If you’re still using Proton mail:
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@slothrop I opened an issue and got the following response (in German) from Proton:
Hallo,
Dies ist eine Folge-E-Mail.
Wir möchten Ihnen wichtige Hintergrundinformationen zu diesem Vorfall geben.
Der Kanal von Vincent Lapierre hätte niemals Teil unseres Partner- und Sponsoringprogramms sein dürfen, da wir bewusst Verbindungen zu Kanälen vermeiden, deren Inhalte von unserer Botschaft ablenken und unsere Community spalten könnten.
1/x@slothrop
Proton ist weltweit tätig, und obwohl unsere Dienstleistungen allen unabhängig von politischen Ansichten zur Verfügung stehen und unsere Mission überall dieselbe ist, ist unser Wissen über die jeweilige lokale Medienlandschaft nicht überall gleich. In diesem Fall verfügte unser Team nicht über genügend Informationen zum französischen Medienmarkt, um eine fundierte Entscheidung zu treffen, und das geht auf unsere Kappe.Wir möchten außerdem klarstellen, was eine solche Platzierung ist und was nicht. Eine Partner- oder Sponsoringvereinbarung ist eine transaktionale Platzierung zur Steigerung der Bekanntheit, keine Unterstützung der Ansichten eines Content-Creators. Im Fall von Vincent Lapierre handelte es sich um ein Sponsoring eines einzelnen Videos, nicht um eine Partnerschaft.
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@slothrop I opened an issue and got the following response (in German) from Proton:
Hallo,
Dies ist eine Folge-E-Mail.
Wir möchten Ihnen wichtige Hintergrundinformationen zu diesem Vorfall geben.
Der Kanal von Vincent Lapierre hätte niemals Teil unseres Partner- und Sponsoringprogramms sein dürfen, da wir bewusst Verbindungen zu Kanälen vermeiden, deren Inhalte von unserer Botschaft ablenken und unsere Community spalten könnten.
1/x@slothrop
Diese Unterscheidung entschuldigt jedoch nicht, was hier geschehen ist. Es liegt in unserer Verantwortung, die Partner, mit denen wir zusammenarbeiten, sorgfältig zu prüfen, und dieser Verantwortung sind wir dieses Mal nicht gerecht geworden. Wir überprüfen nun unseren Auswahlprozess und unsere Richtlinien für Marketingagenturen, um sicherzustellen, dass dies nicht wieder vorkommt.
Sollten Sie erneut einen solchen Vorfall beobachten, informieren Sie uns bitte. Wir sind auf Ihr Feedback und Ihre Aufmerksamkeit angewiesen.3/3
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@slothrop
Companies like Proton sponsor creators across the political spectrum not because they agree with those creators, but because they're businesses and they're trying to get more customers. I saw Matt Walsh shilling for NordVPN. Does that mean I shouldn't use NordVPN? This insistence on absolute ideological purity that some people on the left engage in is just silly and counter-productive. And for the record, I'm pretty far left myself.@Phracker2Art it's neither silly nor counterproductive. Money is power, endorsement (by being a sponsor) lends credibility, and so on.
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@joe a kind soul archived Proton’s response for posterity:
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@slothrop
Diese Unterscheidung entschuldigt jedoch nicht, was hier geschehen ist. Es liegt in unserer Verantwortung, die Partner, mit denen wir zusammenarbeiten, sorgfältig zu prüfen, und dieser Verantwortung sind wir dieses Mal nicht gerecht geworden. Wir überprüfen nun unseren Auswahlprozess und unsere Richtlinien für Marketingagenturen, um sicherzustellen, dass dies nicht wieder vorkommt.
Sollten Sie erneut einen solchen Vorfall beobachten, informieren Sie uns bitte. Wir sind auf Ihr Feedback und Ihre Aufmerksamkeit angewiesen.3/3
@selflesssloth das ist einfach der Text des Reddit-Posts in deutscher Übersetzung
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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/
@slothrop That post isn’t researched at all. Just an immediate reaction from someone who saw a sponsorship claim.
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@theeclecticdyslexic @nileane @slothrop The guy is a French video-maker, active at least on YouTube. I discovered his existence when stumbling on a long video he made about Brussels. It took me 1 min. to suspect it was shady far-right propaganda, and a couple of additional minutes to have confirmation.
