Proton Mail Says It’s “Politically Neutral” While Praising Republican Party
theintercept.com
The “privacy-first” company surprised its user base when CEO Andy Yen lauded Trump on social media.

Summary

Proton Mail, known for its privacy-first email services, faced backlash after CEO Andy Yen praised the Republican Party and its antitrust stance.

The company initially posted and deleted a statement supporting Yen’s comments, later claiming an “internal miscommunication” and reiterating its political neutrality.

Critics question Proton’s impartiality, particularly as it cooperates with Swiss authorities on legal data requests.

Privacy advocates warn that political alignments could undermine trust, especially for Proton’s users—journalists and activists wary of government surveillance under administrations like Trump’s.

  • Croquette@sh.itjust.works
    1·
    2 days ago

    He has expressed himself in a way that was easy to misinterpret

    Absolutely not. There wasn’t a nuance hard to grasp in Andy Yen’s message. It is a pretty straightforward message.

    Look if you want to continue using the service, by all means do, but stop acting like other people telling Proton and Andy Yen to get fucked that they are exaggerating.

    Corporations are fucking us over and being outright evil, and when one of their CEO comes out and spout absolute dogshit takes, people like you come out of the woodwork to tell people that it’s fine and people are overreacting. You gain nothing from sucking up to millionaire CEOs that don’t give two shit about you.

    What’s the saying, “When someone shows you who they are, trust them the first time”?

    Andy Yen showed us who he was and lots of people told him to get fucked.

    • sudneo@lemm.ee
      1·
      1 hour ago

      I disagree. I for sure will keep using the service, this has nothing to do with it.

      I genuinely can’t see any issue with his statements, I read them in context and - while I don’t have an opinion on the subject - I think they are totally reasonable personal opinions.

      Also lumping together “tech CEOs” is another (in my opinion) completely wrong generalization.

      • proton is a company with a healthy business model that doesn’t harm users
      • the CEO decided to give control of the company to a nonprofit to ensure the values will be followed with no pressure.
      • the company is not a social media nor a company that controls what you can see, which is a big difference because alignment with one or other political view can have a huge impact in those cases (which is why zuck alignment is a much much bigger deal than Andy Yen supposed alignment).
      • the company is not american, it’s not part of big tech.

      So yeah, I disagree even with this part of your interpretation of the situation.

      I don’t think there is any way to find a common ground. Personally I find your interpretation really forced and therefore exaggerated. Context, track record and most importantly the words of this guy do not seem to point out at all to a “mask off situation” in my opinion.

      Edit: I really dislike meta-comments. I am commenting based on what interests me, whether other people do other stuff is not something I can do anything about. Please refrain to use the “people like you…” type of statements. You have no idea who I am or what I think besides this conversation.