That's absolutely sad to read. The CEO of @mullvadnet is not only financing the far-right Swedish Örebro party, but he even is their main financer. 70+% of their money is his donation. He is the reason why they go nationwide this year.
For obvious reasons i cease to trust this service. Also i do not finance parties that aim for forced deportations.
https://www.flamman.se/techprofil-ger-miljoner-till-orebropartiet/
Is there one proof of the event, from an official source? I couldn't find any. Nor the event has been covered from several trustworthy news sources.
@gemmy You mean other than the link I put? What is an "official source" for you?
Link of those public records (of the donation).
@gemmy
I'm no Swedish citizen and did not check the cited income statements of the Örebro Party. But as I understand Sweden has quite some freedom of information, so it should be obtainable.
I hope people consider that instead of spreading that article as true without first checking.
@gemmy
I see no indication why it shouldn't be true given it states their source and the company in question has been tagged in many posts and did not correct it in any instance as far as i checked.
That's how disinformation operates:
Sketchy statements; few sources (or many that are untrustworthy); no proof; several posts from random people. (And Friday evening when the company is closed for any potential comments!).
@gemmy
That conspiracy myth you are bringing forward is lacking a motive.
First: I don't need a reason not to believe those allegations other than that no proof is available;
second: motive is obvious: Autocracy Inc. wanting to discredit an apparently good VPN.
@gemmy
And a left-wing newspaper somehow got turned by Autocrats to use the hatred against Autocrats to shoot against a VPN. Not very plausible.
The history of that newspaper shows links with Autocracy-like parties. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamman
Also, it could be simply biased.
@gemmy@mastodon.social
Sure it's biased. That does not make it wrong. The link with the right wing was that right wingers made a terrorist attack on the newspaper. Not exactly making conspiracy with them more likely.
If there's no proof, then it's likely wrong.
@gemmy
If there is no proof apart from a renown 100y+ old Swedish newspaper you chose to ignore, troll. I'll block you now.
@lostgen
Good that you blocked them. They're a new account that is full of sealioning replies.
@gemmy@mastodon.social
@gemmy @lostgen the food I ate today was older than your account. And Mullvad just admitted that donation is real. https://mastodon.online/@mullvadnet/116822244689326681
My interpretation is the exact opposite:
"Daniel's donation to a political party is private and not part of Mullvad's mission."
reads like a singular/plural typo, that is:
It reads to me like:
"Daniel's donation[s] to a political party [are] private and not part of Mullvad's mission."
In other words, they don't confirm nor dismiss the allegations.
@gemmy @cygnathreadbare @lostgen look if you’re happy enriching a guy who then uses his riches to float a fascist party just say so, there’s no need to make it such a long thread.
@Nicovel0 @cygnathreadbare @lostgen
I'm not. I'm just obnoxiously tired of people blindly believing in stuff that appears online without critical thought with so much online disinformation.
By the way, enduring judgmental comments like yours.
Jun 27, 2026, 4:12 PM@gemmy @Nicovel0 @cygnathreadbare @lostgen
That sentence is plain on its face. The sole reason for someone to read that sentence as a typo is because someone dislikes the true meaning of the sentence and what it conveys. Mullvad is distancing both itself and its co-owner/co-CEO from Daniel Berntsson’s donation. You complain about disinformation; yet, you suggest without any evidence that Daniel Berntsson made donations to other political parties in 2025. You also assume without any discernable reason that he is ashamed of his donation Öreboro Party and seeks to hide it.
@FizzyDaisies @Nicovel0 @cygnathreadbare @lostgen
????
I am suggesting that, with no proof, we cannot either confirm nor dismiss the allegations, that is what I am suggesting. Which means they mean nothing for now.
Jun 27, 2026, 5:05 PM@gemmy @Nicovel0 @cygnathreadbare @lostgen
I understand your suggestion, and I am asserting that your suggestion is based on a false premise that no evidence exists in support of Berntsson’s donation to that Party, Your suggestion is both nonsensical and disinformation. You are incorrectly assigning your own arbitrary standard of proof on everyone. There is no “we”. Everybody can review and weigh the evidence as they choose.
@FizzyDaisies @Nicovel0 @cygnathreadbare @lostgen
Allegations =! Evidence
Jun 27, 2026, 5:12 PM@gemmy @Nicovel0 @cygnathreadbare @lostgen
There is incontrovertible evidence that largest single donation to that Party for 2025 was SEK 5,000,000.00. Evidence of that donation exists in public records. The article states Berntsson wrote in an email to the journalist that he made the donation. Mullvad issued a statement addressing *the* donation, not imaginary donations to other parties. Berntsson has not disputed he made the donation despite having both a platform and opportunity to do so. Berntsson standing in front of your face and saying directly to you that he made the donation is not the only form of evidence.
@davidgerard @lostgen @gemmy
Yup. Does Mastodon have a feature to mute all the replies to this account too, in addition to the account?
(Using Tusky, if that matters.)
Thanks. Looks like the OP already blocked.
@gemmy Mullvad have verified that he has made that donation @lostgen @mullvadnet
@lostgen @mtriclot Here is their response :
"Hello,
Mullvad is a political company. We fight for freedom of speech, freedom of information and the right to privacy. These are firmly held values of the founders of Mullvad.
Mullvad protects the right for people to express things we don't agree with. We protect the right of everyone to access views we don't agree with.
