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Proton CEO embraces Trump for "standing up for the little guys" (lemmy.world)
submitted 4 hours ago by ShotDonkey@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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Unnecessary and deeply concerning bow to the new "king"

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[–] egerlach@lemmy.ca 10 points 42 minutes ago (2 children)

The official @protonprivacy@mastodon.social account replied and doubled down

protonprivacy@mastodon.social - @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

protonprivacy@mastodon.social - @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)

[–] dance_ninja@lemmy.world 2 points 4 minutes ago

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.

[–] egerlach@lemmy.ca 3 points 39 minutes ago

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.

[–] tomatol@lemm.ee 22 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Very disappointing that this is the CEO and founder of Proton. I'll be moving my stuff elsewhere and deleting my account this week.

[–] enbyecho@lemmy.world 11 points 1 hour ago

Just canceled my subscription.

[–] WhatSay@slrpnk.net 33 points 1 hour ago (3 children)

Taking the time to remove Google, embraced proton mail ... Maybe it's time to just write letters and send meme post cards.

[–] LeonenTheDK@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 hour ago

Meme post cards are a great idea actually.

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 1 points 44 minutes ago

Same here; but I'm switching to tuta

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[–] Ballissle@lemmy.zip 14 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Chip_Rat@lemmy.world 4 points 25 minutes ago

Yeah ..... One leads straight to the other.....

[–] akilou@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 hour ago

Sure, yeah, anti-big tech.

[–] Razzazzika@lemm.ee 3 points 20 minutes ago

Why does he think Trump is against big tech when he's working side by side with Musk?

[–] kaamkiya@lemmy.ml 1 points 15 minutes ago

Well, that's a platform I'm leaving now.

[–] anothermember@lemmy.zip 10 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

Hmm... is Tuta still good these days?

[–] idefix@sh.itjust.works 1 points 34 minutes ago

Talking from a usability standpoint it's gotten much better. It's still slow to open the app but the search got much better.

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[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 2 points 16 minutes ago

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.

[–] sasquash@sopuli.xyz 23 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

First strike Andy.

[–] enbyecho@lemmy.world 14 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 59 minutes ago)

...and you're out. That's enough for me.

[–] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 1 hour ago

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.

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 4 points 53 minutes ago* (last edited 39 minutes ago)

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?

[–] this@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

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.

[–] scytale@lemm.ee 8 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Mullvad for VPN, Bitwarden for password manager.

[–] this@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Yea I previously used bitwarden, my issue with it is that bitwarden is hosted in the US(which was the only reason I switched to PP), so I'm thinking about renting a vps and hosting vaultwarden in it or something.

[–] loics2@lemm.ee 1 points 6 minutes ago

They now have European hosting

[–] ibuprofen@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 hour ago

For the email provider i recommend tuta

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 95 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (2 children)

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?

[–] UnfortunateShort@lemmy.world 21 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] fishos@lemmy.world 16 points 1 hour ago

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.

[–] Unquote0270@programming.dev 4 points 1 hour ago

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.

[–] orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts 47 points 3 hours ago (4 children)

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.

[–] MonkCanatella@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

no ethical consumption under capitalism

I agree with this as much as the next guy, but this is also kinda cope.

[–] orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts 1 points 16 minutes ago

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.

[–] UnfortunateShort@lemmy.world 10 points 2 hours ago (3 children)

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

[–] orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts 8 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Agreed. If I haphazardly ditched services based on the opinions of tech folks, I’d be reduced to using a pair of cans attached with string and nothing else.

[–] curious_dolphin@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Were the cans and string ethically sourced, though?

[–] orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts 1 points 15 minutes ago

I saved them from a landfill! They smell kinda weird though.

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[–] coolusername@lemmy.ml 0 points 38 minutes ago (1 children)

proton is CIA

[–] YarHarSuperstar@lemmy.world 2 points 12 minutes ago

Evidence?

[–] HorikBrun@kbin.earth 171 points 4 hours ago (22 children)

Oh, goddammit.

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[–] hellfire103@lemmy.ca 22 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

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.

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