On Mullvad, Ethical Tech, Geese and Digital Commons
Should you have the time, this 18th Century English poem as expertly sung by the Askew sisters below will help you settle in to this post:
Although Deborah's poem is also a great response to Softbank's absurd Goose-themed AI-fever-dream reminder that there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. And yes, Softbank, those fucking Goose thieving bastards now recognize the Goose as the source of value (Marxist plot twist: The Goose is Labour). Satire is dead, but under capitalism the horse must continue to be flogged daily.
I read David's piece on Tech Morality being hard, and fully empathise with his view. I'm impressed with his changes. I moved back and forth over different forms of what some could call tech puritanism over time.
Like David, I relate to the upset around Mullvad's recent statements. Defending Daniel Berntsson's donations, Mullvad says:
Mullvad is a political company fighting for free speech, free information and privacy, with two equal co-founders, co-owners and co-CEOs who fundamentally disagree on many issues. Daniel's donation to a political party is private and not part of Mullvad's mission. We protect the right to express and access views we disagree with. We welcome anyone sharing these core values, whatever their other opinions. We are happy to refund others who don't, where we can.
How people paying with Monero will receive refunds without doxxing themselves remains unresolved.
I could accept the idea Berntsson's donation isn't part of Mullvad's mission if none of the money came from Mullvad. Otherwise, Mullvad's mission is bound to it's co-founder through directly funding the donation. If the co-founder donated to a proscribed terror group that link would absolutely be made with talk of consequences. This is no different.
In Daniel's comments, I saw Thomas Rigby's linked post. This discusses the impossibility of ethical tech consumerism under capitalism. The way out of the trap is through digital sovereignty. This sucks for people who lack the skills to do it themselves. It's why reinforcing a digital commons is always be better than supporting its demise.
This could take any number of forms:
- Using independent internets
- Sharing Wireguard connections or netbird networks with friends around the world
- Using and running Tor relays
- Achieving full Tech Independence
These all come with trade-offs. The myth of convenience is a capitalistic selling point. There is always more friction when it comes to building rather than buying.
And yes this blog post could've probably been a toot along the lines of:
People would be better off creating a residential VPN exit node commons among known friends and self-hosting, than by trusting a commercial tech entity not to do the thing almost every commercial tech entity seems doomed to do.
Do not support those trying to steal the commons from the Goose. Despite what some say the Goose does not have value, for it is priceless.
If that's all you're here for, cool. You can stop reading now. The rest is politics. If you want to know more about the Mullvad donation, try this and read on:
But what if the fediverse shrieking is an over-reaction? I didn't want to just blindly accept online claims Mullvad are Nazis now. I wanted to understand who this party is, and what they're about. After all there is a left-right spectrum on which Nazis sit, and a broad space not occupied by Nazis at all.
The Örebro Party was formed in 2014 after Left Party leader Markus Allard was expelled. According to the leader, the party cannot be placed anywhere on the traditional left-right spectrum, but lets look at the leader's views and see if we can get an idea.
From this Nazi bar platform post, in Swedish then English so you don't have to click:
Vi kan skita i att ge stöd till Ukraina - Det som spelar roll är huruvida Sverige vinner på det eller inte. Det måste vara "Sverige först" som är principen.
We can give a shit about giving support to Ukraine - What matters is whether Sweden benefits from it or not. It must be "Sweden first" which is the principle.
"Sweden First" sounds more than a little... familiar. All those people seem to come from the same ideological places though. He's in favour of a Swedish exit from the EU. As the party claims, it's impossible to place him or them anywhere on the traditional left-right spectrum. Oh well.
Ok, there was a Studio 3 debate where Allard said of immigrants:
Ja och det är det här som är felet för det Sverige är svenskarnas land. Vi måste se till så att vi tar hand om vårt eget folk och skickar ut de här parasiterna som sitter och och livnär sig på våran bekostnad.
Which translates to:
Yes and this is what is wrong because Sweden is the country of the Swedes. We must make sure that we take care of our own people and send out these parasites who sit and feed themselves at our expense.
And then there's this podcast where Allard said:
"Dom ska också ut, även om dom är födda i Sverige, för dom har inte en naturlig koppling till Sverige. Dom är inte svenskar. Jag är beredd att gå över lik här och det skiljer mig från dom här andra jävla politikerna"
Which translates to:
"They should also go out, even if they were born in Sweden, because they don't have a natural connection to Sweden. They are not Swedes. I am prepared to walk over corpses here and that distinguishes me from these other fucking politicians"
So far, so giant yikes. As Koppen says, "Very small-moustache energy". To me, Allard aligns with sufficient neo-Nazi principles to lump The Örebro Party in with other Nazi parties. If Berntsson is funding a Nazi party with Mullvad profits, Mullvad is funding a Nazi party with subscriber money.
In fact, Koppen sums things up pretty well:
For Daniel Berntsson, none of this is a problem since it's his own money and has nothing to do with Mullvad - which, for its part (along with co-founder Fredrik Strömberg), distanced itself from him pretty damn quickly.
But still, even if it's a personal donation, it ultimately comes from the profits generated in part by Mullvad. So in a way, subscribing to this VPN service is lining Berntsson's pockets and indirectly funding stupidity and hatred.
Mullvad's position is unsurprisingly Swedish, but I'll just assert that in the process, this would make Mullvad a Nazi Bar. I do not knowingly visit Nazi bars.
The foulest smelling shit makes the best compost, which is also the most ethical approach to handling Nazis. Mullvad is entitled to claim neutrality. I'm entitled to claim that as tacit support.
If the actions of a Mullvad co-owner, and the service aren't something you can support, don't just toss your Mullvad number in the bin. Every person using Mullvad without paying costs them money. Money that won't be funding a Nazi party.
An account is a 16-digit number, and there are 10^16 combinations. But this lottery is free to play across bloody bloody borders.