The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the far-right Swedish Örebro party
3 months ago by FallenWalnut to c/PurchaseWithPurpose
Worth noting if you are using their VPN services or Browser.
EDIT: Apparently, labelling them as far-right isn't as clear-cut from an economic perspective, but they do hold many core identity politics that are common amongst far-right parties such as:
- Voiced support for the idea of large-scale remigration on multiple occasions, even for Swedish-born immigrants: "Sweden belongs to the Swedes"
- Supports Sweden leaving NATO
- In favor of Sweden leaving the European Union in a so-called "Swexit"
- Stated that Sweden should only support other countries on the condition that it benefits Sweden and that it has to be "Sweden first"
People have been throwing around this “Personal funds” thing in all the reporting on this story. Trying to distance the company from the asshole.
Where exactly did Daniel’s “Personal funds” come from? Surely not the popular VPN that he is the co-owner of.
The only right move would be to remove him from the company entirely.
Given that he owns half of the company, that’s easier said than done
he's co-ceo and his co-founder has publically stated that he finds it unacceptable, but that "it's his money". don't really agree with that stance but point is this is still developing. they may let him go.
if you think that's bad you'll love the socdem party's lottery business, which is the main source of income for sweden's largest party and which they've managed to make illegal for any other party.
Jesus fucking Christ! I can’t use anything anymore. I think it’s time for me to take a few steps back from tech.
IVPN is my understanding. They supposedly provide support to the EFF
I looked at IVPN but it makes me sad that they wrote it in C, while Mullvad is Rust.
I already have proton drive which comes with proton vpn. So I started using that. EU-based VPN and so far it's been noticeably faster than mullvad with fewer captchas too. So I can't complain.
Proton's CEO has thrown his support behind Trump, so it's not a safe haven either.
He made a very dumb tweet and then walked it back. As far I know he hasn't made any material contribution to fascists, unlike the mullvad CEO.
That is a bit of an exaggeration.
Sorry but I used them back in 2010 and if they're still USA based you have to worry about 5/9/14 eyes. https://en.wikipedia.org/...
Is there any good verification of there no logs policy? If so it might still be the best option, Im using proton free rn after the news dropped.
Apart from there owned by Kape technologies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kape_Technologies. Apparently/allegedly the owner was funding transportation for Israeli troops into Gaza
They advertise all over Seattle transit, glad to know I shouldn't be doing business with them.
There's some important context that should be considered with this issue. And that is the company's response. And the fact that the co-CEO and other leadership at the company strongly oppose to his donation.
Speaking to TechRadar, Mullvad co-CEO Fredrik Strömberg confirmed that neither Mullvad VPN AB, its parent company Amagicom AB, nor its sister company Tillitis AB played any role in supporting the political party.
"Speaking for myself, I don’t like that he made this donation, and I know this view is shared by many of my colleagues. Speaking as the co-CEO of Mullvad, we will continue to protect the universal right to privacy," Strömberg said.
The firm also addressed the controversy publicly. In a statement posted to X, the team reiterated that Mullvad operates as a "political company" dedicated to fighting for freedom of speech, freedom of information, and the universal right to privacy.
"We also live these values by being tolerant in our daily work," the post continues. "No matter what their other opinions are and no matter whether the founders or anyone else in Mullvad dislike them. The founders themselves fundamentally disagree on several important issues."
Mullvad said it would "gladly refund" any customers who choose to cancel their subscriptions or switch to another provider due to philosophical disagreements.
That's a pretty good response in my opinion, and reaffirms my faith in their company.
Only issue I see is that's a co-owner/co-founder/co-CEO. Can you elaborate what else is misrepresented?
Hilarious how you include "leaving NATO" on the list of "far right ideals".
I mean the party is a bigoted joke of white supremacists, but Western countries leaving NATO is a progressive notion favored by leftists. The opposite of reactionary shit.
I'm summarising the points raised about why they are being reported as far-right.
The NATO and "Sweden First" points aren't that big of a deal, but collectively they touch on all the same talking points of far-right parties, which is why they are being labelled as such.
Most of these political parties are being financed by countries like Russia, which want to break up these alliances and promote isolationist/nationalist ideologies.
Both can be correct. Far-right influencers around the world are funded by Russia. Russia wants NATO disbanded. So you see hucksters online saying we should leave NATO. As well as far-right assets like Trump.
