Proton CEO embraces Trump for "standing up for the little guys"
Proton CEO embraces Trump for "standing up for the little guys"
Unnecessary and deeply concerning bow to the new "king"
Update: position got backed up by an official Proton post on Mastodon, it's an official Proton statement now. https://mastodon.social/@protonprivacy/113833073219145503
Update 2, plot-twist: they removed this response from Mastodon - seems they realize it exploded into their face!
Oh, goddammit.
And then we have the communists making Lemmy. Is there any moderate developers lol. Valve is the only big company I can think of that isn’t annoying. All the faceless Linux devs are good too
Glances at the child gambling enabled by the steam marketplace, an issue being blatantly ignored by Valve leadership.
Buddy, I don't know how to tell you this. I love Valve for all the good they do, but they got some serious skeletons, too.
Valve representatives were asked point blank if the third party gambling sites have a positive influence on their bottom line, and the dude replying sweated bullets for several seconds before nervously going "we.... don't have any data on that" while the rest stared daggers at him.
Coffeezilla has a recent video on the situation.
Give some credit. Even if they aren't politically aligned with your, they did make Lemmy open source for others to run with.
Standing up for the little guy. Huh. Is that why billionaires and CEO are throwing literal tens of millions at Trump? Why he staffed his cabinet with billionaires? Why the center of his policy is tax cuts for the giga wealthy, at the expense of everyone else and the national debt, at a time where wealth inequality is literally tearing the country apart?
https://www.axios.com/2025/01/15/trump-windfall-fundraising-500-million
https://www.axios.com/2024/12/09/trump-wealth-cabinet-politicians-billionaires
These are objective, public facts. Like, I'm way more conservative than Lemmy’s center and willing acknowledge any good Trump does, but what reality is this guy living in? Who is this statement for? Who the heck does he think is using Proton services? He just pissed off his employees and customers for… What?
Probably doesn't want to get banned in the US... Or so my copium tells me.
Silver lining is that Proton is owned by a non-profit.
I was thinking this for a second, but is this really plausible? Normally when we talk about corporations we talk about how powerful they are and how they use different nations to locate headquarters and offices in order to mitigate legal and tax obligations. We regularly talk about how governments can't reign them in and how they act with impunity.
But now? "They HAVE to capitulate. They are just doing it to survive." Really? Do we really believe that? Or is it more likely that this is what they want and if they didn't, they'd be fighting tooth and nail to stop it? I'm with the second option honestly.
OpenAI has taught me that the non-profit stuff is meaningless.
Seems a lot of people share this view that somehow he's for the little guy, despite quite clearly being for the opposite. It's the same over the pond, there's a paranoia held by many that the government is out to persecute the common people. Very strange on both sides, it's almost Orwell levels of Newspeak.
The official @[email protected] account replied and doubled down
[email protected] - @jonah
Corporate capture of Dems is real. In 2022, we campaigned extensively in the US for anti-trust legislation.
Two bills were ready, with bipartisan support. Chuck Schumer (who coincidently has two daughters working as big tech lobbyists) refused to bring the bills for a vote.
At a 2024 event covering antitrust remedies, out of all the invited senators, just a single one showed up - JD Vance.
1/2
[email protected] - @jonah By working on the front lines of many policy issues, we have seen the shift between Dems and Republicans over the past decade first hand.
Dems had a choice between the progressive wing (Bernie Sanders, etc), versus corporate Dems, but in the end money won and constituents lost.
Until corporate Dems are thrown out, the reality is that Republicans remain more likely to tackle Big Tech abuses.
2/2
(Less importantly, my response)
So sounds like their main concern is addressing the abuses of the FAANG monopolies, and only a Republican has talked to them about it.
I guess that is understandable in that very narrow lens, but it's a bit laughable considering how all the big tech companies are also cozying up to the Trump administration. All this has done for me is make me wary of anything Proton does now.
Also the obviously reactionary and self-interested history of right wing reaction to FAANG, which largely has been fueled by a backlash to restraints on misinformation, and is riddled with special case exceptions (e.g. Palestine).
Actually I disagree on the latest part. I actually questioned, why google and Facebook had to go kiss the ring and pay some bucks to Trump, and didn't have to do that before? This for me is a sign of a disalignment between big tech and the administration.
That said, it's very much possible (I would say likely) trump won't do shit and he just happens to have the "correct" position on this particular issue because it can be used to attack the Californian elite (I.e. dem elite). But it's a matter of fact that it's auspicable he will follow up with action on his words on this, even if for the wrong reasons.
These fuckers act like they've never heard of Lina Khan. Let's see if Republicans try to replace her with someone with a stronger track record. Or, if they're so serious about tech competition maybe they'll get on board with net neutrality.
And look, I actually like Gail Slater (the Trump nominee that kicked off this thread). She's got some bona fides, and I welcome Republicans taking antitrust more seriously, and rolling back the damage done by Robert Bork and his adherents (including and probably most significantly Ronald Reagan).
