On the Matrix organizations' business partnerships with imperial military alliances and with the police

I see a lot of posts about how shitty the Matrix Communication Protocol (henceforth Matrix) implementations are, but I hardly see any posts talking about how the Matrix Foundation (henceforth MF) and New Vector Ltd. (henceforth NVL) (trade name Element)—the two sister organizations that, in essence, form the Matrix world—are busy building business partnerships with imperial military alliances of nations that are enabling and perpetrating genocide at present, and with police forces actively suppressing and crushing the resistance of anti-capitalist movements, of campaigners for climate change action, of anti-genocide protestors. They have (or are trying to have) commercial relationships with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), with the German armed forces, and with various police forces in Europe. They are also wooing the US Department of Defense. This blog post talks about the letter to the US DoD by US senators Ron Wyden and Eric Schmitt urging for the rapid adoption of Matrix. This blog post says that Element is "incredibly fortunate to be working with trailblazers like ... the US Department of Defense ...".

This fealty to the imperial setup also shows in the language adopted by the blog posts of both the MF and NVL. This February 2025 blog post by the MF says that "the International Rules-Based Order is at risk like never before" and cites in support a BBC preview of the Munich Security Conference expressing anxiety about the "old" world order crumbling. Anyone paying attention knows that "the International Rules-Based Order" is an euphemism for neo-liberalism imposed on the global south by their former colonizers to negate the effects of decolonization. If a nation state tries to delink itself from the vortex of global finance, the USA and its allies impose sanctions upon it. If it still doesn't fall in line, the Western transatlantic alliance invades the country and bombs it to smithereens. As its illegal interventions in the former Yugoslavia and Libya and many other places demonstrate, NATO is the organ of choice for such wars. (Also, we all know that the USA and its allies in NATO and several of the non-NATO countries in Europe have been materially and ideologically supporting Israel in its genocide of the Palestinian people.) And exactly this organization is the partner of choice for the Matrix folks. In another illustration of this partnership, Jeroen Franssen, the Innovation Project Manager for the NATO Allied Command Transformation, gave a talk at the Matrix Foundations's September 2024 conference.

The same blog post also talks about the Matrix Foundation's applications to join the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism and tech against terrorism. Given that Palestine Action and Extinction Rebellion and other such groups are being labelled terrorists and persecuted by the police forces in several of the NATO and EU countries, the Matrix Foundation joining tech forums for countering terrorism and also partnering these police forces does not bode well for the Matrix protocol.

There are also blog posts with a war-mongering tone on the Element website. This one, for example, links to a news report about suspected sabotage of a link between Germany and Finland, but in the blog post, the word "suspected" disappears and the sabotage becomes a certainty. The escorting of an alleged Russian spy ship from Irish waters gets labelled "robust", again an adjective the cited report does not use. That NATO is concerned is cited. The blog post also approvingly mentions NATO's call on allies to shift to a "wartime mindset". This blog post also talks of NATO "pushing governments to adopt a wartime footing" and advocates for the Matrix protocol and Element itself as the right tools for all these countries in "wartime" mode.

One can go on, but I think the picture should be clear by now. We justly condemn American Big Tech companies like Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta and weapons manufacturers like Lockheed Martin, RTX, etc. for profiteering from Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people. Why should the rules be any different for the Matrix folks? I know that the Matrix organizations are small fry at present and are in no position right now to profit in the same fashion, but their actions and their words clearly demonstrate a strong urge to join these war- and genocide-profiteers. It is time all anti-colonial, anti-imperial, anti-capitalist activists familiarize themselves with the true face of the Matrix organizations, and act accordingly.

Appendix: Is the Matrix Foundation truly independent of New Vector Ltd.?

Someone might argue that it is New Vector Ltd. forming business partnerships with NATO, with the police forces, etc. The Matrix Foundation—the custodian of the Matrix protocol—is an independent entity and has nothing to do with these commercial relationships. The blog post cited above suggests otherwise, it shows that the Matrix Foundation is keen on being a player upholding and implementing the "International Rules-Based Order". But if we ignore the ideological alignment with New Vector Ltd. expressed in the blog post, can we say that the foundation is truly independent of its for-profit sibling?

At present, the MF website states:
In the interest of transparency, we think it's important for people to know that most of our staffers are employees of Element, working under a contract with, and funded by, the Foundation. The exception is our Managing Director who contracts directly with the Foundation.
Yet, the people behind Matrix seem to bristle at the suggestion that the MF is entirely dependent on NVL. This recent blog post by the MF managing director is an example. However, the MF doesn't point out anywhere that a 2019 resolution entitles Matthew Hodgson and Amandine Le Pape, the founders of both organizations, and the Guardians (equivalent to Directors forming the board of a for-profit company, or to Trustees forming the board of a Trust) of the MF, to vote and to fulfill quorum, irrespective of any conflicts arising from their positions as Directors of NVL. The resolution reads:
THAT any actual or potential conflicts of interest of Matthew Hodgson and Amandine Le Pape (the "Conflicted Guardians") arising from or connected with their directorship and/or shareholding in New Vector Limited (whether direct or indirect interest or duty that conflicts or may conflict with the interests of the Foundation or their respective duties to the Foundation) be and are hereby authorised in accordance with section 180 of the Act, and accordingly, the Conflicted Guardians shall be entitled to participate at any board meeting for voting and quorum purposes in respect of the matters detailed in their respective declarations of interest annexed to this resolution.
Readers who would like to check the source should open this page and select the "View PDF" option for the June 21, 2019 entry titled "Resolution of adoption of Articles of Association".

At present, Matthew Hodgson and Amandine Le Pape continue to be listed as Guardians of the MF and as Directors of NVL.

To me, the above 2019 resolution does not inspire confidence in the independence of the MF. The situation is analogous to Matt Mullenweg's simultaneous control of Wordpress and Automattic. Ben Cook, as far back as in 2010, had pointed out how Matt Mullenweg being the boss of both Wordpress and Automattic could potentially lead to a toxic and explosive "conflict of interest" situation. As you can see from comments below his post, he was roundly cursed and criticized for his demand. However, his prophecy came true in 2024. Let's see how things shape out in case of the MF and NVL.

#Matrix #Element #NewVectorLtd #MatrixProtocol #InstantMessaging #BusinessCommunication #Signal #XMPP #Wire #MicrosoftTeams #Slack #colonialism #imperialism #capitalism #NATO #USA #Europe #EuropeanUnion #DigitalSovereignty #Israel #Palestine #Gaza #genocide