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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

#641

Post by kfreds »

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 is your right. Daniel made his choice and now you make yours, as a number of other people in this thread has done. Some believe this party is left-wing, others right-wing. Some approve of it, others don't. Personally I don't, and as I've said elsewhere in this thread I wish he hadn't donated. As do many of our colleagues. To be fair though, there are also colleagues who do seem to approve. And then there are those who don't seem to care either way.

Still, I'm glad you recognize the possibility that Daniel and I are able to keep our personal opinions separate from the mission of our company. This is something we live in our daily work as well. As a workplace I'm glad we're not a monoculture of 100% like-minded individuals.

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

#642

Post by therouwboat »

dijit wrote: post #575
vitally3643 wrote: post #564

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's great and all but can I have a refund for the portion of my mullvad subscription that went to supporting organizations who think that people like me don't deserve to live?

Can you point to the charter where the Örebro party ever said that you don't deserve to live? The embellishments of what people actually believe is extremely exhausting. FWIW, I'm an immigrant in Sweden and if they gained power I would be affected, but we talk about people with differing views to us as if they're actively violent in order to shut down conversation. This catasphrophising language will eventually not h…

Its not that they start to feel numb, they didn't care in the first place. I have had random co-workers start talking about how they don't want foreigners in Finland and that in Sweden immigrants (maybe you) get free money and don't work.

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

#643

Post by myrmidon »

Barrin92 wrote: post #592
myrmidon wrote: post #472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An honest question: Would you like to live in a world where company/employer exerts more control over the views that are publicly expressed? Do you actually want voting to happen via wallet? This whole view kinda confounds me. I don't see how you can honestly profess to be on the tolerant/right side, morally, while trying to boycott someones business over his political views. Would you have preferred early feminists…

>If you want to vote for or against Örebropartiet, then just do it at the booth. I'm kinda confused here. The context of this is that a rich tech bro uses his money to fund and promote a political party, with our money, but we can't decide to not pay him because that's influencing money with politics (???) What kind of bizarro world is this, he can use his vast wealth to promote racist parties but we can't collective…

My point is that if you are boycotting the company despite living on the opposite side of the world from Örebro (thus being inherently unable to vote at the booth), then you are not really participating in politics, you are participating in a witchhunt (with negligible political effects).

I'm suggesting that small political progress is simply not worth witch-hunting for. If you have political concerns, engage by voting, starting your own party or advocating for your cause instead of ruining the career of a person you disagree with.

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

#644

Post by elorant »

Insanity wrote: post #371
devindotcom wrote: post #297

I understand Mullvad has historically been a leader in privacy among the big VPN options. What are some other equally affordable and user friendly options that you all have been satisfied with? Think for someone who saw Mullvad advertised during the Super Bowl but looking to leave because of this news.

I haven’t used Mullvad, so can’t say how it compares to ProtonVPN but I’m happy with Proton. It is super easy to set up, even on Linux and iOS devices.

Do they have a CLI?

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

#645

Post by SiempreViernes »

mjburgess wrote: post #599
dsign wrote: post #483

Slightly tangential on Swedish society, there are similarities between USA and Sweden. There's a large segment of society that is white and very blond, and there's a largish segment which is not. Along that same line there are all kinds of divisions: economic, education, religious, sets of values, and of access to things and possibilities. What pisses me off is that the cast of "CEOs of successful companies" live in…

What's the relationship between race and immigration status? It's not entirely clear what the argument which unites them is supposed to be. This unification is always in the mind of the white matry not the person opposing immigration. In the UK polish immigration was opposed, en mass, poles are white. SUPPOSE there are large numbers of poorly assimilated people in a country, whose culture of origin is very different…

[flagged]

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

#646

Post by csb6 »

distracted_boy wrote: post #629
KaiserPro wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it matter if they are left or right? The point is, they want to round up lawful citizens and turf them out of the country because they have the audacity to be slightly foreign, or worse born to someone foreign. that is the issue, not how much tax/spend big/little government.

That's not at all what they want. It's comments like yours that create unnecessary controversy, based on nothing but lies.

> 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."

Seems pretty cut and dry

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

#647

Post by willmarch »

kfreds wrote: post #555
mrhottakes wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you're a political company, but you don't want people to examine the politics of the people running the company? That seems naive.

Allow me to provide some nuance. I cannot speak for Daniel. I know there are some policies he likes and there are things he doesn’t like. Personally I am not a fan. This morning Daniel explained his rationale to most of the company. 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 un…

Oscar: "Look it doesn’t take a genius to know that every organization thrives when it has two leaders. shakes head Go ahead, name a country that doesn’t have two presidents. A boat that sets sail without two captains. Where would Catholicism be without the popes?"

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

#648

Post by SpaceNoodled »

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…

Ironically, remigration is a means to achieve a monoculture.

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

#649

Post by nout »

kfreds wrote: post #621
ryan_n wrote: post #562

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It should be obvious that Daniel's private donation to a political party is not part of Mullvad's values or mission Why should this be obvious? I don't think that's obvious at all. The owner of a company could very easily decide to one day use their company to further their political beliefs/ideologies (see: Twitter, FaceBook, etc..). Why would Mullvad be any different?

I'm sorry to hear you'll be leaving us. To answer your question, we started building this organization in the summer of 2008 for idealistic reasons, and we are still idealists who think privacy is fundamental to a civilized society. The best strategy for achieving societal impact through entrepreneurship is consistent, long-term, and value-based ownership. For us, this disqualifies taking outside investment, either t…

It's stupid when one of the CEOs of a private VPN company decides to fund political actors. That's just PR issue bound to happen. Funding bad actors bites you every single time - so maybe have a chat about if you have seen this coming - and if not why were you blind to this?

On top of this don't change your service based on this outrage. If you change it, then you will prove that Mullvad is malleable by political pressure. You can guess what happens next...

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

#650

Post by yreg »

something765478 wrote: post #554
yreg wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

Funny, I usually hear that sentiment from left wing sources complaining about billionaires.

Well I find the 'Eat the rich' slogan equally disgusting.
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