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@slothrop That post isn’t researched at all. Just an immediate reaction from someone who saw a sponsorship claim.
@david are you fucking serious, or at least believe yourself to be??!
What kind of “research” do you find necessary if a fucking Nazi says “I’d like to thank Proton for their support”, and Proton follows up by saying “yeah, we supported that Nazi, but it was a mistake”?
You seem to propose a standard of thoroughness that you yourself are a couple of galaxies away from meeting.
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@slothrop If you looked into it you’d see there was more to it than that. It was a mistake on the part of Proton and they admitted the mistake. The left needs not to become as bad as the right by jumping to extreme reactions. And insulting me won’t make anything better for anyone. You don’t judge anyone to an extreme degree for a single mistake. That’s what the right do.
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Oh ffs. Is there a service provider who isn’t fash or fash adjacent? Idonly just managed to migrate away from gmail!
@tempusfelix @slothrop
```
STA:> SAME
STA:> I'm SO MAD
DIR:> Just adding "custom SMTP server" to the pile of tasks towards a personal tech stack.
CNJ:> I think it's important to take action about these things at one's own pace, does no good to burn oneself out.
DIR:> When I have the energy, I will commence the journey for a different email provider.
``` -
@selflesssloth das ist einfach der Text des Reddit-Posts in deutscher Übersetzung
@slothrop jo, stimmt... den hatte ich noch nicht gesehen. Well...
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@slothrop If you looked into it you’d see there was more to it than that. It was a mistake on the part of Proton and they admitted the mistake. The left needs not to become as bad as the right by jumping to extreme reactions. And insulting me won’t make anything better for anyone. You don’t judge anyone to an extreme degree for a single mistake. That’s what the right do.
@david I will judge people on their words, and on their deeds.
And you’re not measuring up.
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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/
@slothrop 1. Thank you for the post, it has added significantly to my block list, I'm so sorry you had to put up with so much crap. 2. Has anyone I can't see mentioned an alternative for VPN? I mostly got it because someone suggested it and I could get it on fdroid and it had a built in ad blocker. I have time left on my plan, but frankly, depending on how much is left, would gladly jump ship early to make a point, especially if the new service doesn't cost the moon and works well.
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@nileane @gotofritz @slothrop sorry, I didn't watch the video and didn't realise there was a whole segment. I was expecting the link to show a discount rather than redirect to a generic page but looks like I am mistaken on that too. Thanks for clarifying, looking forward to proton responding to this
@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
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@slothrop never heard of that YouTuber. What makes him far right/fascist?
@shemjm use a search engine your choice, and find out
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@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
@anhedonie @nileane @gotofritz @slothrop Not my finest moment to be fair
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@Phracker2Art it's neither silly nor counterproductive. Money is power, endorsement (by being a sponsor) lends credibility, and so on.
@dngrs
Well, what are they supposed to do, turn down obvious growth opportunities based on political affiliation? They have to stay in business. If humanity had transcended capitalism, maybe things would be different, but as it stands we live in a capitalist society where organizations that provide a service need to maximize profit in order to keep providing that service. That's pretty much unavoidable unless you can get crowdfunding like Wikimedia, and even then you still need to reach people. -
@shemjm use a search engine your choice, and find out
@slothrop yeah I had a look prior to asking. Couldn't find anything fascist related. Although he does seem to be right wing on some issues.
`
Lapierre denies being far-right or fascist, claiming he's "sovereignist" (left-leaning economically, conservative on societal issues). `Really the left- right talk is not useful. I prefer the political compass.
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@slothrop yeah I had a look prior to asking. Couldn't find anything fascist related. Although he does seem to be right wing on some issues.
`
Lapierre denies being far-right or fascist, claiming he's "sovereignist" (left-leaning economically, conservative on societal issues). `Really the left- right talk is not useful. I prefer the political compass.
@shemjm oh great. Welcome to my blocklist.
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@dngrs
Well, what are they supposed to do, turn down obvious growth opportunities based on political affiliation? They have to stay in business. If humanity had transcended capitalism, maybe things would be different, but as it stands we live in a capitalist society where organizations that provide a service need to maximize profit in order to keep providing that service. That's pretty much unavoidable unless you can get crowdfunding like Wikimedia, and even then you still need to reach people.@Phracker2Art there never was a need to maximize profits, that road only leads to crimes. Proton terminated this particular sponsor relationship btw. Protesting works.
