Building a Democratic Digital Future Together: Open Markets and Proton

The Open Markets Institute, Open Markets Institute Europe and Center for Journalism and Liberty at Open Markets were deeply grateful for the opportunity to participate in the 2025 Proton Lifetime Charity Fundraiser, organized by the Proton Foundation, the nonprofit governing organization behind the secure email provider Proton Mail. Events like this enable the growing movement to build a digital economy that strengthens democracy, privacy, and fair competition.  

Demonstrating That Better Technology Is Possible 

Proton is a powerful real-world demonstration that better alternatives to Big Tech’s extractive, anti-democratic monopolies and oligopolies are possible. Proton's business model challenges dominant Big Tech practices that rely on harvesting personal data and manipulating users for ad revenue.  

Unlike Big Tech, which effectively makes its users the product sold to advertisers, Proton’s business model puts user privacy first. As a community-first organization, Proton started with the support of a crowdfunding campaign and was built with community input. To this day, its only source of revenue is user subscriptions, and it uses paid plans to subsidize access to a “freemium” version of its services, ensuring that privacy remains accessible to anyone who needs it. 

By proving that privacy-respecting services can thrive and innovate, Proton shapes the debate about what the internet should be, and we are grateful to consider ourselves partners.  

A Shared Mission: Challenging Big Tech Monopoly Power 

Proton’s work aligns closely with the mission of the Open Markets Institute: restoring fair competition and democratic accountability in the digital economy. 

Today, a handful of powerful technology firms dominate online communications, commerce, and information flows. Their monopoly power enables practices that harm users, businesses, and entire countries including: 

• Extractive data practices that treat personal information as a commodity 

• Gatekeeping power over digital markets that stifles innovation and competition 

• Unfair platform rules that disadvantage smaller companies and independent creators 

• Business models built on surveillance and behavioral manipulation that threaten democracies around the world and reinforce authoritarianism 

Both Proton and Open Markets believe that confronting these structural problems is essential to building a healthier digital ecosystem and a more peaceful future. 

Working Together for Stronger Rules 

Over the years, we have worked alongside Proton in advocating for policies that restore fairness and competition in digital markets. 

This collaboration has included engagement around: 

• Stronger antitrust enforcement against dominant technology platforms 

• Ensuring that the open internet remains a public good amid the transition to AI  

• The design and implementation of the European Union’s Digital Markets Act 

• Efforts to ensure that new digital regulations are enforced effectively. 

We have also been proud to feature Proton at our convenings in Brussels and Washington, DC, including: 

• OMI Europe’s October 2025 Tech and Democracy conference, exploring how technology policy shapes democratic governance 

• OMI and the Center for Journalism and Liberty's February 2025 AI and the Open Web workshop in Washington DC, which brought together experts from civil society and industry to align on addressing AI copyright issues and the future of the open web 

• OMI Europe’s April 2024 anti-monopoly conference, which brought together policymakers and experts to examine the power of digital gatekeepers 

These conversations are essential to developing the tools and relationships needed to advance digital market and artificial intelligence policies that serve the public interest rather than entrenched monopolies. 

Strengthening European Digital Sovereignty 

As Europe seeks to reduce its dependence on U.S.-based technology giants, Proton is helping lead the way in putting European digital sovereignty into practice. 

By building secure infrastructure and privacy-first services rooted in European law and values, Proton demonstrates how innovation can flourish without relying on the surveillance-driven business models that dominate much of the global tech industry. 

A more diverse and competitive digital ecosystem—one that includes companies like Proton—is essential for both economic resilience and democratic accountability. 

The Work Ahead 

The stakes could not be higher. Until we address the monopoly power and extractive business models that dominate today’s digital economy, the internet—and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence—will remain vulnerable to abuses of power that undermine democracy, freedom of expression, fair competition, and national sovereignty 

At the Open Markets Institute, we are helping policymakers in Europe and the United States understand and adopt the tools needed to master modern monopolies and protect our core rights and freedoms. 

We are proud to work alongside organizations and innovators like Proton who are proving that another digital future is possible. 

With Gratitude 

We are deeply grateful to Proton and the Proton Foundation for their leadership and for the opportunity to participate in the 2025 Proton Lifetime Charity Fundraiser. Their work shows that the fight for fair competition, privacy, and democratic digital markets is not just about regulation—it is also about building better alternatives. 

Together, we can help create a digital economy that works for people, businesses, and democracy.  

Barry Lynn, Executive Director, Open Markets Institute 

Courtney Radsch, Director, Center for Journalism and Liberty at Open Markets 

Max von Thun, Director, Open Markets Institute Europe