Appreciate you fronting up.
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Well, just because you say “we’re sorry” doesn’t mean we’re going to pat you on the back and say Good job Ente. This is a serious issue.
As for the original tweet, did you at least contact Proton and ask whether they wanted it taken down? They might not want inaccurate information like that continuing to circulate online.
You say you live and learn, so maybe take this as an opportunity to learn from us now how to handle a situation like this properly after the fact. Contact Proton and ask them what they want you to do about that tweet. And let us know what they said.
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They made a wrongful tweet and have publicly apologized already. Was it a dumb move? Yes. Will Proton cease to exist because of this? No. Shit happens.
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Many such cases lol
I don’t really care much about this tweet so whatever, but I don’t see how this is true.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
It would be easy to perceive a removal of the post as a way to save face.
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Not if it’s handled properly. Removing the original post would prevent false information from continuing to spread, while leaving the apology to Proton visible. There’s no need to link to or quote Ente’s original incorrect claim in apology tweet.
The problem is that the original tweet is still receiving much more attention than the apology, so many people end up seeing only the false accusation and not the correction.
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If Proton AG has an issue with the post and want to take it down they will contact Ente.
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Meh… the whole situation feels like a perfect example of how the internet punishes you no matter what you do. Leave the tweet up - “They’re milking the drama…” / Take it down - “They’re hiding something…”
I don’t think there’s an enormous marketing conspiracy here, it just looks like someone jumped to a conclusion, tweeted too fast, and now the apology is buried under the outrage. A short post‑mortem from Ente definitely helps, but this is more noise than signal IMHO
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I don’t get the impression of any nefarious intentions either, but I’m inclined to push back a little on the “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” take.
The original post still being up allows it to continue gaining traction, as others have pointed out, and in this attention economy, there’s no certainty every reader also catches the follow up.
Removing the post and instead writing a new post with a summary - something in the vein of “earlier, we accused Proton of not playing fair. That turned out to be a misunderstanding on our part, for which we apologize” - seems to me to both defuse the drama, preempt serious accusations of hiding things, and stops the original post from generating further distrust towards their competitor.
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I think PG should actually care about what companies linked to this website do publicly. If one of them does something stupid or acts badly, PG should be aware of it and be in a position to use their influence rather than just ignoring it.
And honestly, I just don’t believe that Ente didn’t know how Google ads works when 99% of the people commenting on their tweet and on Reddit seem to understand the mechanism. In my opinion, it was a marketing tactic to attract more attention. But judging by how badly it backfired, I hope they’ve learned that it simply wasn’t worth it.
I don’t expect Proton to contact Ente, especially after Proton’s CEO said it was engagement bait. I also don’t think Proton would want to have anything to do with Ente right now.
In situations like this companies often end up getting cancelled within the industry because other companies become concerned about their own reputation and don’t want to risk being associated with a business that publicly accuses others of things they didn’t do. There’s always a fear that if it happened to one company, it could happen to them as well.
The people of Ente never had any interest in privacy in the first place. Watch the Techlore interview with the founder and you’ll see how much of an amateur they are on the topic of privacy.
Elaborate please. I’m not going to watch a video.
I was mistaken. It was actually an interview with the Notesnook founder.
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Tuta energy. Shoot first, ask questions later.
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Company on Twitter: nasty rivals are plotting our demise! To the gallows!
Someone in real life: Hey how’s it going
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