But to pretend that Democrats are less serious about antitrust than Republicans ignores the huge moves that the Biden administration have made in this area, including outside of big tech.
By my lights your response is quite effective, and while I appreciate the modesty I think it's appropriate to bring it over here:
Unfortunately, there's a line beyond which it's not okay to view a political party through one issue, and IMO the Republicans have crossed that line.
Privacy is a human rights issue. Republicans have signaled very strongly that they're going to violate more human rights. It's a net loss for privacy if that happens, even if big tech is a bit more restrained.
I'm sorry @protonprivacy, you've failed this test IMO. It would be one thing to say that given that the Republicans are in power, that Gail Slater is a good pick, but that's not the stance you took.
The election already happened. Therefore it's not a matter of picking. With regards of antitrust and big tech, Trump can do nothing, worse or better. In case of "better" there are indirect privacy wins. Everything else is completely unrelated, it's not like the Trump administration will break up a monopoly every 3 other human rights he violates.
So what does it mean
Privacy is a human rights issue. Republicans have signaled very strongly that they're going to violate more human rights. It's a net loss for privacy if that happens, even if big tech is a bit more restrained.
If "big tech is not restrained" it's going to be the same or worse, so why we wouldn't be happy at least if that happens? I didn't read a celebration of Trump as a win for human rights tout court, which could have prompted this response (I.e., hey, might be a win for privacy, but it's a loss for x, y, z).
Fuck, they are dumb and bad businessmen. What's the reason still to chose their product over Tuta, Posteo, Mullvad? They have lost their unique selling point as at least pretending being a neutral instance providing private services. Plain stupidity.
"Until corporate Dems are thrown out, the reality is that Republicans remain more likely to tackle Big Tech abuses."
That has to be one of the most retarded things I have ever read. You would have to ignore the last 50 years and have a lobotomy to believe that nonsense.
That is somet nieve horseshit. Goddammit I don't want to switch email providers again!
Insane that an official company account posted this.
Seems like they have deleted it now. Link is dead. Has there been any further comment?
N.B. I originally went looking for a reason that maybe it was okay that Andy Yen was giving the thumbs up to Gail Slater. I thought this was an unfair internet pile-on. I think now it's a fair internet pile-on.
EVERYONE! GET IN HERE!
This is a lot worse look than Andy saying something on Twitter. It's one thing for a board member to express an opinion as an individual, it's another to have an explicit corporate position... I don't even think the usual big tech suspects are this stupid to publicly support an administration like this.
Aaaaaaaand it's deleted.
Did they just remove their comments?
Let's not get carried away. The scope of the comment is pretty narrow if you read it closely. This is one member of a 5-person board that also includes Tim Berners-Lee. The foundation structure is also a protection against abuses.
Yes you are right, and no you are not. It is concerning and something to stay vigilent about in the upcoming times.
Can't you both be right? One it is a very narrow complement and also it be very concerning that the "small tech" is also bowing harder than big tech.
But this may be the price for not donating?
Let’s not get carried away. The scope of the comment is pretty narrow if you read it closely
The only thing I want to hear from you is that you actively disavow Trump, or if you feel this is going to hurt your business, at least say nothing at all. Anything other than that marks you as a shameless suck-up, and I want nothing to do with you or your business.
Ergo, I want nothing to do with Proton. It's time suck-ups pay the price and see their bottom lines drop because of their dubious choices.
It send a chill down my spine nonetheless
Yes. The "Trump was a good idea after all" take seems almost to be spreading like a meme at this point.
that also includes Tim Berners-Lee
You mean that traitorous piece of shit who sold us out to DRM on the Web?
Actually I ended up coming round to his view on this. If Firefox has stuck to its principles on DRM, then it would have been goodbye Firefox. And then you would have had no decent options at all, and neither would I. The setting is still opt-in.
Sometimes we have to compromise.
Yeah plus it's a swiss company...with a crypto banking feature. They probably just want to attract Nazi bitcoin.
Sad. The way tech companies are changing stripes, we are about to hit a surveillance state by summer
The US are a surveillance state already. But I guess it could get even worse.
It’s like everyone forgot about the Patriot Act and NSA stuff. This shit has been going on through at least 4 different presidents. And that’s just the modern surveillance state.
I don't understand how everyone can be so blind to the surveillance that already exists.
Literally all your communications or purchase or browsing history, 90% of people's photos and contacts, everything you ever say near your phone/smart devices, your health data with devices like fitbit, cm resolution spy satelites, 4D maps of the entire globe being created via services like Pokemon Go, phones create and store in the cloud high resolution 3D maps of your face, mesh networked devices like Alexa now surveil without you even having internet access, your home and your exact location down to a meter are already being live spied on. Not to mention full remote access to all your devices.
Sometimes with a thin veneer of privacy on top of it, like Apple pretends to have.
Basically the only part of you that the surveillance state doesn't constantly surveil already is your butthole.
Even avoiding just 10% of this surveillance in your daily life is almost impossible.
Soon smart toilets will also surveil your butthole.
