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The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party

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Re: The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party

#731

Post by gpvos »

kfreds wrote: post #641
gpvos wrote: post #198

"Mullvad AB and its parent company Amagicom AB are 100% owned by founders [1 person] and Daniel Berntsson [...]"[0] So I'll assume he owns about 50%. Well, that ends my usage of Mullvad.[1] I appreciate that probably many of Mullvad's employees have different views, and obviously Berntsson has every right to his opinions and to express them, and I also appreciate that someone can have control over an opinionated comp…

I'm sorry to hear that. Yes, Daniel and I own 50% each. > obviously Berntsson has every right to his opinions and to express them Indeed. > and I also appreciate that someone can have control over an opinionated company and run it for one particular set of reasons but not for other causes that someone believes in That is exactly the case. > but in the end I just don't want my money supporting anti-people causes. As i…

I would like to add one note: if I were an activist in Iran, or in any other way my livelihood would depend on strong privacy services, I might keep using your service and even be (slightly) more certain of the company's resolve to keep my privacy protected. Although I would be very aware of the irony. But choosing for one's own safety can override other concerns. Very few things in life are black and white.

Re: The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party

#732

Post by dang »

modeless wrote: post #640
sph wrote: post #540

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The post linked has been removed, so I don't know what more we can speculate upon, 650+ comments in. It's strange to see HN mods allow this much attention to a political, and contentious issue.

I don't think "appetite to discuss" should be a justification to override the guidelines against political submissions and discussion. There is far too much politics on HN and it leaks into unrelated discussions too. There are plenty of other places to discuss politics on the internet.

The guidelines say that most political articles are offtopic. Most != all. The question is what should be in the setdiff of all - most.

About that, there are lots of past explanations: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...

Edit: more at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48724830 in this thread

Re: The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party

#733

Post by solid_fuel »

mattrighetti wrote: post #260
microgpt wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does it physically prevent Mullvad from logging your data?

They're known to run everything in RAM, nothing gets stored. You pull the plug and everything is gone. Of course, you have to trust the company on that.

> I use Mullvad because it physically prevents anyone from logging my data.

> They're known to run everything in RAM, nothing gets stored. You pull the plug and everything is gone.

> Of course, you have to trust the company on that.

So nothing actually physically prevents them from logging your data, and this entire series of statements from you mean nothing because it still boils down to "you have to trust the company". A statement which is true for every VPN provider.

Re: The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party

#734

Post by cucumber3732842 »

yreg wrote: post #419
drbscl wrote: post #310

Wikipedia of the party in question: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96rebro_Party# Doesn't really sound all that far-right to me. Nationalist, sure. I'm not Swedish though, so I would be interested in the thoughts of those who are actually affected by Örebropartiet's policies.

>Doesn't really sound all that far-right to me. To me too, then I got to the leaders quote on TV: "We must deport these damn parasites who sit and live at our expense." Yeah, okay. I know some politicians who speak like that, I feel I get the picture.

Maybe he was talking about beltway bandits, do they have those in Sweden?

Re: The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party

#735

Post by dang »

naturalmovement wrote: post #710
dang wrote: post #545

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What has been removed? The links I saw didn't have much information but as far as I can tell they're still up. From an HN point of view the idea is to give the discussion a place, since the community obviously wants to have it.

> From an HN point of view the idea is to give the discussion a place, since the community obviously wants to have it So where do you draw the line? Just this week I saw multiple offtopic Epstein schizoposts by 10+ year old accounts that were alternately flagged and vouched. Should we allow that too? My takeaway is this is a highly politically charged rant on a niche social media site — exactly the kind of discussion…

We try to draw the line according to principles that I've explained many times over the years. If you scroll back through the comments, for example, at https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so..., you'll find them. If you read some of those and then still have a question that isn't answered there, I'd be happy to take a crack at it.

Btw, I'm not claiming that we make every individual call correctly - that's an undecidable question anyhow since everyone will have their own evaluation of "correctly". But at the more general level of what principles to apply, I do think there's a certain consistency: they've been the same for many years, and we do our (fallible) best to follow them.

Re: The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party

#736

Post by Aachen »

belorn wrote: post #284
leokennis wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's draw this to its ultimate conclusion. Would you subscribe to an excellent VPN service, if it was run by [insert universally abhorred brutal dictator from history here]?

We can easier look at conclusion people make about banks and stock options. Will people invest money into index fonds and pension fonds if those fonds invest money into companies that produce and sell weapons to abhorred brutal dictators? What about buying stocks from telecommunication producers who operate in abhorred brutal dictatorships and who helps those dictators to control their population?

That's different. Loads of animals will be unhappy if they see others being given something they're not. We have a lottery which 3 million people (in the tiny Netherlands) are subscribed to only because you win as a street, and you won't want to miss out if your street wins right? Can't see your neighbors have more than you for no good reason!

