I think people love to hate proton but also they are very much deserving of scrutiny. Given they have voiced some sentiments in the past that many read as “pro-maga” they should be be scrutinized

And also, my impression has generally been that when scrutinized (which happens VERY regularly) they dont really seem to be doing anything nefarious. But we keep having things crop up that create scrutiny, which I feel is equal parts concerning, and also likely somewhat a product of hypervigilance (which itself is neither good nor bad)

Here’s someone contemporaneously scrutinizing those “pro-maga” comments made around the beginning of trumps second term, and with some grace shown to proton (you can decide if they deserve it), concludes the comments are understandable, even if its clear how divorced from reality they are in retrospect (that many could also see as such at the time they were made). But the author makes the fair argument that the CEO of proton reasonably may not have had that perspective at the time and may have been caught off guard by a anti-big-tech pick for trumps cabinet. I don’t think the interpretation they explain is wrong.

But we keep having concerns with them. Sometimes hollow (they turned over a Stop Cop City organizer’s payment data when legally required by the country theyre incorporated in, which is what what literally any company would do), sometimes a bit less so, like making pro trump comments that may be true but that feel shortsighted, and failing to scrutinize who they partner with as an influencer