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Mullvad founder donated 5 million SEK to populist Örebro party (www.flamman.se)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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Daniel Berntsson, founder of Mullvad, gave a personal donation of 5 million SEK (roughly 450,000€) in 2025 to Örebropartiet. This enormous donation accounted for 72% of the party’s revenue in 2025.

How does this affect Mullvad’s legitimacy as a company advocating for a free and open internet, while also funding a political party whose agenda seem to contradict these values? The official party website (in Swedish) can be found via the link below.

https://orebropartiet.se/om-oss/

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[–] 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (12 children)

A VPN does not protect the user from the type of sophisticated mass-surveillance that exists now and will only become increasingly more sophisticated without political critique. Users who are confused about the criticism of a capitalist-company when its benefactors are known to further entrench a beneficial political-ideology are simpletons who do not grasp the relationship between the Western-democracies and its political mass-surveillance organs that go on to spawn the private-surveillance companies that do get public critique (Google, Microsoft, Apple, Palantir, et al.).

No, a VPN is not better than nothing. Do more. Do better. Adopt real solutions like GNUnet. Liberate your computers with free software.

inb4 simpletons just want to use a VPN to watch mah netflix. Ok boomer.

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  • [–] 20 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Points for mentioning a solution, but being condisending and talking down to people isn't a great way to get them excited about becoming involved. It's better to let people in on the joke rather than make them the joke.

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  • [–] -1 points 4 months ago

    You're right, but I doubt any of them are interested in contributing in any capacity. They just want to continue using Windows, Google and Netflix. Only now, in the year 2026, the absolute monstrosity that is the digital surveillance-apparatus, pokes its tentacles--every now and then--prominently into public-life and some get the willies. Never mind it's been going on since the beginning of the computer-age. They don't care. They never did. They enable it and they exacerbate it. They still don't care.

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  • [–] 20 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    Mentions GNU

    Condescending asshole about it

    You wouldn't believe it

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

    Yes. I am just tired, comrade. Once can argue about the tone, but the reality is there needs to be a rectification on computer-education on a scale that only a government can enact. I can not do it. I can just rebuke.

    Juvenile views do need to be rebuked. If you believe you can regain a portion of control back via payment to an entity, whilst still living in ignorance of the substrate you wish to increase control over you are a moron. You are merely paying for a belief.

    I can not understand the user's insistence on ignorance. All the users here are aware, to differing degrees, of the abuses that are inflicted on them due to this ignorance, yet there is a crowd who adamantly refuse to use their eyes; they wish merely to do the same things they were doing before, with no change in their own behaviors. They will continue to be abused.

    I think the reality is they have no interest in the topic.

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  • [–] 10 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    You use a vpn to watch netflix, i use vpn to watch porn, we are not the same /s

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago* (1 child)

    I think entertainment is a very low priority. Pushed to comment on the topic I would say it's actually a great waste of time, regardless of political orientation.

    It's isolating and manipulative. It subverts the local culture and brainwashes the viewer into believing that what is seen often on the screen is a reflection of real life norms. It is not, but when the majority of a citizenry consume so much foreign media it does shift real cultural norms. This is the soft-power of cultural products created for export.

    Turn America's netflix off. Turn off whatever pornography you preference. Move your body. Get some sunshrine and play with your comrades.

    I genuinely believe television was a mistake. I can not see anything of its legacy to feel warm towards; there is no good here.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    I totally agree with you. I cant sit and watch tv and never have been able to. I think we need to go to more person to person interactions. We never needed phones, it just became "essential" because everyone wanted one after someone else got one, it was the "new shiny thing", but it only served as the catalyst for our own prisons.

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  • [–] 9 points 4 months ago

    So, anyone that doesn't have the technical expertise to start moving to a more private online experience is a simpleton. Thanks for clearing that up for all of us simpletons. GNUnet is nowhere near ready to even begin to be a part of anyone's digital life, ansd the developers say so themselves:

    Please be aware that this project is still in an early alpha stage when it comes to running software – its not an easy task to rewrite the whole Internet!

    While it's great to put the word out hoping that more people gets involved, vexing others has the opposite outcome.

    All this to say, fuck you, get off of your high horse.

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