts down then you can just transfer your data elsewhere with no issues.

I know someone who runs their own server, which is what I use.

[–] lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 month ago

Vaultwarden needs its own client, and soon. BW is absolutely going to stop allowing non-official servers at some point.

[–] Boisterous@hexbear.net 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm out of the loop on Bitwarden. What happened there?

[–] scytale@piefed.zip 11 points 1 month ago (5 children)

New CEO comes from private equity and it looks like he wants to run it as such.

[–] Boisterous@hexbear.net 6 points 1 month ago

Ah. Shit. So they'll drive me away all on their own then. Wonderful.

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[–] ZWQbpkzl@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Wireguard is still solid tech so its just a matter of finding a different provider.

[–] scytale@piefed.zip 5 points 1 month ago

It’s not so much the tech, rather the provider. Mullvad has proven to be one of the best in the VPN space. There are only a few others who are transparent with their policies and provide evidence of it. I might try IVPN.

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[–] CommunistCuddlefish@hexbear.net 13 points 1 month ago (4 children)

5 minutes ago I read about the Proton guy donating to fascists. Now I read about the Mullvad guy donating to fascists. There's nobody who makes VPNs who isn't a fascist?!

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[–] myrmidex@belgae.social 10 points 1 month ago

Anyone has any decent anglophone sources on this yet?

[–] 0xtero@beehaw.org 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Oh well. Get some money, start kicking down. Is that the model? Rather disappointing, I have to say.

[–] Luminous5481@anarchist.nexus 9 points 1 month ago

keeping the poors at each others throats is the universal feature of the rich and elite. it's how they stay in power. if the people ever united together, then we would be unstoppable and they know it.

[–] ZWQbpkzl@hexbear.net 7 points 1 month ago

Reminder that a lot of VPN providers resell mullvad. I think Mozilla is one.

Also if you're looking for commercial privacy software then you're going to rub some shoulders with.

libertarian-approaching

[–] therealdries@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 month ago

Same ole' Europe.

[–] bourgeoisie_burgers@hexbear.net 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Wtf , so commercial vpns are dead to me now. What's the best option? a small cloudserver plus a proxy of some sort?

[–] harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 month ago

I'm checking ivpn and so far, so good.

[–] leraje@piefed.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Wikipedia article on the party he donated to. Started off as a quasi-Marxist, became red fash seems to be the summation.

A ""Marxist"" party with fascist policies is a fascist party. Pure Nazbol shit!

[–] WalrusDragonOnABike@reddthat.com 11 points 1 month ago

Immigration and remigration policy quote

Markus Allard initiated heavy debate in 2025 by claiming that Sweden is "the land for/belongs to the Swedes" and that the Örebro party favors a large scale remigration policy. He also criticized the Sweden Democrats for, according to him, allowing too many immigrants into the country under their watch as confidence and supply to the Kristersson cabinet.

In 2026 ÖP party leader Markus Allard sparked controversy on several occasions. In a debate hosted by Studio3 with Liberal member of parliament Martin Melin, Allard asked: "why won't the Liberals push for deporting 100 000 social welfare-Somalis?" and in the same debate said that "Sweden belongs to the Swedes. We have to make sure that we take care of our own damn people and we must deport these damn parasites who sit and live at our expense." [45]

In a podcast segment about immigration and deportations Allard stated his opinion and said that "They will also be forced to leave, even if they are born in Sweden, because they have no natural connection to Sweden. They are not Swedish." [46]

Mass deportation of 100,000's of thousands or millions of people seem pretty clear cut fascism. It looks like technically the donations were made right before those quotes, but I doubt that came out of nowhere suddenly starting in 2025 and if it was, then that's on the CEO to make a point to distance themself from the party and correct their mistake through meaningful actions.

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[–] redditmademedoit@piefed.zip 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I don’t have an opinion on whether Örebropartiet is fascist or not, honestly that might be giving them too much credit.

The party is really only known nationally for its front figure, Markus Allard – your typical anti establishment loudmouth that mostly attracts people that elsewhere would have been drawn to libertarian parties.

Allard is not politically stringent – he’s previously belonged to Vänsterpartiet (the Left) and his grandfather was a well known parliamentarian of Socialdemokraterna (social democrats). Allard, a self described Marxist, is best known for quasi intellectual rants about a ”transferiat”. Essentially it’s about how working people are leached on, not only by capitalists, but by unemployed, immigrants, civil servants and people in ”bullshit jobs” type of roles.

[–] Luminous5481@anarchist.nexus 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I don’t have an opinion on whether Örebropartiet is fascist or not

if you're espousing racist right-wing policies like remigration, and saying things like "Sweden is for Swedes", and blaming all your troubles on immigrants, then that makes you a fascist. ethnic cleaning is fascist shit. that's what he wants, to ethnically cleanse Sweden. if you "don't have an opinion on that", then you do have an opinion on it, one that supports fascism by sitting back and doing nothing in the face of it.

[–] space_comrade@hexbear.net 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Ah fuck, are there any decent alternatives? I know no VPN CEO is going to be the most amazing person but can they at least be a meek liberal or something?

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[–] bourgeoisie_burgers@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago
[–] crazyminner@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Is this the same company that makes the browser? Mull

[–] Luminous5481@anarchist.nexus 4 points 1 month ago

no, but they do make a browser. mull was discontinued a couple years ago.

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