We also live these values by being tolerant in our daily work. Everyone is welcome to collaborate with Mullvad if they share these narrow core values. As employees, contractors, customers, suppliers, lobbyists, campaign partners or whatever it might be. No matter what their other opinions are and no matter whether the founders or anyone else in Mullvad dislike them. The founders themselves fundamentally disagree on several important issues.
This is what allows us to advance our common causes. Being in a tolerant and intellectually open environment is also liberating and promotes truth seeking.
The more people do this, the better a place the world will be.
It should be obvious that Daniel's private donation to a political party is not part of Mullvad's values or mission, in the same way that someone's opinions on animal rights, taxes or public healthcare policy isn't."
My response : You say: “Mullvad defends the right of individuals to express opinions with which we disagree. We defend everyone’s right to access viewpoints with which we disagree.”
This is a purely rhetorical statement that no one (not even you) can agree with. You wouldn’t defend opinions that call for murder, to put it bluntly.
In my case, I do not agree with giving free rein to fascist opinions. The world does not become a better place because of them, contrary to what you write.
It’s clearly not possible to get a refund: you have a 14-day cancellation policy (which has expired in my case), and I don’t blame you for that. I shouldn’t have paid for such a long period, especially with a non-decreasing rate, and I’m the only one to blame. I just wanted you to know why I won’t be renewing, and why I’ll be urging everyone to steer clear of Mullvad."
Jun 27, 2026, 9:49 PM@froztbyte pointers to claims, please.
I've dug through some of those rabbit holes a few times earlier. It's mostly been misinterpreted information ending up with false fact claims, often due to Protons incapable public relation team combined with CEO statements adding more confusion than clarity. People teaching public relation management have an unending source of how to not do things when looking at Proton.
Majority of these false claims comes from users who gave Proton a clear-text recovery address which Proton had to give away as that was the Swiss courts ruling. If these users hadn't been as stupid to enable this recovery address, no information of real value could have been provided. Also, those recovery addresses was typically hotmail or gmail accounts. So guess what happens next when these requests comes from entities in the USA.
For VPN accounts, there is no logging of traffic. Which has even been confirmed by third party auditors ... https://protonvpn.com/blog/no-logs-audit
So yes, Proton has provided limited details due to law enforcement requests coming via Swiss courts. Which generally turns out valuable when the account owner hasn't understood how to protect its account. And if Proton - or Mullvad, or basically any other company in the world - don't adhere to court rulings, those companies won't survive the end of the day.
But if you're doing a more sane protection of your Proton account, there is generally very little which can leak out from it, even in cases which ends up in a disfavourable court ruling. Protecting your account is in the very end the account owners responsibility.
@Naich Proton was recently caught sponsoring a French far-right YouTuber, so…
@jvnknvlgl
Bloody hell. Are there any VPNs that aren't twats?
@Naich @jvnknvlgl I gotta ask, having never used a VPN but having very much used tor: what's the point of a vpn? Aren't you just putting your trust in a different private company than your isp?
@Naich @jvnknvlgl I use Tailscale, it’s mainly a device to device VPN, so that I can log into my Pi from away. They do support exit nodes in other countries, as well as having none of your nodes be an exit point. I’m hoping they’re good guys.
I use them because @cadey recommended them.
@mauvedeity @Naich @jvnknvlgl I've been working on building a custom WireGuard mesh again. I'll write about it at some point in the future.
Jun 27, 2026, 3:36 PM
@jackemled
I think it's @mullvadnet that is copy pasting
@pi_r @mtriclot
No, I did not copy that from your message, which I did not read. I am subscribed to Mullvad, I wrote to them, and this is the response I received by email from 'Sanny'.
Jun 27, 2026, 12:05 PM@lostgen @mullvadnet coincidentally, mozilla vpn is mullvad with a skin and a markup.
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/privacy/subscription-services/
well that sucks. i do not use mullvad and now i am glad i don’t .
Mullvad is a political company fighting for free speech, free information and privacy, with two equal co-founders, co-owners and co-CEOs who fundamentally disagree on many issues. Daniel's donation to a political party is private and not part of Mullvad's mission. We protect the right to express and access views we disagree with. We welcome anyone sharing these core values, whatever their other opinions. We are happy to refund others who don't, where we can.
@mullvadnet @astro @lostgen
It's not part of Mullvad's mission, just part of the mission of one of the most powerful people driving Mullvad's mission. Got it.
@jargoggles @mullvadnet @astro @lostgen also if we pay for your service we now know what that ends up funding. good reason to cancel.
If you need to come on social media to defend yourself, you know you have done wrong.
Sorry, i will no longer recommend your company or use it.
@mullvadnet sounds like you been doing some bad shit. perhaps twitter is the website for you, we dont accept fascists on fediverse. we finish them.
@falcennial @mullvadnet
Could you please explain how the Örebropartiet fascist, and how Mullvad appears to have done some "bad shit"?
Perhaps give your definition of fascism as well?
Besides, is indirectly threatening one of the world's largest and most recommended VPN and privacy companies truly the best way to keep the fediverse an open and respectful platform?
@mullvadnet @astro @lostgen sounds great. what do you call a guy who sits down for dinner with a Nazi, by the way?
@davidgerard @mullvadnet @lostgen
A Nazi.
Jun 27, 2026, 3:22 PM@mullvadnet @astro @lostgen i do not want fascism to get tolerated
most views, it is possible to respectfully disagree on
views relating to human rights, though? no. there is no respectful disagreement possible there
please support human rights
@mullvadnet @astro @lostgen I am willing to argue a lot of things, but this is not about people accessing information, you have one of your owners support an absolutely disgustingly racist party with the money we give you.
Do better, this is not the way.
