- Windscribe released a satirical statement mocking Mullvad’s PR crisis
- Mullvad’s co-founder donated around $500,000 to Sweden’s populist Örebro party, sparking a backlash from users.
- Mullvad confirmed that the donation “is not part of Mullvad’s values or mission.”
Competing providers in the best VPN market rarely miss an opportunity to capitalize on a competitor’s missteps, and the ongoing controversy surrounding Mullvad is no exception.
In a satirical response to the recent news that a Mullvad co-founder made a massive political donation, Windscribe issued a false apology regarding its own CEO’s financial contributions.
Earlier this week, it was revealed that Daniel Berntsson, co-founder of Mullvad VPN, donated 5 million Swedish crowns (about $514,000) to Sweden’s controversial Örebro populist party. Berntsson, who said the donation was made personally to support the party’s anti-corruption stance, contributed a sum that represented 72% of the party’s total income last year.
This disclosure forced Mullvad to go into damage control mode. The company quickly clarified that private donation “is not part of Mullvad’s values or mission” and offered refunds to any users who would like to cancel their subscriptions due to philosophical disagreements.
Taking the opportunity, Windscribe posted its own tongue-in-cheek statement on social media, assuring users that it wanted to “get ahead of any potential public outcry.” The company explained that it would be hypocritical to criticize Berntsson’s financial support without revealing that Windscribe CEO Yegor Sak has also made monetary donations to organizations supporting causes he believes in.
“Let’s be clear about one thing: we are not here to lie,” we read in the press release. “Yes, our CEO donated to a specific side, but today we want to be honest and make things right.”
The dog versus cat debate
Rather than supporting a divisive political movement, Windscribe revealed that Sak, the proud owner of a corgi named Snoop, donated personal funds to Save Our Scruff, a dog rescue organization in Toronto.
Anticipating that a strictly pro-dog stance could “cause division within our user base,” the company quickly added that it had corrected the imbalance.
“Today we are making one thing clear: we also support cats, and Yegor personally made a donation to the local organization Annex Cat Rescue to support its work,” the post read.
A statement from Windscribe about our CEO’s personal donations You may have heard in recent days that Mullvad co-founder and co-owner Daniel Berntsson donated approximately $500,000 of his personal money to the controversial Örebro populist party in Sweden. While Mullvad… pic.twitter.com/B6ozQ1VtVBJuly 1, 2026
Although Windscribe’s parody is light-hearted, it highlights an important point about brand identity in the cybersecurity industry. VPN users are notoriously privacy-conscious and often evaluate a provider’s ethics as rigorously as their encryption protocols.
When a VPN’s executives support controversial causes, it can seriously test user trust, regardless of the company’s official stance or strict no-logging policies.
Windscribe concluded its post by imitating the standard corporate PR playbook, asking users to forgive its “lack of transparency” in this favorite debate. The company stressed that Sak’s donations reflect his personal beliefs and will have no impact on the security or operation of the software.
“Our service and applications are not affected by these donations,” the statement concludes. “They remain secure and committed to providing our users with the best VPN on the market.”