It's like people were born after Snowden's leaks
Taking the time to remove Google, embraced proton mail ... Maybe it's time to just write letters and send meme post cards.
Meme post cards are a great idea actually.
Amateur Radio.
There is a mobile app (called "Rattlegram") that converts a string of text to a wave of audio (played though your phone's speaker) and then someine on the receiving end could also use this app to decode.
You can use Secure Space Encryptor (SEE) (known as Paranoia Text Encryption on iOS) which is a Open Source encryption app that can turn text into a string of ciphertext using symmetric encryption. Paste the ciphertext on Rattlegram and send it over amateur radio.
Then just decode and decrypt on the other end.
Warning: Encryption over amateur radio is illegal, this is for entertainment purposes only.
(I mean you could also just send the ciphertext over SMS 🤷♂️, but ham radio is cooler 😎)
That's pretty cool, nice tool for the communication toolbox
hand drawn, because of these fingerprinting yellow dots
Same here; but I'm switching to tuta
There is no ethical consumption under capitalism, and that applies to tech. I pay for Proton and this is disappointing af but not shocking. Corporations and wannabe billionaires always fold to fascism.
Gonna start looking around at alternative email services to consider but I use my Proton email everywhere, so switching away is going to suck.
I mean, dude is one out of 5 board members:
Yeah, I think (hope?) we will find that his opinion is not echoed among them.
People don't accidentally get on a board. The whole idea is that you actively search for and interview and even recruit people who best embody the values of your project. Then you get nominated and often voted.
Ingl, I think the only way to stay sane these times is to ignore what they say and look at what they do. As long as his products are up to my standards and values, I'll just ignore whatever he says to appease whomever
I think I'll have to do this as well. I'm tired, boss.
no ethical consumption under capitalism
I agree with this as much as the next guy, but this is also kinda cope.
I take it as more of an observation and use it to be more mindful of what I buy, the services I use, etc. The reality is that we don’t know what happens behind the scenes with so much of this stuff, but we can still be conscious of it and use it as an opportunity to reduce clutter in our lives.
When you register a domain, you own the whole name-space of that domain:
All possible sub-domains of your domain are yours. All possible URLs on the domain are yours. All possible email addresses on the domain are yours.On your domain, you are also free to choose the linked services such as web, email calendar etc. If you are not satisfied with one provider, you are free to switch to another one at your own convenience.
Why does he think Trump is against big tech when he's working side by side with Musk?
He doesn't. it's just lube to help his customers swallow his bullshit
I see a lot of good discussion here. I've been on proton for years now, using my own domain. While true that Andy is one of 5 board members, and it's a nonprofit etc, these statements are raising hairs on my neck, personally.
Does anyone have a good guide on problems associated with self-hosting email?
Why can't we have nice things?
I can understand being fine with a nomination that aligns with his personal interests but from there the journey to « party of small people » likely takes a convoluted path.
Very disappointing that this is the CEO and founder of Proton. I'll be moving my stuff elsewhere and deleting my account this week.
I literally just switched over from Google a few months ago and finally got all settled in. Just great. Does anyone know of any good alternative? I know Tuta exists, are there other options?
FWIW if you switched once then next switch is RADICALLY easier.
I’ve liked my experience setting up Purelymail with a custom domain!
Same here. Fuck me.
posteo: https://posteo.de/en I am using their service since roughly 10 years and am completely satisfied :)
I'm on the same boat :')
I know there's Fastmail, but I don't know if they have privacy on the level of Proton. I just know that one of the hosts on a tech podcast that I listen to moved there from Google and was impressed at how smooth the process was.
DisRoot ?
I rate disroot as a good free alternative. Personally I use FastMail. It's paid, but you know how the saying goes, "if the service is free the you're the product".
I just got started with mailbox.org. So far so good!
Sure, yeah, anti-big tech.
Maybe Waluigi will make a prominent appearance at the inauguration too.
Oh FFS, and here I was recently considering switching to ProtonMail... fuck the fuck off.
Dear CEOs: if you're eager to suck dick, I'm sure you can find someone better than authoritarian shitheads. Have some fucking standards.
If you think any anti trust shit is happening to any company who gave trump a million dollars, I have a used car I would like to sell you.
May it live forever even if they delete the toot: https://web.archive.org/web/20250115165213/https://mastodon.social/@protonprivacy/113833073219145503
I am dissapointed that my VPN is getting involved in US politics. This is not something I want for this kind of service. I dont want to debate US politics here. That being said, I cancelled my annual autorenew for April and I would like some recommendations. Originally I was deciding between Mulvad and Proton. I've also seen some people in this thread using Tuta? I am in Europe and just want a service that prioritizes anonyminity and data protection. I don't know how the dust will settle on all this Proton stuff. What would you all recommend for a provider?
Yes I'm sure he'll crack down hard on all the tech companies that are giving him millions of dollars and kissing his feet...
What a moron.
Another tech dipshit, whose wealth allows him to exist outside the realm of reality, bending the knee to an anti-democratic felon rapist so he can get some handouts.
