RE: https://nileane.fr/@nileane/116704285750838861
If you’re still using Proton mail:
The company is sponsoring the videos of French far-right / fascist YouTuber Vincent Lapierre.
If encryption is part of your vision for a better society, find a better service provider.
UPDATE 2026-06-08: Response from Proton. This comes after mods apparently deleted lots of critical posts in r/ProtonMail.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/comments/1u05xs2/comment/oqgihvq/
@gotofritz @slothrop If that's the case, that's up to Proton to clarify. Because right now it's presented as a sponsor: the video has a sponsor segment, and Lapierre even thanks Proton for sponsoring him.
If he's lying, then Proton should state that he lied.
+ him "just using an affiliate link" would still mean that Proton is okay with a fascist influencer bringing them money and customers.
@yaxu @nileane @gotofritz @slothrop
also, tclarify, did you find a link to thos video in any of the Proton products?
I'm asking mostly becuase just yesterday a friend was talking me about Proton, and it sounded good emough to jump over.
@mdione I see that you are a tech person.
Proton is regulary doing odd things, like the ways they do PGP encryption. Non standard.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40282187
Also, they will send informations about you if "the police" ask them. Maybe emails if in clear text.
The main Proton Mail alternative is Tuta (https://tutamail.com I think). I don't use them but if a friend recommand easy and safe email provider, it's my recommandation.
@ache @mdione That’s not strictly true. They are obliged to hand over payment information (which reveals your identity) if courts ask for it, but you can pay them in ways other than by credit card. Otherwise they can’t access your emails.
The whole “company Y is evil because…” discourse on Mastodon is exhausting and just sows confusion. This appears to be all over affiliate links, which every customer has access to.
@gavin57 @mdione Did you read the information they send to the police ?
Like "IP linked to the account", name of the device linked to the account", and a "mobile" number associated to the account (phone number ? Too long to be just the phone number, maybe IMSI).
Nothing linked the the payment information. Please don't call for "fake news". They don't seems to store clear text emails for now, that is a good thing.
It's not just a affialiated link. It's about money.
This far right activist is getting money from them.
https://youtu.be/8aUdWFfKCog&t=66
But as I said, for a tech person, proton mail usage is just, "not the right way". Tuta isn't very better since is hard to use something else than the web ui (the WEB ui ! 🤯).
@ache @mdione The number of companies or services that don’t cause controversy on Mastodon is vanishingly small.
Proton has an objectionable YouTuber on their affiliate program.
They no doubt also have good people in their affiliate program. They have Vivaldi on their affiliate page, for example.
Are Proton services good enough for most people? Yes. Better than Gmail? Yes. Do they have some issues? Also yes, but show me a company that doesn’t.
@gavin57 Mastodon has nothing to do with it. If the number of services that don't cause controversy on Mastodon is vanishingly small it's maybe because the number of companies that don't case controversy is vanishingly small.
You are right Proton is still better than Gmail. Good enough, I don't know, maybe.
Maybe the solution is to actually don't use big companies. Just find a local service, an association like toot.wales to host your email. I guess it's the best.
@ache Look, I use Tuta myself, but I find the "They gave someone's data to the police!!!" argument really stupid, no offense.
Every company (including Tuta) is legally obligated to cooperate with the police if they are investigating. It is literally a crime not to. If they refused they'd just get sued and shut down - and for the purpose of helping *one* person, they'd harm their other millions of users. The only thing they can do is collect as little as possible so they can have nothing to give them.
Every single web app collects your IP and links it to your account. That's literally just how the internet works. I guess that doesn't apply to the name and the phone number, but isn't that that guy's fault? Proton has very publicly said "if you are being chased/persecuted, our service is not secure enough for you". Proton works perfectly fine without a phone number, so it's on that person for linking it, in my opinion
@witchgirls Fair point.
As you said, 'As little data as possible' isn't the Proton way, it's not the goal. They don't advert to be secure enougth to protect against abusive police requests.
I still think that the internal phone number and email adresse use as a recovery is too much information to hold and that nobody will expect them to share it with the police.
But again, they don't advert themself as secure enougth so ... not in the contract, so blame the user.
Yet you have to notice the user of that behaviour, I understand that they don't expect that.
But right, the "they help the police" isn't the best argument. The other points still hold.