The feelings of missing out and unfairness are deeply ingrained and stock markets give you stuff. At Mullvad, you buy something instead. If that's a life-essential product you can't otherwise get then the situations would be comparable. There's loads of VPN providers though, maybe not all as good but I would also be considering my options if I were a customer and hear this sort of thing (I'm not a customer of any VPN service). For stock markets and banks, on the other hand: whatcha gonna do, just not have a pension and work until you know roughly how much longer you'll live and that your savings will last till death? Assuming you earn enough to put money to the side in the first place, virtually all options are going to end up being partially invested in things you disagree with. A bank account is a legal requirement here (there's also agreements between the government and some banks to provide basic accounts so you can't be excluded from society like that). I find it much harder to fault people for wanting essentials; the situations are not the same

Re: The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party

#737

Post by solid_fuel »

anonym29 wrote: post #52
SCdF wrote: post #5

[flagged]

>ethnic cleansing via mass deportation "ethnic cleansing" is an emotionally charged term that conjures genocide in the popular imagination. It is not a good descriptive term for what can rightly be described as regressive or ultra-nationalistic migration policy.

[flagged]

Re: The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party

#738

Post by gpm »

kfreds wrote: post #570
WhitneyLand wrote: post #509

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fredrik, while acknowledging everything you said, the fact remains some of my money can end up empowering politics I find repugnant. If it were a small amount of money, it wouldn’t be an issue. If the politics at stake were less important, it wouldn’t be an issue. They’re not going to stop at immigration, look at other places in the world to see the future risk. Sorry, I was a paying and satisfied customer, and now I…

I'm sorry to hear that. I'm not defending his choice, but consider reading Daniel's rationale in the Flamman article. There's also his blog [1], which explains some of his views. I know he doesn't share all of Örebropartiets views, but I should let him provide that nuance. As I said in another comment, speaking for myself, I don’t like that he made this donation and I know this view is shared by many of my colleagues…

> I'm not defending his choice, but consider reading Daniel's rationale

This is literally defending his choice. More than that it is providing direct support to the views you are apparently trying to distance yourself from by suggesting people read literature in favour of them - not in a context where they even see opposing arguments.

But as a fun aside to the people debating that his views aren't right wing... consider this quote from the aforementioned blog (translation made via firefox's swedish to english model)

> A building permit officer at a municipal city building office is primarily dedicated to preventing, making it difficult, costly, delayed and uneasy construction. He causes great damage and thus produces negative value, but still also receives his salary from the tax of others and is thus supported by others.

Can we get more right wing than claiming that imposing standards on industry so they don't go around building death traps that kill people to save a few bucks "causes great damage and thus produces negative value". Not even as an argument that this particular office is overly restrictive, but just as a statement about building permit officers in general.

Re: The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party

#739

Post by kfreds »

square_usual wrote: post #676
kfreds wrote: post #641

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry to hear that. Yes, Daniel and I own 50% each. > obviously Berntsson has every right to his opinions and to express them Indeed. > and I also appreciate that someone can have control over an opinionated company and run it for one particular set of reasons but not for other causes that someone believes in That is exactly the case. > but in the end I just don't want my money supporting anti-people causes. As i…

> As a workplace I'm glad we're not a monoculture of 100% like-minded individuals. But if you're tolerant of someone in your workplace that wants to make it a monoculture, and then succeeds in doing so, will you remain glad?

I've known Daniel for 20 years. He's one of the most empathetic individuals I know. Neither he nor I wants to make our workplace a monoculture.

I get that you disagree with his choice, as do I. But please recognize that we've built this company together over 17 years. To suggest that you know better than me that he wants to create a monoculture at our workplace is ridiculous.

I'm not sure why you're arguing this point though. It seems we both believe he made the wrong choice?

Re: The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party

#740

Post by e40 »

kfreds wrote: post #641
gpvos wrote: post #198

"Mullvad AB and its parent company Amagicom AB are 100% owned by founders [1 person] and Daniel Berntsson [...]"[0] So I'll assume he owns about 50%. Well, that ends my usage of Mullvad.[1] I appreciate that probably many of Mullvad's employees have different views, and obviously Berntsson has every right to his opinions and to express them, and I also appreciate that someone can have control over an opinionated comp…

I'm sorry to hear that. Yes, Daniel and I own 50% each. > obviously Berntsson has every right to his opinions and to express them Indeed. > and I also appreciate that someone can have control over an opinionated company and run it for one particular set of reasons but not for other causes that someone believes in That is exactly the case. > but in the end I just don't want my money supporting anti-people causes. As i…

Who sees the party as left wing? Its seems like a disingenuous argument to make.
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