Pathetic loser.
Growing up, if you had told me half or more of America would end up elevating a rapist to the presidency and prostrating themselves at his feet, I'd have laughed you out of the room. This nation has sunk LOW.
NordVPN is superior in every way. If you have ProtonVPN, dump it and swap to Nord.
NordVPN is superior in every way. If you have ProtonVPN, dump it and swap to Nord.
Have we learned nothing of the whole "spend millions upon millions on YouTube sponsorships" debacle? Nord absolutely is hiding something from us.
If you need to forward ports, AirVPN seems the best right now. Otherwise, Mullvad.
Nord has been on my shit list ever since one of their servers got physically penetrated and they tried to slide it under the rug rather than notify users
I genuinely don't see anything inherently suspicious about advertising through YouTube videos. Yes, there have been a few big name ones that were problematic, but that's going to be true with most advertising, I'd think.
The other big one coming to mind being the Scottish titles thing. Which, I never thought it was legit, and anyone thinking it made them a real Lord or Lady was foolish, but in Scotland it's illegal to subdivide property that much and sell it as souvenir plots of land. And people's coverage on the topic really annoyed me because they focused so much on some Scottish titles organization saying they didn't recognize land ownership as meaning you had a title, which, to me, is far less of an issue. Like, if you're selling me something and saying that it makes me very distinguished to own it, I know that's bullshit, but I'd expect to actually own the thing in the end.
Eh. I've read about multiple audits of NordVPN. All the data available suggests NordVPN is highly secure. And I don't entertain conspiracy theories so I'm just going to stick with the data available.
FYI, Nord no longer allows port forwarding as of a couple years ago. Proton is one of the few providers who still have that feature.
Compare:
https://support.nordvpn.com/hc/en-us/articles/19483392309649-Does-NordVPN-offer-port-forwarding
As far as I know, this only matters if you're hosting a VPN server or torrenting, and you can just buy a static IP from Nord for cheap, like all their services. Personally, I don't torrent on VPN because I just ignore all the DMCAs I get and have never had a problem, probably because I'm not a notorious uploader. And it wouldn't affect your ability to download torrents if you don't have port forwarding on VPN, just your ability to upload.
For the vast majority of VPN users just looking for anonymity while they surf/download, port forwarding it not necessary.
And, personally, if I did need it, I'd find a VPN service that provides it without its CEO prostrating themselves to a rapist.
Growing up, if you had told me half or more of America would end up elevating a rapist to the presidency and prostrating themselves at his feet, I'd have laughed you out of the room. This nation has sunk LOW.
Bill Clinton won reelection. Now, granted, he was not Trump levels, he was a piece of shit who at the very least abused his role and power over women. Now, even after me too, he's a beloved elder statesman. Just saying, the nation has sunk lower, but I don't know that's a lot lower than where we were when we were kids.
he was a piece of shit who at the very least abused his role and power over women.
And bombed a pharmaceutical factory in Libya to distract people from the fact he couldnt keep it in his pants
In a pre-me too world, I think Clinton's sexual abuse scandal was far too abstract for people to really grasp. I'm not saying it was okay, I'm just saying I understand it not affecting things. But I would've hoped we'd be correcting ourselves over time, not getting worse.
Just saying, the nation has sunk lower, but I don’t know that’s a lot lower than where we were when we were kids.
Definitely disagree. A convicted felon and adjudicated rapist who incited an insurrection against our government, illegally attempted to overturn an election, fumbled his response to the greatest American crisis since WW2, removed women's rights, and attempts to divide Americans whenever his mouth opens is about to be sworn in as our leader.
framing him as a "tech dipshit" is a mistake, i feel. though it's definitely true lmao
like all things we should use class to analyse their motivation, and in this case it's very clear - andy, like mark zuckerburg, elon musk, and jeff bezos, is simply looking after his own interests as a member of the ruling class (that is, the class that owns the means of production under a capitalist system) by ingratiating himself with americas new ruler.
these people will always look after their own class interests before anything else, and it's through class analyses that we can identify their motivations. here he's simply trying to raise his own status within his class.
Nooooooo not Proton! 😡
What's that, Lassie? Another platform that's not self hosted outing themselves as a chud? Well, I never!
Email is notoriously hard to self host. It requires constant care, planning, and interfacing with the big guys when your email can’t get delivered despite jumping through all the hoops (DKIM, DMARC, SPF and more).
I used to run email services for my small business and former start-up. It was a never-ending pain. IP warming, monitoring, deliverability checks…. blah blah blah.
Both Google and Microsoft would regularly blacklist massive IP address blocks because of one bad IP address. Days to weeks for resolution in some cases.
I’m a little salty though ‘cause I just switched to proton away from RackSpace. There are so few good and reliable options that aren’t the big guys and the big guys want it that way.
Ffs. I just switched a ton of stuff over to proton. Hopefully this is an individuals view and not that of the company as a whole.
Nope, unfortunately. See official response posted above.
