this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2025
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Privacy
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From a previous reply that I made :
https://lemmy.ml/comment/16136772
@anonymous comment still stands. Your previous comment doesn't indicate how he is incorrect, if that is what you're suggesting.
He doesn't have to be incorrect in order for people to feel betrayed by his comments. The commenter was answering the question of why people felt betrayed. Demonstrating the incorrectness of the CEO's take is out of scope.
(Although, he definitely is also incorrect. Republicans love corporations and monopolies even more than Democrats do. They're slightly more nationalistic about it though, which is the only reason they ever make noises to oppose corporations that aren't sufficiently US-owned.)
I think the "he" there was @anonymous@lemm.ee, not the CEO of Proton.
The comment from anonymous implied that there was no real betrayal. Just because someone fights for digital privacy does not mean he's on the same side for other topics. Feeling betrayed and actually being betrayed are not the same thing.
I think everybody is focusing too much on the word betrayal and not enough on the being a syccophant to a would be fascist. If you don't think thats a problem because, "business," that makes you also a fascism enabler. Just because they are good at the privacy part, doesn't mean a company that cow tows to fascism can ever be seen as safe for antifascists. Currently there is a good alternative; tuta. So why contribute to a company like this. There is massive potential to betray users if they are ideologically opposed to things that proton is coming to represent. If there is the option to divert resources away from projects that express fascist sympathies, its probably wise to do so.
This specific comment thread is focused on that because that was the topic started by the choice of words of the first comment.
The conversation would not have continued in that direction if instead of doubling down there simply were an admission that what really was meant to say is not that Proton betrayed some hypothetical anti-Trump principles they had, but that they have proven now being sympathetic towards Trump and this made people feel unsafe (and some branches of the thread implied that conclusion).
What's being argued is that this is not surprising. This is as silly as thinking that Zuckerberg is a betrayer because of the recent changes in moderation policy, as if Facebook was ever on the side of any particular political ideology other than their own interests.
What makes you think tuta is against all and every policy coming from the far-right including the ones that align with their stated goal of digital privacy? If (hypothetically) tuta had some level of relationship with a left-wing party (pick your favorite) and made a post about how they are happy about certain changes that party is pushing that are beneficial to privacy, would that be a betrayal of their own principles? I would say it's not, regardless how many alt-right customers might "feel betrayed" if they had some parasocial alt-right image of tuta.
I think we are pretty much in agreement here.
You are correct about that, thank you for clarifying