Definitely supported the Republicans. It was a red flag to hold opinions like this:

Here is our official response, also available on the Mastodon post in the screenshot: Corporate capture of Dems is real. In 2022, we campaigned extensively in the US for anti-trust legislation. Two bills were ready, with bipartisan support. Chuck Schumer (who coincidently has two daughters working as big tech lobbyists) refused to bring the bills for a vote. At a 2024 event covering antitrust remedies, out of all the invited senators, just a single one showed up- JD Vance. By working on the front lines of many policy issues, we have seen the shift between Dems and Republicans over the past decade first hand. Dems had a choice between the progressive wing (Bernie Sanders, etc), versus corporate Dems, but in the end money won and constituents lost. Until corporate Dems are thrown out, the reality is that Republicans remain more likely to tackle Big Tech abuses.

He's not wrong about the Democrat party choosing the establishment over the progressive wing, but the idea that he supports the Republicans as being more likely to reign in tech companies is so laughable it's not even funny, and makes you wonder why Andy Yen believes it.

What other commenters have said before though is true: aside from this incident with the CEO, Proton has been careful to stay politically neutral and on message... It damaged their public trust but didn't destroy it.

Which then turned out to be not exactly true.

Why release this? Because they're building their own ecosystem. They're trying to build an alternative to the big players, which means they need to have an alternative to all their major products. Maps and YouTube are probably off the table for now, just because of the sheer scale needed for those, but something like this is achievable.

Is Aegis better? Maybe, but that's not really the point, it's part of a family of apps.

Yes it’s just you. They released a 2FA app because it complements their existing password manager and because Google has one. Since Proton is positioned as a privacy-first alternative to Google, it makes sense they’d launch competing versions of any given app or program Google does. A 2FA app also wouldn’t capture any kind of personal data.

What could they do better than Aegis, which is already FOSS and privacy preserving?

Have an iOS app for one.

But also like what could they do better than Tutanota mail, Which is already privacy preserving? By your logic Proton shouldn’t exist at all. Is it your opinion that non-privacy respecting software should have lots of competition and options but privacy respecting ones should not? Can’t say I agree with that.