Andy Yen's values are incompatible with Proton's mission. He advocates for poor security practices, supports fascists, and he verbally abuses his subordinates. As such, I can no longer in good conscience continue to financially support a company with such terrible leadership.
Unfortunately for me, my subscription just renewed last month on a multi year plan, but it does give me time to browse for and experiment with alternatives.
If you're able, I encourage you to do the same and cite Andy Yen as the driving factor for your decision. We can't let these tech bro fascists destroy what little semblance of privacy we have left.
The masses aren't using Protonmail. I think cancelers will make a meaningful difference.
Meanwhile the masses downvoted me, and upvoted you
Protons marketing department is the only department that performs well, people love to follow, and love to be brand fans, gleefully ignoring all the signs that what they are a fan of, is just an illusion they were sold.
That does (as you suggest) also allow for the possibility that the same people will also follow others away from proton... at which point most of them (the masses) will all follow each other to something else (which may, or may not be a decent choice this time)... not learning anything from this, yet again.
Chances are the proton brand fans, will just defend them though, just as they have been doing for years.
I have seen a number of long time donors that have announced they're planning to cancel their patronage.
Also keep in mind that most downvotes are due to the bandwagon effect and also also that votes don't necessarily indicate validity.
Also also also i am not a part of that group that downvoted you, for what that's worth.
What the hivemind gives, the hivemind takes away, before hiveminding to the next pile of poo, and not learning a single thing.
Time will tell if this is just a hiccup, or more of an issue for proton though, a lot of their customers will be oblivious, apathetic, or defensive. There are so many consumers in the market these days, that what once would have been a death knell, is now just an annoyance. Proton can always just sack some staff and replace them with more ai anyway.
Proton fans downvoting is a long term thing, on multiple platforms. Go team proton yay!!
What are you trying to say here? That we shouldn't bother changing to a better service because Proton's marketing is so good? That some people won't hear the message, and so the message doesn't matter? That Proton will survive - and therefore no one should bother discussing its failings or alternatives?