this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2025
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Privacy
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This is very disappointing.
They have a large following on Mastodon so this doesn't really make much sense. I'm inclined to believe that they left due to the hate they were getting because of the recent controversy.
Yeah. They can't get Mastodon moderators to suppress negative publicity like they can on Reddit and other platforms.
They haven't left bluesky but they got backlash there too and have stopped being active for the past couple of weeks compared to on Twitter.
if they cant suppress on reddit, they will go to facebook, which give them ability to do alot more.
And considering a lot of people on the internet make comments without being fully informed, the backlash is probably huge.
Hate is spreading a lot quicker than the truth.
However, the original Twitter post and their doubling down are just stupid responses and they shouldn’t have made them.
I think this is right on the money.
What is the recent controversy?
CEO is what I describe as a Right-wing Libertarian. Dude not only praised the trump FTC appointee, but also said "republicans are on the side of the 'little guy'". Andy Yen is one of the members of the Board of Trustees of Proton Foundation, the non-profit that owns a majority of Proton AG. He initially used his personal account, then later used the official account (so I'm assuming the other board members did not object to it), then later "apologized" for it and said he would use his personal accounts. The reddit account has a username with the number 88 in binary, which led some to speculate its a nazi (88 = HH = Heil H*tler) dogwhistle, to which Andy Yen says its his year of birth 1988. Kinda weird, but he could just be that clueless, who knows 🤷♂️.
From what I could gather from his public statements, including twitter: Andy Yen is also supportative of Ukraine and have donated to Ukraine, and is supportative of the Hong Kong protestors, and is against Russian censorship and against US red state's Age Verification laws.
My view is: Andy Yen is an idiot, and there shouldn't be any immediate threats, but its still not a bad idea to pre-emptively move, if you can, just in case he pulls a "Musk" and does the salute tomorrow.
He also used the word "triggered" in the Reddit comments in the way right wingers are wont to do, and then tried to play the "I'm not American, I don't understand how that word looks to you" card. Never mind that plenty of non-Americans know perfectly well how that looks.
No, it's far more likely he picked up that word and knew exactly how it was used because he's been hanging out in far right spaces.
as a european I have no idea what tertiary meaning does "triggered" have
I mean this part I give him a pass on. It was right for people reading him to raise an eyebrow, because political signalling like that does happen, especially in a context where he's making comments like he made. But in this case it was just a nothingburger.
It doesn't make his "wasn't intended to be a political comment" excuse any less gibberish though.
The whole 88 thing is not generally know except probably in Germany and the US.
He is an idiot yes, but the internet is also making it seem like if you agree with one statement you agree with all statements of that person/party which is just wrong.
Always use your own domain on Proton and others. The laws in Germany aren’t as friendly as the one in Swiss so that can be causing issues as well.
We unfortunately live in the world where saying "Trump is an idiot" and "Actually I was kidding. He's the second coming of Christ" might only be a day apart.
Never heard the 88 thing till now. Not everyone is tied to what shit bags are doing all the time.
The CEO came out as a fascist
Like Elon Musk recently?
This is just...not accurate.