Yeah ..... One leads straight to the other.....
No, unfortunately not: https://lemmy.ca/comment/13913116
Me too... Fack...
I wouldn’t say he embraced Trump, I’d say he is pro-breaking big tech, since that would probably help Proton.
Bernie Sanders even came out and said “hey, if Trump wants to cap credit card interest rates, I’m with him on that.”
Trump says a lot of shit to appeal to working class people. I don’t disagree with reminding him of what he said and holding him to those things, if he’s now going to be president.
It's not even a matter of "thinking" that, it's basically what he said. All his "siding" is in the context of antitrust and breaking tech monopolies. I don't think trump will do much in this space, but dems didn't do much either. If Trump will (the election is over anyway, so we are not discussing of choosing trump for this) it's good, even if it comes from the Trump administration.
Under the divine guidance of Elon Musk, I strongly doubt if emperor Trump will break any big tech. More likely he'll pat them on the back (while requiring more surveillance data to be submitted).
This. Fuck Trump, but he does occasionally do good things, even if for all the wrong reasons. NAFTA was terrible for labour. That's not why he hated it, though.
And taxing imported oil is great. Though we need to tax or ban domestic carbon extraction too.
this is true! it's not that he loves donald trump and hates wokeism. it's that he's focused on his own class interests.
as a member of the ruling class it's his prerogative to gain more capital, and as a "small" tech company it's within his interests to weaken the big FAANG (or whatever the new acronym is) companies. he's hoping to supplant them with his own services (Which is why protonmail has expanded their services so much in recent years)
Really disappointing. Never imagined this from Proton. Truly dead to me now.
Extra weird because this is always the narrative, yet Trump could be any further from "standing up for the little guys" if he tried. It's the same with the AfD in Germany, their voted policies (which is public as per the EU regulations) are as anti-consumer pro-corpo as you can be, even edging our truly crazy libertarian money sucker positions.
Fox and Roku, everyone's two favourite small companies!
Glad I changed my stack over a few months ago:
- Proton Mail → Posteo
- Proton VPN → Mullvad VPN
- Proton Drive → Syncthing
I'd also recommend KeePassXC in place of Proton Pass, and Cake Wallet in place of Proton Wallet. However, these were both Proton services I never used anyway.
Long time Posteo user. It's pretty basic but works great, is reliable and is very cheap. Only downside is they don't support using it with your own domain.
First strike Andy.
Dude got weird "Libertarian" vibes:
But he's just one of five board members of the Non-Profit that owns Proton AG, not really a doomsday event... yet.
It's so all over the map, what does or doesn't count as toughness. That criteria rewrites itself in real time like the plot of a dream.
Avoiding or ignoring questions I would have thought is weakness. Letting covid sweep the country. Falling behind China and India with a weaker labor force. Being ready to surrender to Russia. Being unable to confront the truth that you lost an election.
Any number of mixed and matched definitions could include or exclude those from operative definitions of toughness/weakness without and make just as much sense. It's all just working backwards from tribalism.
...and you're out. That's enough for me.
He went after big tech as a punishment for fact checking the bullshit coming from his administration and his followers. That was it.
Now that all big tech has turned away from democrats (probably as punishment for their antitrust lawsuits), we will see a much different perspective from the Trump administration.
Proton Mail --> Mail-In-A-Box
Proton Calender --> Mail-In-A-Box
Proton Drive --> Mail-In-A-Box
Proton VPN --> Mullvad VPN
Proton Pass --> Bitwarden/KeePass+Mail-In-A-Box
Proton Wallet --> Stick with your cryptos base wallet app. Never give your private keys to any service.
Can't tell if > is meant as "greater than" or "can be replaced by"
Crap. Fixed it. Thanks!
What?? „Stands for the Little guys“
Are you fucking tripping?!
Little crooks, if they're seriously backing the Republican party, it's because they're admitting to being a two bit criminal wanting to be a three bit criminal.
It's double-speak, right here 41 years later for your aural pleasure.
In people fall for it all again 😓 it is so sad
Ah yes, Fox News. The company that is simultaneously 'news' or 'entertainment', depending on which description serves them better at the time. These are perfect representatives for the era where billionaires are supposedly 'anti-establishment' and book burners that police other people's identities and force their religion onto others are supposedly all for free speech and freedom of expression.
I just don't know anymore. How do you deal with people who will point at a fly and tell you that it's a bird, while sincerely believing it?
God. Fucking. Dam. It.
I use too many of their services right now to get everything switched over to something else before trump takes power.
The swiss better fucking jail this guy if he hands over data to the us government without swiss court approval, per swiss law.
Now I have to find a new password manager, VPN, and email provider. Open to suggestions, but I want to find services that aren't hosed in the us or by trump friendly countries/companies, and ideally use open source software and zero access encryption.
It might not have all the convenience of Proton Pass, but Keepass has been and probably always will be dependable.
For the email provider i recommend tuta
Mullvad for VPN and Tuta for email.
