Swedish VPN vendor Mullvad is facing a backlash from some customers after co-founder Daniel Berntsson personally donated SEK 5 million (£385,000, $519,000) to the controversial populist Örebropartiet, which is running in Sweden’s national elections for the first time.
Berntsson has this week published a blog post explaining the donation, alongside posts titled “Immigration,” “Political individualism,” and “Moral individualism.” Before that, he had not posted since 2019.
The flurry of posts follows weeks of customer criticism over the donation – for example, Finnish blog Moonwriting’s post “I’m done with Mullvad.” Another blog, Unutterable, is more direct: “Mullvad funding the far-right and the problem with tech company ownership.” The Hacker News discussion thread about the donations has reached a remarkable 1,784 comments so far.
Mullvad was co-founded and is still jointly owned and run by two CEOs, Berntsson and Fredrik Strömberg. Its name, as reflected in the company’s logo, is Swedish for “mole.” It also offers the Mullvad Browser, a privacy-enhanced fork of Firefox ESR co-developed with the Tor Project. Swedish socialist newspaper Flamman (“The Flame”) revealed the donation in its story “High-profile techie gives millions to the Örebro Party.”
In a post on X, the company said it was devoted to freedom of speech and tolerance, saying: “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.”
Uhh where do you think that money comes from?
If you’ve bought Mullvad’s services you have unwittingly contributed to that donation.
Every nazis salary comes from somewhere, or do you boycott just about everything?
It’s just not buying stuff. You make it sound impossible.
No I mean, every nazis or racist gets their money from somewhere, be it Mullvad or Nestlé or Walmart, how do you avoid supporting that? Do you just don’t buy stuff from anywhere or do you have an ever shrinking base of viable options?
Yes, absolutely! I have an ever shrinking list of suppliers for my business and the household.
It’s not an on/off situation.
The point of any such action dealing with complex consequences is simply a statistical approach. Deny custom with the oligarchs whenever you can, and it adds up in aggregate.
Buy local, barter, buy from vetted independent companies, use boycott apps, keep a shitlist and consult a company family tree if you are wondering about a product.
Smaller scale family farms are less likely to poison themselves, they live close to the fields; buy direct from them when you can. Farmer’s markets. It’s less convenient. It’s culturally richer.
There are hidden costs in cheaper products. It’s not as big a sacrifice as it seems to avoid oligarchs whenever you see them.
Well take this guy for example - I dont know how he invests but I know a significant portion of his income will be coming from Mullvad. So yeah, I can’t personally choke all of his income, but I can boycott a wee bit of it. I will do that, because I think its the right thing to do.
This is what I was thinking of. Aren’t we at risk to do this all the time? I am curious how you manage it, not arguing against you boycotting anything, that I support.
This is the core running gag of a lot of the tv series The Good Place.
The answer, of course, is just keep trying.
Critical thinking is based on treating problems as opportunities to improve. Endlessly.
Yes I fully understand how he gets money from being part owner of the company, I never said that wasn’t the casr. But how he chooses to spend his private cash is not the fault of Mullvad the company.
I completely get wanting to boycott the company to avoid giving him money. But it makes no sense to blame the company for his private spending.
Except Mullvad put out that statement in question as a defense. Their response is enough to turn people off the company.
It’s absolutely people’s business whether they support the public face of a public company giving money to a public political party
Like, what part of Mullvad not being responsible for the donation in any way is it that people are not understanding? The company had no control or say over this dudes donation, so they can’t be responsible for it. Sure, don’t buy mullvad so you avoid indirectly giving the nutjob more money to support his fascist political views, that’s a totally valid response. But It doesn’t change that Mullvad is not, and never can be, responsible for his donation.
What is “the company”?
I’m not blaming the employees. I’m blaming the self-selected face, the guy who subscribes to the idea that his success and the company’s success are intertwined.
I don’t care who’s fault it is, I’d still rather use a VPN that didn’t have any controversy.