I used Mullvad for a long time, but hearing about one of the two CEOs actively supporting and financing swedish Nazis, I’m looking to put my money elsewhere. That’s the second one after Private Internet Access (who supported Gab).
I had AirVPN and Surfshark being recomnended, how do people here feel? What do you use?
PIA is owned by Kape, which appointed someone from Project Raven as a CIO
Sharing this because I think it’s funny, but someone opened an issue on Mullvad’s github about the questionable donations of one of the cofounders: https://github.com/mullvad/mullvadvpn-app/issues/10685
It’s funny, but it was probably done by proton
Hey bud,
Whereever you are located, they will start blocking VPNs soon. rent a server using crypto and install xray vless realty tlx.
https://www.privacyguides.org/en/vpn/
ivpn ia the one i would recommend
I use OVPN. They own their own hardware and are basically the same as Mullvad in how you manage the account. Their Linux GUI clients are broken in Wayland but you can use the terminal or save your to the network manager.
Go to torrentfreak.com They solicit info from various VPN companies, plus report on them when they make the news.
they are sponsored by proton so…
It’s Mullvad. This whole thing, in my eyes, overreaction to one asshole being an asshole, and not anywhere near as bad as so many other assholes.
That’s my opinion, you’re 100% valid in voting with your wallet and I respect everyone that draws the line here.
For me, though, Mullvad is the only one worth their salt if you actually want the best of the best for privacy, and there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism so this feels like an exercise in futility.
Have we really reached a point in which we have to stick with the “least bad” option? I don’t like this.
No, we haven’t. There are several good alternatives.
Always has been.
The lesser evil is what a lot of duopoly voters goes for, the concept isn’t new, even though it is of course ridiculous.
Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp. We’ve been there for a while. People suck.
It’s been this way since choosing who to buy copper from in Mesopotamia, probably longer.
I would rather be a decent person.
To be clear, by your judgment using Mullvad precludes me from being a decent person?
No, your own words “preclude you from being a decent person”
apathy is evil.
So then yes, right? I’m not trying to be a dick only understand what your stance is for the sake of discussion.
My position is not apathetic, it’s a reluctant acceptance that chasing idealism is a fleeting goal and, in my experience and belief, that energy is much better spent on doing things that will make the world a noticeably better place instead of getting riding the high denying a hundred-millionaire 5 quid a month.
I think paying massive telecoms for internet access is measurably worse for democracy and ethics than a mullvad subscription, but there are some things we have to be okay with for advancing a greater good. Mullvad is the only VPN to my knowledge that’s been proven to resist pressure from every government and has passed the subpoena test multiple times.
I’m not tryna say I’m right and you’re wrong, and I’m not trying to argue in bad faith to get a win; I’d much rather we share ideas and come out with greater understanding. Tone and authenticity are hard to convey in forums so please trust me when I tell you my intent is to do the most good with the least bad.
ivpn and airvpn are my short list, but ivpn is not looking great for the southern hemisphere due to a lack of servers down here… Northern hemisphere they would be my top choice. I have contacted them a couple of times, and they have responded the same day, were helpful, and appear genuine.
I’m sticking with it. This cancel culture needs some balance. Someone at this company is an idiot. Doesn’t make them all idiots. Yet.
Too much knee jerk going on these days.
Cancel culture or vote with your wallet?
I don’t think its cancel culture to not want to indirectly fund fascism. The guy is one of the CEOs so if you subscribe then it goes into his pockets
Anyone spouting the phrase “cancel culture” unironically is making it pretty clear where they stand tbh
not just someone, the co-owner, you are choosing to fund the political party.
that is either apathetic, or…
Agreed, in my opinion it is the best VPN provider, with Mozilla (rents infrastructure) and Proton as next best
I am also looking for alternatives to Mullvad, and my current leading contender is AirVPN
I was looking at IVPN. I still have some research to do but I haven’t found anything sketchy on them so far.
I really like Proton. It’s fast, it’s good.
Seconding Proton. Have used it for YEARS, no issues.
I’m still using mullvad. I don’t care enough about political morals at this day in age. I wouldn’t be allowed to operate life if I boycotted every service that went against my principles. I do tend to agree with the statement that while it may not be in my interest. What a co-founder does in a company isn’t reflected on the company as a whole. If Mullvad was actively donating to structures or was advocating for it I might care more.
Being said, it goes without saying for me that, considering this picked up news trend in the US and is being shared across every news site and seems to have a massive following on X, which is a known bot platform and hive mind. I’m taking the entire thing with a massive grain of salt, as nothing is allowed onto US news without it being to some advantage of the current government structure. Which means that it’s more likely this is being pushed as a nothing-burger with the intent to dissuade people from using a service that has no government controls.