First, I don't have to ask Proton anything. I'm not a customer, and I have shared factual info on here because I thought people who are customers should know. And the facts remain: Vincent Lapierre is a fascist YouTuber, his latest video features a full-on Proton Mail sponsorship segment, with the sponsorship label overlayed in the top left corner as required by law ("collaboration commerciale"), and with a paragraph in the video description featuring a custom Proton link to his name. If this is not an actual sponsorship, then Lapierre will surely have gone a long way to make it seem like one.
Second, the link works for me. I'm wondering whether it's only active if you're visiting from a French IP or something. In any case, stop insinuating I'm a liar just because that link isn't working for you.
@yaxu @nileane @gotofritz @slothrop
> I didn't realise there was a whole sponsor segment
she explicitly told you so? you didn't even read the post you were answering to lmao
Imagine calling yourself a "research fellow" and not bothering to do the most basic fact-checking
the urge to yell at a woman is simply too strong I guess
@nileane @gotofritz @slothrop my understanding of the way many of these sponsor programs work is the company goes to an agency, and then the agency like subcontracts out to a bunch of different organizations, which then go and contact different youtubers
I don't know if proton is doing this, however this is my understanding of how many youtube sponsorships work
@solonovamax @nileane @gotofritz sure. But the reputational risk remains with the company - Proton, in this case.
Managing your brand image has costs. So does not managing your brand image.
@slothrop @nileane @gotofritz I am not saying they shouldn't terminate any agreement and come out with a post saying they don't support this or anything
just attempting to explain how it could have happened in the first place
@solonovamax
Yes, but the organisation hiring wankeeteering companies have, or research with, a target demographic.
And marketing data will contain data from which you can assume political leaning and it's strength.
At some point you have to notice a group of ultra-right paranoids, who are ready to put cash in an envelope for your services.
sit at a table with a fascist holocaust denier, and you too are a fascist holocaust denier....
Irredeemable damage to their brand, I mean big front page of, get away from US based right wing tech, use home grown fascist tech instead.
@theeclecticdyslexic one of France’s most famous right-wing extremist YouTubers.
Not someone I’d want to see my service providers associating with.
@slothrop @nileane I see. Can you recommend any reading I can reference in a support ticket, while I see how they respond?
I have already paid ahead for a year so, even if I swap today my money is already in their hands for services I paid up front for. I would prefer to pressure them by threatening I can take my money with me on my next payment date, rather than silently leaving without explaining why.
@theeclecticdyslexic @slothrop @nileane i do not think they will change their stance as their c?o/founder already supported trump and spewed other hyper capitalist right ideology shit himself.
and given that history i would still move anyways no matter what capitalsit ass saving response you get.
and i think you can just link to the french wikipedia. as proton embraced all this AI bullshit they will be able to translate (badly) themselves.
@glowl he fucking didn't! This is categorically not true! People took two statements he made out of context and ran with it!
And now you're all doing it again!
E: maybe actually rtfa instead of doing a drive-by reply and block? Righteous anger and wrong is still wrong!
@Hyperlynx You're right, "Great pick by Donald Trump." is the most anti-fascist thing I've ever read.
@nileane @slothrop do you know anything about https://porkbun.com/products/proton_mail/? if connected (as they appear to be), are there better domain registrars you might suggest?
claiming to have already paid for a service seems disingenuous as reason not to leave proton & their affiliates. #fash #proton
Oh ffs. Is there a service provider who isn’t fash or fash adjacent? Idonly just managed to migrate away from gmail!
@Mimesatwork @tempusfelix @slothrop
@Tutanota (tutamail) is on Fedi.
@tempusfelix @slothrop Ethics/sustainability/privacy are some of the reasons I chose Runbox:
They're also on the Fediverse: @runbox
@ratfactor @tempusfelix @slothrop
Thank you for the mention, we appreciate it! Thank you for being part of the Runbox Community.
We are committed to operating ethically, and we are private and sustainable by design. Hosted in Norway and protected by some of the strongest privacy laws in the world, and running on 100% renewable energy.
Custom configure Runbox on your favorite email client — including command-line clients. Full IMAP/SMTP/msmtp compatibility.
@runbox @ratfactor @tempusfelix
I've hosted my email with Runbox for 5 years now. It does what it says on the tin, simply and reliably. No drama, quite boring (in the best way possible!) 
@woodwonk @ratfactor @tempusfelix
We love hearing that - we like it best when you don't even think about us, and we're just quietly doing what we do in the background. 😉 Thank you for being a Runbox user!
@willegible @slothrop
Andy Chen de Proton, un fan de la nouvelle administration Trump (et de l'ancienne).
Andy Chen of Proton was a fan of the new Trump administration as well as the old one.
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