I'd be interested in the Mooltipass, but they've been out of stock for over a year, saying they're working towards a new unit. Last update I saw was about a month or two ago, saying they were 'close'...
I use password store for my management. There's a client for all the major UIs. But I have SO MANY aliases in proton pass.
Just some advice for all of you affected by this.
Begin demanding a response from the ownership of this company.
"Is this Message approved by your board, and owners"
Just leaving doesnt make a difference, and some of you in the comments bought services right before this. That fucking sucks.
We dont have journalists and media on our side to help any more(arguably we never did, but that's a separate discussion)
I think there are still good bones in Proton, but you know where at least one piece cancer is, and its in the worst spot. Demand as stakeholders that they remove the cancer or admit its not going to happen. Repeat your messages until they publicy respond as a company not just the head of it.
Its a shame if you dont do at least as much as expressing that they owe you an explanation and that you need the company as a whole, to why this had happened
This is a betrayal to many of you, tell them exactly what they need to do
Good luck. It only takes one of you to suceed and we all win
Biden's pick Lina Khan deserves all the credit for aggressively prosecuting anti-competitive practices. However, Gina Slater looks like someone capable of continuing that work and a legitimate admirer of Lina Khan. Yes there are ties to Vance and the FTC office is likely to end up beholden to the egomaniac in chief. So the whole "little man" thing aside (that's baloney), that's one person that's not a shit stain out of all the shit stains in the incoming cabinet.
Look Lemmy, you're welcome to choose what you want in your life and what you don't. But being too rigid with letting stupid opinions of a project's founder cause you to reject everything, would have you miss the big-picture benefits of having such a project exist. If you look at this Lemmy development co-leader's opinions on transgenderism, are you going to stop using this software that lets you converse on an LGBTQ+ safe-space instance with no involvement on a social level from said developer/founder?
No, it's not only one person in the board. They confirmed their stance via their official Mastodon account. https://lemmy.ca/comment/13913116
Vance, the U.S. vice president-elect, has said antitrust officials should take a broader approach to antitrust enforcement, and praised the work of Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan
Reading this confuses me greatly because republicans, especially Jim Jordan from what I remember, have been harassing and preventing Lina Khan and the FTC from taking action against big corporations.
Hell if she is doing such a great job, why fire her and replace her with a snake whose views are the antitheses of Khan's outlook.
The flaw was to assume there's a connection between what Republicans say and what they do.
The lemmy devs may have opinions, but they've never interfered with blahaj zone or anything
Precisely. And this is much in the same way coming from the CEO and Proton official accounts. Republicans use Proton, just as much as Democrats. Until I see evidence that Andy Yen's misguided philosophy leaks into Proton's offering itself (and not just their PR channels), I'm willing to give benefit of doubt. Part of it seems to be not wanting to get on the wrong side of their leaders. As a reminder, these are the leaders that have been given a blank cheque from both voters and the justice system to do whatever they please with dissidents.
transgenderism
At risk of going slightly off topic, trans people aren't an -ism. It's not an ideology, though transphobes love to frame it that way (not saying you are).
Yeah I was trying to summarize in a word how the linked comment used it, the developer was not talking badly of trans people per se, but was critical of how their group and the cause to express their identity is being misused by the ruling class. I imply that it could be transphobia, but I'm not certain if it is, even if I understand why it would be an upsetting and hurtful take for some. If there's a better way to describe this succinctly with a more respectful framing, I'm open to alternatives.
A CEO or any kind of leader gets to determine the path that their organization takes. Slater may seem good now; but we won't know until the proof shows up in the pudding, so you can only try to guess based on whom she take orders from. (Fwiw: I hope you're right)
Bourgeoisie liberals do indeed use the transgendered in the same way that they used gays back in the 1990's, as little more than a virtue signal and now (just like back then) they retreat from that virtue signal when it no longer suites their purposes.
Unlike the Democrats & other liberals; there is plenty proof in Lemmy's pudding of its creators' intentions. The generations long reconciliations that LGBTQIA people had to struggle & die to force acceptance in the western world; despite the Democrats; is now falsely appropriated to pink wash anyone/anything who disagrees like it is here.
I get you. It's important to remember there is nuance on topics/people you agree and disagree with, rather than jumping to "is against transgenderism", or "agrees with Republicans on everything".
Like you say, actions will speak louder than words. The further the Proton team can put their product and governance away from these opinions the better. The transition to non-profit structure is a positive step in that regard.
edit: forgot an important word in my comment
But being too rigid with letting stupid opinions of a project’s founder cause you to reject everything, would have you miss the big-picture benefits of having such a project exist
That's the truth. The reason online "communities" constantly argue and never get anything done is because everyone is focused on not doing the wrong things that they forget about doing the right things. A while ago I saw a post making fun of some chuds who compiled a list of "woke" video games that they wanted to boycott. The people in this thread deciding to leave proton because its ceo said something positive about trump once don't strike me as much different.
Well, I'm embracing a new e-mail service. And maybe a new VPN.
