Tor Project continues technical collaboration with Mullvad but pauses co-Branding

The Tor Project announced recently that it is not terminating its relationship with Mullvad. However, the company is now setting clear boundaries, including a pause on proactive co-branding. This also applies to their joint marketing.

The decision to continue collaboration was announced in an official blog post. It addresses questions from the community about how the collaboration with Mullvad actually fits the human rights mission that Tor has. These questions have emerged as a result of a political donation made by a Mullvad co-founder.

Tor said that the members of its community had asked for an explanation, and that it has also heard the calls to end the relationship. Tor continued to state that the practical effects of ending the collaboration would disrupt the communities that actually depend on the tools. The decision to continue working with Mullvad was taken after extensive discussion with community members, staff, the board, and more.

So, what exactly happened? One of the co-founders of Mullvad, Daniel Berntsson, personally donated 5 million Swedish Kronor in 2025 to the Örebro party. The amount represented 72% of the party’s income for the year.

However, this specific party advocates for policies that users of Tor (and many others) consider “against” human rights. The donation was described as a personal one, and it isn’t part of Mullvad’s values/mission. The other co-founder, Fredrik Strömberg, also said that he doesn’t support it. We covered the entire controversy in detail here.

The official statement from Tor also mentions that the mission of the project is to advance human rights by building privacy tools and anti-censorship software that helps people protect themselves from surveillance. The post goes on to claim that the work is “under-resourced,” and that it requires difficult compromises and collaborations sometimes.

As a result, Tor is going to continue the technical collaboration despite the controversy. Working with Mullvad has improved Tor’s codebase and expanded feedback from users beyond Tor’s usual audience. It has also resulted in more people gaining access to a free, open-source privacy tool.

But it’s not like they’ve done nothing at all in response. Tor has now paused the “co-branding” and the joint promotional marketing, and the company has also reviewed how the Mullvad browser is described on its own channels.

The post makes it very clear that the decision won’t satisfy everyone, and that choosing to continue the collaboration will come at a cost to some people. However, it’s “practicality over politics” at the end of the day. You can find the entire statement here.

Among desktop browsers, Mullvad continues to remain at the very top of privacy tests. Personally, I would recommend separating the “drama” from the technology and using what works for your use case. Brave’s PM has recommended Mullvad in the past as well.

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