this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2026
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Privacy

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[–] ShutUpWesley@piefed.zip 1 points 22 minutes ago

A constant reminder that a person can be right about one thing and wrong about another.

[–] cosmosaucer@hexbear.net 17 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

what is it with vpn ceos n being fascists

[–] veniasilente@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 2 hours ago

I think it comes with the being a ceo. Become a legal parasite, get a free fascism.

[–] therealdries@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 hours ago

They're not fascists. They are liberals - and like liberal elites throughout history, they are utterly incapable of defending their precious private property by themselves. That is what they need the hencherproletariat for - fascists.

Fascism does not beget fascism - liberalism begets fascism. The liberal economic order is popping rivets all over the place... so some of these elites are building bunkers in New Zealand, while others do what liberal elites have always done when their power and privilege is facing a threat from below - feeding growth hormone to the vilest and most violent elements of the working class - the hencherproletariat. That is why you see liberals like Trump, Musk and literally a "whose who" laundry list of liberal elites enabling fascists and inviting them into power structures - they are essentially holding auditions for Hitlers and Pinochets.

[–] scytale@piefed.zip 5 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (2 children)

First, Bitwarden. And now Mullvad. Those were like the only two “good” things left that I use. Great products that are led by not great people. Sigh.

[–] Boisterous@hexbear.net 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

I'm out of the loop on Bitwarden. What happened there?

[–] scytale@piefed.zip 3 points 50 minutes ago (1 children)

New CEO comes from private equity and it looks like he wants to run it as such.

[–] Boisterous@hexbear.net 1 points 49 minutes ago

Ah. Shit. So they'll drive me away all on their own then. Wonderful.

[–] Luminous5481@anarchist.nexus 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

for Bitwarden, a much better replacement is Vaultwarden. it's very easy to run yourself, or you can find other servers elsewhere run by people. best part about it is that since every client acts as a full backup, if a server shuts down then you can just transfer your data elsewhere with no issues.

I know someone who runs their own server, which is what I use.

[–] lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 10 minutes ago

Vaultwarden needs its own client, and soon. BW is absolutely going to stop allowing non-official servers at some point.

[–] leraje@piefed.blahaj.zone 6 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Wikipedia article on the party he donated to. Started off as a quasi-Marxist, became red fash seems to be the summation.

Immigration and remigration policy quote

Markus Allard initiated heavy debate in 2025 by claiming that Sweden is "the land for/belongs to the Swedes" and that the Örebro party favors a large scale remigration policy. He also criticized the Sweden Democrats for, according to him, allowing too many immigrants into the country under their watch as confidence and supply to the Kristersson cabinet.

In 2026 ÖP party leader Markus Allard sparked controversy on several occasions. In a debate hosted by Studio3 with Liberal member of parliament Martin Melin, Allard asked: "why won't the Liberals push for deporting 100 000 social welfare-Somalis?" and in the same debate said that "Sweden belongs to the Swedes. We have to make sure that we take care of our own damn people and we must deport these damn parasites who sit and live at our expense." [45]

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." [46]

Mass deportation of 100,000's of thousands or millions of people seem pretty clear cut fascism. It looks like technically the donations were made right before those quotes, but I doubt that came out of nowhere suddenly starting in 2025 and if it was, then that's on the CEO to make a point to distance themself from the party and correct their mistake through meaningful actions.

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 7 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (2 children)

Motherfucker... What is it with VPN providers and fascism? Are there any VPN providers that don't have fascist CEOs (or that don't sing praises about fascists) and have opensource clients?

Proton already has a CEO who likes Trump, so I don't trust it. I know of IVPN and Windscribe which have opensource VPNs. No idea about their bosses political leanings or donations.

Edit: I can't read Swedish, but I ran it through DeepL and it's not naming a source. Donations seem to be public but anonymised.

[–] sgibson5150@slrpnk.net 7 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)
[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 1 points 54 minutes ago

Interesting... how do people participate in that? Surely there are volunteers providing bandwidth?

[–] Luminous5481@anarchist.nexus 6 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

it’s not naming a source.

The Flame emailed Daniel Berntsson and he admitted that the donation was from him. The Flame is a newspaper that's over a hundred years old, I think that makes them somewhat reputable. and if it's not true, then we'll see a statement from Mullvad and probably a lawsuit, don't you agree?

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 3 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

I see. Alright, if he admitted it to them, then that's good enough for me. He might even make a public comment about it.

Means I have to move on from Mullvad.

[–] Luminous5481@anarchist.nexus 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

well, I think speaking to a newspaper is a public comment. and judging from the Mullvad subreddit, there's a whole lot of people from Europe who don't think it's a controversial opinion at all. which doesn't really surprise me, considering the recent news from places like the UK with the race riots by white supremacists, fire bombings, and things like the growing popularity of the AfD in Germany.

they're doing the nazi thing again, just this time they're all doing it together. yet they'll still claim they're better than the US somehow, despite having popular political parties that very publicly support ethnic cleansing.

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 1 points 46 minutes ago* (last edited 46 minutes ago)

That's not a public comment. It's on the record, but it's not public. Public would be putting it up on his public blog, writing it on Xitter or other social media, and so on.

Anyway, for now, this is good enough for me to switch. I'm not going to knowingly fund fascist supporters.

[–] bourgeoisie_burgers@hexbear.net 6 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

Wtf , so commercial vpns are dead to me now. What's the best option? a small cloudserver plus a proxy of some sort? Glad I got a way to pay anon with card already set up

[–] harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 16 minutes ago

I'm checking ivpn and so far, so good.

[–] 0xtero@beehaw.org 3 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Oh well. Get some money, start kicking down. Is that the model? Rather disappointing, I have to say.

[–] Luminous5481@anarchist.nexus 3 points 2 hours ago

keeping the poors at each others throats is the universal feature of the rich and elite. it's how they stay in power. if the people ever united together, then we would be unstoppable and they know it.

[–] space_comrade@hexbear.net 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Ah fuck, are there any decent alternatives? I know no VPN CEO is going to be the most amazing person but can they at least be a meek liberal or something?

[–] myrmidex@belgae.social 7 points 4 hours ago

Anyone has any decent anglophone sources on this yet?

[–] therealdries@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 hours ago

Same ole' Europe.

[–] RodgeGrabTheCat@sh.itjust.works 0 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

"Five million kroner. That's how much money the populist Örebro Party received in 2025 – from a single person. This is shown by the party's income statement, which Flamman has read."

Without a link I guess I'll just trust that the reporter is telling the truth /s

[–] Luminous5481@anarchist.nexus 6 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (2 children)
[–] RodgeGrabTheCat@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Creditable articles present evidence.

Thanks for the links.

[–] Luminous5481@anarchist.nexus 3 points 3 hours ago

the article probably did not present evidence because political donations are public record in Sweden.

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 2 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

I don't see his name there. It just says "private donor" (but I don't speak Swedish).

[–] Luminous5481@anarchist.nexus 6 points 2 hours ago

he's the private donor. The Flame asked him over email and he admitted it. since The Flame is a reputable newspaper that's over a hundred years old, I'll take their word for it.

if it's a lie and he didn't admit that, then I'll gladly admit I was wrong when he files a defamation suit against them.

[–] leraje@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 hours ago

From the article OP linked to:

Behind the giant donation is Daniel Berntsson, founder and co-owner of the internationally successful IT company Mullvad.

“This is a donation from me personally,” he wrote in an email to Flamman.