Proton has been giving me some issues sometimes when I couldn't access my inbox, I can't have that when I'm in great need to see if anything has happened. Also, I've joined Tutamail just now and I can make a lot of folders. Screw you, Proton for endorsing trash and limiting how many folders I can make. Which sounds like a silly complaint and it kind of is, but who the hell limits basic features like that?
So I'll be giving Tutamail a year long trial, just as I did with Proton 4 years ago before making it my primary service of choice. Push comes to shove, I'll just use GMail again for at least it's reliability and as an ironic middle-finger to Proton for this kind of move.
Regrading Update 2, maybe the other board members can push his guy out? I'm paid for to the end of the year, so I'll wait it out a bit. I'd rather not jump ship, only to have that ship also go pro fascist too.
Swiss-based Proton? Wtf? One less reason to switch from Tuta.
Well, that's a platform I'm leaving now.
OK let me add fuel to the fire. here in Andy's response he says the tweet was from last year which is technically true but it was from December 2024.
Also how can he think that Trump stands for little guys when he has elon musk as his pet monkey
well this makes me slightly less fomo'd after going for tuta and mullvad- but i'm probably jinxing it rn ;-;
He does realize that Big Tech loves trump, right?
Hmm... is Tuta still good these days?
Talking from a usability standpoint it's gotten much better. It's still slow to open the app but the search got much more efficient.
I've always had it as a backup email so it'll be relatively straight forward to gradually migrate. I meant more in terms of its security/privacy reputation and whether or not a CEO has said/done anything concerning.
It's not bad
I’m not sure what’s worse, kissing the ring or taking that Trump post seriously. He obviously did not write it, and he also obviously only makes statements like this to threaten others and secure their loyalty. Here we are a month later, and some of the richest tech bros in the country are expected at his inauguration.
the rich got so unbelievably rich and the poor became so insignificant / invisible that these few people in the middle think they're the "little guys"
wake the fuck up
This is a stretch & honestly not worth abandoning proton because of this.<br> Don't just abandon a good FOSS/Privacy project just because of a CEO's (of a frickin Non-Profit in Switzerland) statements, you're too busy arguing & not getting things done Have some nuance guys
Could be 1000+ IQ chess move in disguise, appeal to Trump's ego & get him to make trouble for big-tech Let's see whether this actually affects Proton & decide from there
as a side-note: people from techlore are scumbags
It is not just Andy’s opinion, official Proton accounts have doubled down on it too:
https://lemm.ee/post/52665828/17509919
https://old.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/comments/1i1zjgn/comment/m7ahrlm
Again, not a big deal, it's based in Switzerland & they won't let USA interfere with their politics
But honestly the guy should've followed Swiss's Neutrality stance & kept his mouth shut
Does this affect the product ? Has it affected the product ? nope, not yet
Listen to what you're saying man - Spinless coward is gonna spineless coward, and he showed us he is a spinless coward - can't trust a person with no integrity.
A coward that can be removed & who is also in Switzerland Also, have some patience, who knows we might see a change in opinion
These CEOs really don't want the average people to like them.
I don't think they can comprehend what an average person is.
I don't think he's technically a "CEO" anymoreHe was one of the founders, but Proton AG has since transitioned into being majority owned by a Non-Profit organization, and he's only one of the five board members of that Non-Profit.
Edit: I mean, yes he is a "CEO", but what I'm trying to say is, he isn't the sole owner, nor some dictator.
That's annoying, I was thinking about switching away from GMail to Proton, but now that's out of the question. Anyone who cozies up to fascist fuckwads isn't a trustworthy keeper of my data. All these CEO types are the same.
This is worthy of raising complaints to the board of Proton, kick this stupid fucker off.
Oh well. Another scratch on my list of companies I'll never patronize.
I'm not going to switch away from them just yet... But I am going to start using an address with my own domain. My only regret is not doing this from the beginning.
Andy is sad that he didn’t taste that sweet sweet cheeseburger and diet coke cock.
Someone's account got hacked?Gonna wait some time in case this is an account hack.Edit: Also can I just say that Proton's cloud drive thing suck ass. Like on the mobile app you cant even download an entire folder, you have to manually download the files, and if you download more than 25 files at once, it gets buggy and not all files get downloaded.
Edit 2: Oof, this motherfucker got some weird "Libertarian" vibes
Why he gotta praise trump's stupidity? Who the fucks stands there like an idiot when there could be more than 1 shooter? Its nothing to praise, its stupidity to stand there, if there was a second shooter, his dumbass would be dead.
Edit 3: Btw Proton is controlled by a board of five people:
This dude is just one of five, no need to switch providers yet, but it is a bit concerning...
He's the founder and CEO tho. Not looking good :( I'm surprised this went unnoticed until now. The tweet is from December!
Insanity
It’d actually be super useful if all of the VPN CEOs publicly stated which authoritarian leaders they are a fan of, so that consumers can make an informed choice on how easily they’ll sell you out to the security apparatus of your country.
