Yeah so that’s why I’m responding with “we don’t know the political views of the other companies we recommend”. So Andy said something stupid which he could’ve kept to himself, which would still be his belief and might have been his belief for his entire life. Proton sells privacy and security and as long as the product delivers that, who cares what his political stance it. It probably has been his political stance for a longer time and the product still is what it is today. I just kind of feel like the left wing is now bringing this discussion up every day on reddit and I think I have seen at least 3 threads here today. We can have the same discussion over and over, but I’m not sure what the goal is of this discussion. Do people want Proton to no longer be recommended? And then my question arises, should we check all companies and ask them what their political stances are? It’s a fair question looking at the repeated discussion we have. People on reddit are screaming and telling everyone to go to Tuta without knowing their political views.
So my question is valid right? The product has been checked and seems great. Political views of the CEO makes you question it’s trust. Then to recommend you a good product, they should know the political views of the other companies they recommend.
Some people do, that’s not really for anyone else to decide. These threads exist so people can be informed and make their own decisions while discussing it with other people. I don’t know what people are recommending on other parts of the internet, but personally I believe people should be informed and act based on their own beliefs, not blindly follow some herd mentality acting on factors which may be completely irrelevant to them.
The original thread was closed, and this is the only other one that remains open. Other duplicate threads have been merged into this one and closed.
In an effort to keep the thread open and focused on privacy-centric conversations, I posted earlier on Gail Slater and the reasons I do not think she is a friend of privacy-conscious individuals. Removing partisanship from the conversation, what do you like/dislike about her from a privacy standpoint?
I think if we can redirect the conversation towards that, it will be more constructive and useful. From there, if we objectively reach similar conclusions, then we can broach Yen’s comments if desired.
I don’t have an opinion on US politics as I don’t have enough information (and honestly don’t care enough). Also, since I’m not a citizen of the US I don’t really feel any changes if Trump is in power or Biden or whoever. I also feel like, since Proton is a Swiss based company, it doesn’t really change anything for them either. The only thing I do notice about US politics is that there is a lot of hate and namecalling towards the opposing party. Like calling Trump supporters pedophiles and rapists etc, and I can only assume Trump supporters have to say something about the other side as well. I just don’t feel like it’s a constructive discussion and one of the things I noticed and read is that most of the people on Reddit (and maybe on here as well) lean more left, so those voices will be the loudest and to me (a non US citizen) it adds zero value when trying to find out which privacy tools I’m going to use.
Hi folks, as I can see we are all embroiled in this controversy surrounding Proton and Andy Yen, and his statements. I stumbled across this Medium article, and I do not think it has gotten the attention it deserves.
As much as I did not want to open a new thread on the matter, as a long-time lurker of this forum, I felt like this deserves a new thread. Since we have a thread that directly accuses Andy of being a Republican, we should be able to have a thread that displays the opposing argument, which is that he is actually a Democrat.
I would like to start a fresh conversation where people can debate using facts and reliable information.
The most convincing part for me was the donations that Proton makes, which makes me feel like Yen and his organization are really aligned with what we believe in, because they give money to the places that empower people like us, so that they may thrive.
Many thanks and I hope we will all be able to participate in a civil discussion.
Good to this post in full here added to the thread. Now we can continue the discussion and hope this satisfies you and are not still jaded.
I am not jaded by the fact that my thread was closed, but I am disgruntled that the only open topic is the one with the headline that is extremely misleading, and that harms the privacy community as a whole, that’s all. From what I can tell, most people agree that The Intercept’s article is a sham, so why do we let its headline exist here for the last 3 days?
I did not mean to upset or offend anyone, and I’m sorry if I did.
When I got the notification that my post was deleted I was a bit pissed, ngl but after I saw that you cleaned up the name calling part in the post I referred to I understood why it happened.
Imho opinion I think its still a bad idea to allow political discussions here. The reason is that a good portion of the active members on this forum is US american and it is a sad fact that the US is heavily polarized into right and left and everything on the other side of the political spectrum is just plain bad and that in the mind of a lot (by far not all) US americans the “evil” other side is not even capable of doing something good.
This is just not as big of a thing in Europe for example because most european countries don’t just have two parties and more often than not need the support of another party to govern which can sometimes lead to interesting parties teaming up like the current/last government in Germany.
Because of that I think there are some people (probably especially europeans) who don’t care if Andy says something good about a person that a guy we may not like gave a position in his government.
My recommendation would be that the mods/admins open up a thread where the community can decide/discuss whether politics should be banned or not.
And to clarify because I got some private messages asking me why I voted for Trump, how voting works in the US, etc:
I’m not a US citizen, I don’t live in the US and I also wouldn’t have voted for him even if I could so please leave me alone.
No matter what publication anyone posts - it will lead to discussion and discourse which is a good thing.
And your article you shared is also valid and more likely than not truer.
Nah, you’re fine. Nothing here is meant to be taken personally - we’re all using aliases here and trying to engage in good faith to discuss topics including this controlversial one.
Thank you for this. I have read the article and responded earlier in this thread. I tried my best to avoid bringing a partisan perspective in my critiques of Gail Slater.
Let’s avoid any political conversations and instead focus on her. I’m curious what aspects do you enjoy/dislike about her credentials from a fellow privacy-conscious individual’s perspective?
Fair enough.
This was discussed here, the problem is that Privacy is inherently a politically charged issue: Proposal: Add Political topics section to PG Discourse and code of conduct
Please flag such posts so a staff member can take care of them. Additionally you can disable private messages if you like.
Please get back on topic.
I am fairly disappointed that certain people continue to make this topic revolve around Andy Yen’s personal politics, instead of the on-topic discussion about privacy companies like Proton getting involved in the politics of any country.
The Medium post was shared very early in this thread, and despite this it continues to be re-posted here and in brand new threads for some reason, and when some of those posts are removed as an obviously-duplicate discussion people are up in arms about “censorship,” etc.
Since I do not see any interest from people in 1) reading the replies that have already been written, or 2) talking about Proton instead of having partisan arguments about one employee, I am going to end this discussion here. I really do think that enough points of views from varying perspectives have been shared here that you, reader, can make your own informed opinions without needing to add your voice to the mix, so I hope you understand.
Please take the partisan bickering to Bluesky or whatever other political cesspool is popular these days, but the vast majority of even team members are not American and frankly do not care about this.