I’m not saying he didn’t do it because he has openly admitted to it, but I’m just saying I expect that the entire situation is being blown out of proportion if it’s gained trending on US news sites
Wait. One of the mullvad founders funding a small Nazi party in Örebro has made national news in the US? The fuck?
I hadn’t even heard of the party until now and I live in the neighbouring county.
Edit: holy shit, they’ve used the money well. They’ve grown significantly in the polls, from being a straggler 2022 to being the second largest in recent polls.
Fuck.
Well I didn’t ask about a discussion but about alternatives. You do you.
Ah, sorry. I misunderstood then. I took
how do people here feel? What do you use?as an invitation that you were willing for discussions. I didn’t realize you aren’t looking for discussions ^^’
Is routing everything through Tor a good option?
I’d say just basic browsing and messaging, it’s a volunteer project so bandwidth is not their strong suit.
That makes sense, don’t wanna bog their whole network with streaming and such.
I use Proton but I’m also in their ecosystem (ie, I also pay for ProtonMail and get the rest of their suite alongside it)
Same here, the cost is just way more worth it if you already pay for other Proton services.
Does seem like IVPN is closer to Mullvad in how it works though for people who just want to pay for a VPN separately. No email needed for an account, similar price, open-source clients. Also debubks misinformation used by VPN peddlers to convince people to buy VPNs who don’t need one.
here’s an interview with IVPN with techlore:
https://odysee.com/@techlore:38/ivpn-breaks-industry-silence-on-logs,:b
Wasn’t Proton’s CEO in some hot water a year or so ago, or was that a bunch of hooey? I know it’s impossible to find an ethical CEO, but just curious.
…sure I could look it up, but my phone battery sucks and it helps boost activity.
He made a couple of supportive tweets about a Trump anti-trust appointment (who was later fired by Trump) and the Republican Party that offended some people, mainly the American left. People seem to forget that he is not American, nor is Proton an American company, so none of this actually means anything. He cannot vote, he and his company do not fund the American right in any way and he is not someone with a huge online presence, so it’s unlikely he has much influence.
More recently a far right influencer in France signed up for Proton’s affiliate program and promoted Proton on his channel, which led to some misleading claims about Proton “funding Nazis”. Proton immediately removed him from the affiliate program upon being notified of this and apologised for what it claims was an oversight.
Personally I’m very sick of the purity tests and cancel culture on the left and wish people would slow down a bit and really consider whether these “controversies” are actually worth burning it all down for. Proton provides mainstream, easy to use alternatives to big tech and is better existing than not. Its VPN is also one of the few that retains port forwarding, which can be useful for piracy. After the attempts to cancel Proton, the left hard shilled for Mullvad and now it turns out that’s objectively worse in terms of its political influencing. Mullvad is another company that does more good in the world than bad, are we going to cancel it too?
“Why do Americans care if Ford supports Hitler, he’s not even German!”
Interesting combination of lies and unironic use of “cancel culture” in the rest of the nonsense btw.
You guys don’t even bother pretending to be sane these days. It’s just mask off from the first reply with the Hitler comparisons that used to be considered a joke in more normal times.
This dumbass is literally looking at CEOs outright supporting fascism and ethnic cleansing in a privacy sub and asking why people are bringing up the Nazis.
Btw, dumbfuck, Godwin had an interview where he tried to point out to people like you that the “Law” isn’t meant to stop people from accurately describing loud and proud fascists.
in a privacy sub
???
you keep referring to “the left” which means you are on “the right” so…
Joined 28 days ago, entire comment history is anti-Proton disinformation and shilling for competitors. Fascinating.
https://theintercept.com/2025/01/28/proton-mail-andy-yen-trump-republicans/
I use Proton. but I find it suss how they are trying to do it all, so I don’t use most of their products
They made a very naive comment suggesting a authoritarian regime supports privacy
And doubled down then changed their comments as if the way back machine doesn’t exist in order to backtrack without having to admit they were wrong.
Technically it is true, it makes easier to spread their propaganda in other countries by using bots.
So some of anti-age verification agenda is generated by russia and china etc. to make easier to create bot accounts.
he is a trump fan, not sure of other ethical issues, at least for the ceo himself.
Yep, I’ve been using AirVPN for about 6 months now. No complaints, works great! (Yes they support port forwarding.)
And works with gluetun! https://github.com/qdm12/gluetun-wiki/blob/main/setup/providers/airvpn.md
I’ll definitely be renewing when my year is up.
Been using it myself for some years but the up speeds are really ass max I got was 5MB/s up. In speed tests ~300mbit up while my server was in an actual Datacenter with multi gibt connection I switched to proton and got throttled at 1gbit which is a lot better
Oh and someone was hosting a Tor endpoint on one of there vpns which gets the IP Blacklisted and you potentially banned from some trackers. support just closed my complaint without comment.
