Donation controversy

We would like to address the recent controversy about one of the owners of Mullvad making a donation to a Swedish political party.

It was a private donation from Daniel the individual. Mullvad or its parent and sister companies did not endorse and were not involved in it. Since it has attracted attention and questions we still think it appropriate to comment.

Mullvad is a political company. We fight for freedom of speech, freedom of information and the right to privacy. One way we achieve this is to make products and services that counteract censorship and mass surveillance. Another way is to support and/or develop privacy and security enhancing open source technologies such as WireGuard, Tor, Qubes, GrapheneOS, Sigsum and System Transparency. A third way is to do political campaigning against proposals such as Chat Control and identity verification.

When doing such political campaigning we are careful in not taking political stances outside of our narrow areas of focus. Because we want to cooperate with everyone. Customers, employees, suppliers and many types of collaboration partners. The more people and organizations who can agree to set aside their other differences and work towards these common goals, the more progress can be made on these goals.

We have nurtured a culture of radical tolerance. Even when some in our sphere of collaborators have advocated for actors and views that have personally and severely affected the founders and their family members, this has not stood in the way of cooperation.

This mindset becomes necessary when considering what Mullvad is, what it does, and why. As we have written for a long time, privacy and free exchange of information are a net benefit to society. Importantly because they enable open debate and the free exchange of ideas. Sometimes it is the most persecuted ideas who win out and become self-evident truths of later history.

All over the world, but different everywhere, there are obstacles to open debate and the free exchange of ideas. There are blocks, surveillance, identification requirement and legal or social consequences. Self-censorship out of fear is an even bigger dampener than direct censorship. Mullvad helps people everywhere to avoid these obstacles. Many of these people are heroes. Others are the opposite. Some will say and do things using Mullvad that others think are despicable. This is part of the package. We want to liken Mullvad to a force of nature. Or to cryptography. It just mechanically does its thing with no human arbiters. Also protecting ideas one does not agree with is the only way to have a neutral field where truth can be found.

It should be clear by now how the party donation relates to this. Mullvad does not condone it, nor condemn it. It most likely was a bad idea; most things where there are a multitude of conflicting opinions necessarily are. But societies need a great diversity of ideas, initiatives and organizations who can be tested and sifted until the best ones remain. Ideally through rational debate.

Daniel's rationale and points of view can be read on his personal blog.

Mullvad will continue to keep its values and mission separate from the broader views of its founders. Not least because the founders have always been in strong disagreement on important issues, including this one. This narrow focus has served us well for 17 years and will do so going forward too.