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.”
Just to be clear, you’re saying you’re OK with potentially helping to establish a far right government in Sweden?
Sorry if I’m being blunt but this is essentially the case, no?
No. I am saying I’m paying for a service that hits above all other services in value and properties which I think are important for privacy, free speech, internet access, cost, and quality of service rendered. Mullvad offers and proves that their service functions as intended. They stay or try to stay ahead of the curve of laws, privacy eroding tactics, AI, etc. I do not support the private funding of negativity in any kind or oppression. But the service itself is better than many others I’ve tried. Court and agency tested no logs. Long standing track record of being truthful and reliable to their customers in regards to their needs. I still believe their service is quality outside of what a single person does involved in the business, like there aren’t many people surely working hard to make a good product at Mull. Their CEO or whoever donated. Is not the sole owner and operator. I paid for the service, and don’t plan on stopping. If things get worse or they start becoming full blown Nazis then things will change. For now I see benefit of the doubt.
He isn’t just the CEO. He’s the owner of the company. Your money is directly funding far right populism.