Any good alternative to proton services? For mail I have tuta so far, but they cover only that part and the webmail UX in tuta is actually worse for the free tier.
I've been using Infomaniak for the past two years, and I'm mainly happy about it (drive and online docs editor have been working really well, idk about the webmail cause I use Thunderbird).
Did he (the CEO) really need to do this? 🍄's probably never even heard of Proton. The transition for me from Tuta to Proton was long and rough, so I'm not prepared to jump ship just yet and really hope I won't have to.
Well shit, I was about to make the switch to Proton for email... glad I've been lazy about it, now. I'll figure something else out, mail-in-a-box looks like what I really want anyway
Oh damn. I was hoping proton had another good 20 years before some limp-dick ceo started with this shit.
I guess that makes tuta the company to beat?
Posteo as well
Large corporations like google have grown and thrived in Silicon Valley, supported by the politicians of California. So by extension they are partially responsible for enabling these companies to be the giants they are.
According to this article Google has funded 40 elected officials and spent $10.7 million in lobbying California's legislature and Governor this year alone.
If a president (even a shitty one) was considering putting a damper on companies like google, I would not be against that. We'll see if anything actually happens.
I'm not ditching Proton over one fucking tweet
Good for you
Lmao, proton looked sus to me for a long time. Good I never felt for anything more than their email.
Pop goes the weasel
Is he right about the start of the anti-trust action ?
One thing I saw was lacking in the comments here are some alternatives (Some were named, more self-hosted options, which can be good for a person, but not always)...
RiseUp.net and Disroot.org both are ran by collectives, and both protect your privacy. RiseUp has a log of how they've done so, as well.
Someone remind me, what's the first chapter in On Tyranny?
It's almost understandable to bend the knee in the hopes of avoiding the coming purges, but this goes well beyond just seeking corporate survival. Genuinely disgusting. It looks like the way forward for Proton will be lit by the bridges they're burning.
And I was so close to paying for Proton...
WELP
Let's see if he keeps Leena Khan if he's so anti trust
Damn it. I just switched over from Google about a month ago. Worked on creating lots of aliases for my signs-in throughout the internet. I'm not leaving this easily, but now it's something that I'm thinking about and will bounce if things get worse.
He's just one of five board members of the Non-Profit that owns Proton AG. Not really a doomsday scenario.
Phew! Thanks for letting me know
Oh damn
Trump fired Lina Kahn, so we know this is bullshit.
Is this the same as, "fuck standards, pay for a walled garden, and promote crypto-scams" proton? I'm shocked 😮
Must be talking about a dwarf Trump pays to wipe his ass.
Aww FUCK. I'm a huge proton pass user. I don't want to go looking for a replacement but if anyone knows an easier way to set up email aliases on the fly and reply to emails sent to that alias easily like I can w proton I would switch
say what you will about trump. sure hes a small pathetic man. sure he is under musk and putin, but there are people under him. He may be a sycophant but he is the head sycophant.
I guess it's time to look at self-hosted cloud storage services like NextCloud, OwnCloud, Seafile, CryptPad etc. that can replace Proton Drive, but does anyone have any recommendations for a secure email service to replace Proton Mail? From what I read on r/selfhosted, while you can technically run your own email server, it's just not worth it.
My take is that a libertarian who thinks big government (or the spooky 👻 deep state) is out to get him is an attitude I want for the ceo of a privacy company.
If Trumps associates are going to jail for refusing to turn over passwords to their proton accounts, then I think the service is working.
Gonna be super funny when Trump turns on him anyways though, and bans proton from the US, because only his privacy actually matters.
Noooo pls noooo
I was considering a new email. Bullet dodged!
Let the salad tossing commence.
One thing that this entire situation has done for me is to make me feel more justified in my posture of never paying a subscription for an online service if I can avoid it. So far I'm using Proton stuff for the free tier only, so I can have some degree of relaxation in evaluating any alternatives withotu also having to worry about banking stuff.
Is this really the CEO of proton? Is there a link to the tweet?
He's a board member, and original CEO. The official proton account doubled down on the same trash
If for "little guys" Proton CEO intends minors, we are cooked 🤦
Also, top 10 anime plot twists
What the dems get for crushing populism in their party. If Trump ends up actually arresting a bunch of Democrats... well that's karma bithcez
Im glad I dont use any of their products
It's ridiculous how many people just go "oh well time to dump Proton" because of a picture (not even a link) of a tweet without context. Also the title is misleading. Andy Yen in this picture is complementing Trump, and also apperently posting facts about who started the antitrust actions. "Embracing" is, really, as I have written, misleading.
proton is CIA
Evidence?
Based!
People have private lifes. CEO‘s too. I don’t see why I should remotely care what the personal opinion of a CEO is. And I am deeply concerned that this is such a big deal, no matter what their opinion is.
If you have a personal problem with that, that‘s totally okay. Putting them on a stand, is not okay. Let them have an opinion. Debate if you disagree. But stop making such a scene out of everything.
Leftist: fuck the little guy
