Video description explicitly mentions a partnership (not just affiliate link) + 2min 20s segment embedded in the video.
The person in question: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Lapierre
User Lumpy_Carpet9877 shares more info:
Vincent Lapierre’s Wikipedia page is quite explicit about his far-right positioning and includes numerous sources. He worked for several years for a far-right organization founded by Alain Soral, which promotes anti-Semitic, Holocaust-denying, conspiracist, sexist, masculinist, transphobic, and homophobic ideas, and who fled to Russia to escape justice.
He is close to Dieudonné) (a Holocaust denier). He founded Le Média pour tous, a far-right website that particularly targets anti-fascists and defenders of Jewish rights. He has always been close to conspiracist circles
I’ll add that if you dare venture on his youtube channel (at the risk of ruining your suggestion algorithm like I did to provide the screenshot), you’ll see that most videos are typical far right content / talking points
Update: read Proton’s response below
You’re right to raise this, and we want to address it directly and provide you important context on how this happened.
Vincent Lapierre’s channel should never have been part of our affiliate and sponsorship program, because we intentionally avoid association with channels whose content could distract from our message and divide our community.
Proton operates globally, and while our services are available to everyone regardless of political views and our mission is consistent everywhere, our knowledge of every local media landscape is not. In this case, our team didn’t have enough context about the French space to make a well-informed decision, and that’s on us.
We also want to be straight about what a placement like this is and isn’t. An affiliate or sponsorship arrangement is a transactional placement for awareness, not an endorsement of a creator’s views. In the case of Vincent Lapierre, this was a single video sponsorship, not a partnership.
But that distinction doesn’t excuse what happened here. The responsibility to vet who we put our name next to is ours, and we didn’t meet it this time. We’re now reviewing our vetting process and our guidelines for our marketing agencies to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
If you see something like this again, tell us. We rely on your feedback and vigilance."
Well well well… if it isn’t what we’ve been screaming this whole time
It’s always the ones you most suspect
Not sure why you’re being down voted. Proton’s owner has long been known to be right leaning. However, this appears to just be an automated ad.
They are being downvoted because not only is this not a proper sponsorship - they grabbed a partener program link which AFAIK basically anyone can do. Proton is also not right leaning nor do they have a history of politically supporting such political figures. Yes, the CEO had that one tweet, no that one tweet does not make them right leaning. Anyone who thinks so is just reactionary, baiting, or being mislead.
Edit: proton appears to be working on an official response according to their reddit account. Edit2: proton response here: https://i.redd.it/6eac1cs9n26h1.jpeg Tl;Dr: they do have controls to keep them from being associated with political entities but those controls failed and they are working on it, while making sure to cut ties with this individual.
An affiliate or sponsorship arrangement is a transactional placement for awareness, not an endorsement of a creator’s views. […] The responsibility to vet who we put our name next to is ours.
I’m willing to give Proton a fair amount of the benefit of the doubt (albeit a little less after the Trump-endorsing antitrust tweet by Yen a few years ago), but this is a baffling set of statements.
“The type of people we pay to plug our services doesn’t indicate that we endorse their message. I mean, obviously it does, but we don’t care enough to manage it closely.”
albeit a little less after the Trump-endorsing antitrust tweet by Yen a few years ago
I still don’t understand what was wrong with that.
He called a very specific, very pro anti-trust decision (made for all the wrong reasons, but that’s besides the point), a good thing.
People started calling him a Nazi.
I just don’t get it…
Strange, I remember a lot more than you do.
Here is our official response, also available on the Mastodon post in the screenshot:
Corporate capture of Dems is real. In 2022, we campaigned extensively in the US for anti-trust legislation.
Two bills were ready, with bipartisan support. Chuck Schumer (who coincidently has two daughters working as big tech lobbyists) refused to bring the bills for a vote.
At a 2024 event covering antitrust remedies, out of all the invited senators, just a single one showed up - JD Vance.
By working on the front lines of many policy issues, we have seen the shift between Dems and Republicans over the past decade first hand. Dems had a choice between the progressive wing (Bernie Sanders, etc), versus corporate Dems, but in the end money won and constituents lost.
Until corporate Dems are thrown out, the reality is that Republicans remain more likely to tackle Big Tech abuses.
Is that supposed to counter my arguments somehow?
Yes. This official statement from the Proton corporate account is worse, and from a higher position of authority than the CEO’s personal account.
I find you exhibit a lot of apparent ignorance. I hope that’s just coincidence.
Mate, what are you on about?
Proton support cases, not political sides. Yes, in the bit you quoted, they bashed Dems and praised Reps for… supporting their case. How does that go against anything I said about them?
Mate, they were lying about the side. Unless you want to tell me they were either lying or incredibly stupid, your statement is nonsensical.
I’m sorry, you’re not making any sense to me. Maybe a language barrier?
What side? Are you saying that they’ve been secretly supporting right-wing agenda through over a decade of supporting left-right-a-centre projects, as long as they’ve aligned with their very specific agenda? And, after all that time, they accidentally tripped and got outed by supporting a random dude in France?
Imagine praising Hitler for his amazing art and being surprised by the negative reactions
This was after Trump 1.0 and before the insurrection. So it’s more like: “Imagine praising private Hitler in the trenches for his amazing art and then being surprised by negative reactions 30 years later”.
Many people have no critical thinking left now. They just swing wildly from outrage to outrage, cancelling things left and right every other week and retreating further into the little safe space bubble they’ve created for themselves. Algorithmic social media and internet addiction has trained their brains to behave like this normally, so expecting them to slow down and find some nuance in a discussion is unfortunately too much to ask. You can’t talk to these people anymore, until they unplug and detox they will remain on outrage culture autopilot 24/7.
Their response sounds like what AI would say when it’s called out.
They should do better and they should make public what they’ll do so it won’t happen again
Oh? Doesn’t seem like that to me at all. In fact, it was a pretty decent response.
They admitted they were wrong, what corrective action will they take?
Decent response but they need to do better.
Its not news to me that the people at proton have no morals but its still cringe every time shit like this happens.
Remember the person who Yen publicly supported that was part of the Trump admin? That person got fired for not bending to Trump’s will.
The more I see shit like this come up, the more I realize this might be just an ongoing smear campaign against Proton. Not saying they’re perfect, but this is excessive.
Bro its a capitalist corporation like any other, why would they have morals? Also being part of the Trump admin in the first place is enough of a problem.
Bro its a capitalist corporation like any other
Proton?
Proton is headed by a non-profit, Proton A.G., where Andy makes up only 1 of 5 board members. Another board member is none other than Tim Berners-Lee - the literal inventor of the internet as you know it.
Everything is a conspiracy when you don’t know how anything works.
Proton AG is a for profit company. Its controlled by the non profit Proton Foundation, but that has no real meaning. They are not required to run in a non profit way just because the decisions come from people on a non profit board. Its literally just a subscription based tech company, why are people simping so hard for them?
Bot brained people here just like Reddit, simping for the same companies that eventually turn into monopolies.
Same type of people that hype stuff like bluesky
Not worth the post. The guy just automatically got their link.
Proton did say “we intentionally avoid association with channels whose content could distract from our message and divide our community,” which is the exact opposite of your claim.
Apparently this is a false alarm.
For all those going off on being negative about Proton based on an ambiguous post, this is the best explanation of Proton’s political position: https://medium.com/@ovenplayer/does-proton-really-support-trump-a-deeper-analysis-and-surprising-findings-aed4fee4305e
