this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2026
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You know who hasn't given money to far right extremists? Proton and it's founder.
I remember when people went ape shit because the CEO, Andy Yen, approved of one of Trump's pick for the antitrust division.
Then the antitrust pick happened to be good at her job, so Trump fired her and people realized Andy wasn't so wrong after all but still hated him.
Everytime I tried to defend Proton, I got downvoted and insulted over this. Got called a MAGAt and a neo nazi sympethizer. I was told to use Mullvad and that it was so much better and I wouldn't be encouraging some right wing sympathizer even though Andy Yen never took any political stance.
Well who's laughing now?
You're probably downvoted and insulted because you made up a narrative. He straight up said Republicans were the party of privacy, and were shilling them. The backtracking 'Oh I was just supporting the pick' was Proton's PR company coming later, after nuking a significant number of reddit posts from andy yen doubling down, as well as iirc the entire mastodon thread where he was doing the same. It was wild as fuck to watch in real time, we were literally joking in discord that some poor intern was probably trying to physically wrestle the keyboard away from Yen while screaming for someone to call their PR company.
That whole fiasco is literally why Proton no longer uses mastodon, because no one there let them forget the whole thing despite attempts at nuking the posts from existence.
This isn't the first time proton, and andy yen specifically, has shown a troubling tendency towards supporting fascism. Vibe coding their apps is also a big warning flag just from a security point of view as well.
I've still been hesitantly recommending proton VPN to my friends, because a questionable VPN is better than no VPN, and most people aren't willing to shill out money for... well, mullvad used to be what I recommended if they were willing to pay for it, but I guess I'll have to rethink that now. But yeah, it was, to my knowledge, the best free VPN, though that's a low bar.
You got a source for that?
Well, there's his literal original post on X, praising republicans as the party of privacy against big tech: https://x.com/andyyen/status/1864436449942110660 When people lost their shit, he went on reddit and posted an 'official proton response', doubling down: https://archive.ph/quYyb (archive link because proton PR eventually came in start deleting things and creating a new narrative)
When that was deleted, proton claimed it 'wasn't actually an official response' despite being on the official proton account and literally saying 'proton's official response is', and a shitload of now-deleted doubling down in the thread that I don't currently have time to find, but you can probably see them in the thread by looking for the outraged responses to deleted posts (or finding whatever the current deleted-reddit-mirror is, I don't know the most up-to-date one atm). They then claimed they were 'politically neutral' despite that literally being impossible by dint of being pro-privacy, which isn't politically neutral at all. https://old.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/comments/1i29k9t/proton_shouldnt_use_their_official_socials_to/m7csaky/
I don't have time to really dig in and find all the deleted reddit/mastodon posts for you, but they're still around because the internet is eternal, and deleting something only hides it from shmuchks who don't know better, so I'm sure you can find em.
Here, 2 are some now deleted Mastondon responses from Proton.
nobody. because when fascism wins, everyone loses.
Proton has sponsored some French (?) rasist person recently. They have apologised for it and said it was a mistake. However. This is not the first stupid thing they've done.
PS. I'm no way a fanboy of anything. While I have been a Mullvad user for multiple years now, it seems like I have to reconsider that.
Omfg I am tired of this narrative, the guy signed up for their PUBLIC AFFILLIAT PROGRAM, they did not sponsor him. A PUBLIC AFFILIAT PROGRAM which anyone can sign up for.
It was a sponsorship and Proton's PR team accepted him. It's likely that they made a mistake, and that what's matter. Their product is based on trust, you can't afford to make mistakes like this. Or other mistakes like the previous incident.
Still does not defend Proton actually affiliating with them.
Except for financing a French fascist and a Brazilian fascist who is the son of a dictator who was one of the leaders of a fascist coup... You know, besides them.
They responded to that recently.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/comments/1u05xs2/comment/oqgihvq/
edit For those that don't want to click -
"You're right to raise this, and we want to address it directly and provide you important context on how this happened.
Vincent Lapierre's channel should never have been part of our affiliate and sponsorship program, because we intentionally avoid association with channels whose content could distract from our message and divide our community.
Proton operates globally, and while our services are available to everyone regardless of political views and our mission is consistent everywhere, our knowledge of every local media landscape is not. In this case, our team didn't have enough context about the French space to make a well-informed decision, and that's on us.
We also want to be straight about what a placement like this is and isn't. An affiliate or sponsorship arrangement is a transactional placement for awareness, not an endorsement of a creator's views. In the case of Vincent Lapierre, this was a single video sponsorship, not a partnership.
But that distinction doesn't excuse what happened here. The responsibility to vet who we put our name next to is ours, and we didn't meet it this time. We're now reviewing our vetting process and our guidelines for our marketing agencies to ensure this doesn't happen again.
If you see something like this again, tell us. We rely on your feedback and vigilance."
Yes, they likely brought on a PR person after their last major fuck up. It directly contradicts what those youtubers said about the sponsorship. Who knows who is telling the truth.
That AI-generated apology is better than doubling down like the last time, but they shouldn't be treated as this "oh they are clean and haven't been caught doing anything".
Though they didn't apologize for the Brazilian fascist support because that didn't go viral like the French one. They might still be paying him.
Wtf are they donating to strangers? That's too many ooopsi daisies, wtf?
I am also a candidate that will defend VPNs. And I'm a good person. Trust me bro, and send me the money. /S
its
Is this /s because proton sponsored Far right Youtuber Vincent Lapierre and then had to apologize for it?
They never sponsored him. He filled out some form online and it was an automated process. They also didn't know who the fuck that guy is. I'm French Canadian and even I don't know who he is. I never heard of him.
What in the serious fuck are you talking about, Proton just got caught giving money to far right influencers. "Accidentally" of course. They promise not to do it again, lol.
Also Andy's comment about Trump being anti-trust has aged like fine milk. It is almost like you should just keep your mouth shut when you don't know what the fuck you are talking about
Perhaps you should stop giving corporations your hard earned money.
Welcome to Lemmy, either conform or get ousted. It’s almost like Karl Marx is here with us today.
People just don't go read the sources and think for themselves and let the communities dictate how to think.
Anyway, I don't care. Because I know I was right.