It sounds like when the UK wanted Brexit. Most leftists support that, but for entirely different reasons of not wanting to be part of the empire.
If "leftists" support leaving NATO is to promote Russian and Chinese global military supremacy. They're not leftists, they're tankies. Ironically the American fascists who are preaching to leave NATO and trying to harm it for Putin's benefit, have helped things a lot. EU nations are starting to reject buying American made war machines and denying requests to build American bases on their soil. This is going to really hurt America's ability to force project which is a good thing. Just need to be careful that China and Russia do not fill the hole.
Based!
Looks like I am switching to Mullvad, especially since Mullvad's response to this "matter" is to uphold free speech and not join in on cancel culture.
Anyone who complaining about this needs to grow up and learn to respect other people for their opinion. I am certain many snowflakes have shopped at stores were the owner would be considered a "facist". I am certain I have shopped at businesses were the owner was politically different than me, but I won't go on a crusade to get the owner to step down over opinions.
"B-b-but he is a nazi!" its 2026, everyone is a nazi now because of snowflakes pointing and sputtering.
Looks like this user recently returned to Lemmy after a long break. I’ve seen them a few times in the past day or two, and my old user tag is still very true.
I tagged you a year or two ago. Not because I disagreed with you, but because you were clearly a MAGA troll.
What will people do the day they realize fascists and their sympathizers are breathing the exact same air they themselves breath? Boycott breathing?
I'm getting tired being shown that kind of FUD shit posts about whatever some CEO has or has not done regarding their personal political views and preferences.
Sure, that's obviously a me issue (and, yeah, quite obviously too, I must be one of those assholes too), but since it seems rather difficult to filter out that kind of content from Lemmy/piefed without actually risking removing most other content at the same time, I will take that as a hint it maybe simpler to remove myself for around here.
I kinda get your point. But at the same time if you pay money for this VPN, a non-insignificant part of the money will go to this guy.
So if someone has a problem with the ideology, is it that weird that they choose not to do business with this provider?
Apparently the bulk of his income comes from other companies he co-owns that deal in investments, with him only taking a small amount of dividends from Mullvad profits.
So yes, if you buy a Mullvad subscription, there’s a nonzero probability that a small amount of that will go to a fascist sympathiser who may donate it to the local Nazis, much in the way that if you subscribe to a Substack, there’s a probability that some of your subscription will go into the pockets of Nazis whom the company promotes in the name of “free speech”.
Why do you care about my personal view on news articles? Oh, because it affects you. You know what also affects other? Right wing extremism. Because it kills people and I would like to know if my money gets used to kill people
Fascists shouldn't breathe, that's a problem we must fix
This isn't FUD tho. What head of the company is doing with the money he gets out of is relevant for customers. Especially since a good deal of trust is put into using a VPN, the company's character is kind of part of the package (and they will say so themselves in their marketing material).
While I get your meaning that is one of the crappiest analogies I have ever seen. Why not make a decision to not support something your against. I really don't understand people not taking it into consideration.
I'm getting tired being shown that kind of FUD shit posts about whatever some CEO has or has not done regarding their personal political views and preferences.
…he posted in the comments of an article on /purchasewithpurpose.
According to Allard, they're a populist party based on nationalistic and marxist values. Doesn't quite fit the left-right scale I'd say. But I guess "far-right" generates more clicks and stirrs more emotion.
Edit: I've been played for a fool. Thanks for pointing out that Marxism is just a branch of socialism. Downvote away, I do not condone nazism and this comment was bad. Will leave untouched though, as erasing history is a bad idea.
the man made up a type of guy to be mad at which just so happened to include queers, journalists and immigrants, and to win points with the old-guard stalinists we still have here he called them a "class" and decided to wage clasn war on them. it's right-wing populism draped in a red flag.
Yeah, I bet nobody remembers that one party that had nationalistic and socialist (for party members, anyway) values. I wish I could remember where they were on the left-right spectrum....
Hmmn, internet meme thing is working weird when the proponent basically describes the subject as "nazi" as if that's better than "far-right", within 2 comments.
Strange fucking world.
@lemmy.world
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@lemmy.world
A community driven to showing our voice through the things we buy and use.
A few useful links:
go to feed...
He is the reason the party still exists
save