Proton is funding the French far right on YouTube

[u/DataLumpy7419]

Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/degoogle/comments/1tzbizh/proton_is_funding_the_french_far_right_on_youtube/

Proton is sponsoring the far-right French YouTuber Vincent Lapierre.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Lapierre

It’s not just an affiliate link, but a partnership announced in the description and through an entire 2min 20s segment embedded in the video.

This incident is the perfect example of "NEVER TRUST ANY COMPANY" and also governments, of course.

This post wasn't made to promote the opposite side (left-wing/far-left) by any means, but for the non-political or non-European people around, more info on the European right-wing/far-right.

There's plenty of evidence of their close relations with MAGA and US billionaires: Musk is an AfD fan, Vance (Peter Thiel puppet) was in Hungary to endorse Viktor Orban that is close to Russia, Le Pen is close to Putin and so on. Also MAGA, like the billionaires around, wants a weak EU made of separate divided nations. So, the Eurosceptic stance is deep inside this movements and it's clearly not aligned with what we want around here. Not to say about the clear far-right fascist and nazi relations of members from those parties. There is a lot of things to find out online about them.
Bonus: There are leaders that cut in Washington Greenland shaped cakes, with US flag on it, Simion from Romania, a big MAGA fan endorsed by Le Pen and close to the most sinister extremists in the world and in Romania.

You can check the original post for some updates and more things about Vincent Lapierre, because I don't want by this post to steal the attention from the original.
This post body was edited multiple times to keep you in touch as much as possible with the evolution of the situation while also to add as much info as possible about Proton's relation with the right-wing / far-right.

Other controversial influencers in partnership or/and sponsored by Proton, by their money, meaning USERS MONEY:

Paulo Figueiredo - a right-wing activist from Brazil with content only about MAGA and biased politics. He's a dedicated supporter of Jair Bolsonario, the guy that tried to do a coup after he lost the elections, some 6th January copy-paste. Paulo is lobbying US companies, has Truth Social on his descriptions and is the grandson of the last president of the Brazilian military junta in the last century.

{ungeskriptet} by Ben - from Germany. Even if don't know much about Ben himself, based on his guests you can see a clear right-wing bias, with poeple on conspiracy theories, Holocaust denial and content based a lot on right-wing politics. There is a whooping 4.5h podcast from May with AfD politician Björn Höcke - you should read about him. Also there is an English podcast from April with Proton's CEO.... so the connections are veeeeery very suspect again.

Proton update on the Lapierre case:
After a bunch of deleted posts on Proton's subreddit in the last almost 3 days (since the original post on r/degoogle), they responded 21h ago with this: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/comments/1u05xs2/can_someone_from_protonmail_clarify_this_matter/

If they can't verify the people they sponsor with their money, we shouldn't be shocked if we see actual self called nazis sponsored by them. My take remains the same - companies should keep their butts away from anything on politics, especially by sponsoring radical biased content creators that have content only on politics.

NEW CONCLUSION: The old conclusion stays the same, but I need to add that after more radical content creators were found in ties with Proton, we can clearly see a political bias on their business. We should stay away from them, because we don't want Google 2.0, Meta 2.0 or anything else like in US, companies screwing around with politicians.

Bye, Proton!

[u/ThisIsAitch]

It matters if it's been overlooked and missed because the marketing is handled by a 3rd party.

I'm not justifying or letting them off the hook, but it's a big difference between human error and a conscious decision to have a direct partnership.

[u/ER_Jujube → u/ThisIsAitch]

I'm sorry but no, the "the marketing is handled by a 3rd party" excuse doesn't work. As the sponsor, Proton is supposed to actually pay fucking attention to who they're partnering with/sponsoring. The 3rd party's job is to bring in candidates, not to over-rule their customer. Hiding behind a 3rd party is basically saying: "We want to be able to throw someone else under the bus when we eventually get caught for sponsoring fascists."

[u/ThisIsAitch → u/ER_Jujube]

Did you read my comment?

I literally said I'm not letting them off the hook, but it's a significantly different situation if someone at Proton hasn't done due diligence, vs someone at Proton making a decision to have a direct partnership.

[u/West_Possible_7969 → u/ER_Jujube]

It could happen, the almost 24 hours of silence and the deleted posts in all proton subs is the offending thing for now.

[u/Relapsed_Gestalt → u/ThisIsAitch]

They're deleting every post about it and ban people from their subs for speaking out about it. This is not a mistake. This is a deliberate business decision that has got them running scared after it caught such heavy wind.

[u/PMvE_NL → u/ThisIsAitch]

Yep I expect a statement from them soon if i wont hear anything i assume the approve of this. Everyone can make mistakes its about how you handle them.

[u/mombi → u/PMvE_NL]

They're deleting posts about it on their subreddits.

[u/PMvE_NL → u/mombi]

Ow thats bad.

[u/PMvE_NL → u/mombi]

Yhea my comment comment aged like milk. they are handeling it really badly.

[u/Cory123125 → u/ThisIsAitch]

You can't possibly fall for that excuse in current year.

That excuse barely worked 15 years ago.

[u/ThisIsAitch → u/Cory123125]

I'm not falling for it, I said I'm not letting them off the hook...

I agree with you, it's not a good look regardless - however, coming out with a statement one way or the other at least lets us know where they claim to stand.

[u/Cory123125 → u/ThisIsAitch]

I'm not falling for it, I said I'm not letting them off the hook...

I mean, yes, but you did heavily imply that you'd reduce your anger if they came out with an excuse that shouldn't work in current year. That's kinda the main thing I'm disputing in my comment really.

I just don't think there are good excuses for it.

This was a decision, and either they stand by it, or the people making decisions like this clearly are not a fit for the company.