TimoMalum.com

I was an early adopter of the Vivaldi web browser. I must have been one of the first users in the United States because whenever I would mention it, the usual response was, "I've never heard of it". Fast forward a few years and it's become one of the fastest growing browsers available, and for good reasons: it's full of features, it's privacy-focused (although it's not the most private one out there), it looks good, and it's highly customizable. It has so many features, in fact, that you'll probably never use most of them, and that's one reason I began to lose enthusiasm. I felt  it was becoming too large and complicated, and a few bugs crept in that seemed to take forever to find and fix. But I still liked it, for the most part, especially the "notes" feature and its bookmark system.

So what happened? Why did I dump Vivaldi?

It came down to free speech, or rather, Vivaldi's unwillingness to defend free speech. This isn't specifically a browser issue but is instead an issue with Vivaldi Technologies, the company that makes the browser. A few years ago, they decided to self-host their own instance of Mastodon social media, which they named "Vivaldi Social". (Mastodon is the name of a linked network of independent social media sites where users can see and comment on posts from the other independently-run instances of Mastodon. It's sort of like what you'd have if Facebook, Twitter, and MeWe all decided to adopt similar user interfaces and allowed each other's members to talk to each other without having to join every site. It's a way for small-time operators to be a part of something much bigger.) In 2023 Vivaldi said, "With our server capabilities, plenty of know-how and enthusiasm in the team, it was easy yet challenging to host our own server to accommodate people migrating to Mastodon. With Vivaldi Social, we want to offer ‘the good old days of the Internet’, where the sense of community is a lot stronger with people." They had good intentions, it seems, but things aren't going very well. Censorship is out of control on Vivaldi Social, as it is on most instances of Mastodon.

Over the years Mastodon has gotten a reputation for being an echo chamber for "woke" radical leftists. Although each instance of Mastodon can have its own focus, most of them seem to attract people with the same ideologies, and the moderators make sure anyone with dissenting opinions gets silenced or kicked out. In theory there could be Mastodon instances that welcome libertarians, conservatives, or anarchists, but I haven't found one yet. So far, all that I've used have adopted the same "communitarian" hive-mind agenda, and no speech that strays from that agenda is tolerated.

I had hoped Vivaldi Social would be different, since it comes from a privacy-focused company that's "fighting for a better web".

My hope was short-lived.

Within just a couple of days of joining and posting on Vivaldi Social, I began to get notices from the moderators that my posts were violating their community guidelines, even though I was careful to follow the rules and actually self-censored to a degree to keep from getting kicked out. I didn't post anything I couldn't back up with sources, but I soon found out that my sources didn't matter to the moderators. Yet people with views contrary to mine seemed to be able to post whatever they wanted with no data to support their claims. When I politely challenged those claims and asked for source material, the moderators penalized me for that too. Simply asking questions got me flagged for posting "false or misleading information".

Here are a few examples of the authoritarian insanity I (briefly) dealt with on Vivaldi Social:

My first strike was received on April 21, 2025. Vivaldi Social's moderators claimed I had posted "intentionally false or misleading information", yet the "proof" they provided shows all I did was ask a question. Another user had posted a statement that COVID was still a serious threat that was killing people. She made the claim, so the burden of proof falls on her. I asked for that proof. Vivaldi Social wouldn't allow me to ask that question, so my post was removed. The original post that I challenged stayed up. I appealed. The appeal was rejected. 

Next, I posted a link to an article I had written on this blog. The article, entitled "Protect The Children", featured a graphic of a baby surrounded by vaccine syringes and a statement by Dr Sherri Tenpenny on how parents have a responsibility to do their own research to protect their children. No claims were made by either myself or Dr Tenpenny that vaccines are dangerous. And yet the post was tagged as "intentionally false or misleading information". I got another strike. I appealed. The appeal was rejected. 

Not long after the second strike, I got a third one, once again for asking a question. A user had made a false claim that face masks protect us from diseases, so I challenged the claim. I asked for "credible science to prove your point about masks", adding that I could provide several studies that prove she's wrong. The moderators didn't say how my question violated any policies or community guidelines, but they used it as an excuse to limit my account so that virtually no one could see it anymore. I appealed. The appeal was rejected.

Five days later, I replied to a post that criticized Donald Trump by claiming he was pushing authoritarianism and attacking free speech. I didn't disagree with the claim, but I wanted to know why the person making the post never criticized Joe Biden, who was one of the most authoritarian, pro-censorship presidents in modern history. Once again for asking a question, I got a strike for posting "intentionally or misleading information". I appealed. The appeal was rejected.  At this point I'm wondering what social media is all about if we're not allowed to ask questions and have conversations.

Around this same time I got a comment from a user who couldn't say anything intelligent and instead resorted to cheap insults and vulgar language. I didn't file a complaint, because I thought that would be petty and vindictive. The comment stayed up. And to be fair, the person making the comment was registered on a different Mastodon instance, but it shows you can be vulgar without penalty in the woke world of the radical left.

Finally, on May 18 my account was permanently suspended.  Vivaldi Social's moderators claimed I had posted material that violated their community guidelines on "harassment, dogpiling, or doxxing of other users" and sharing "intentionally false or misleading information". For the first charge, I had replied to another user's post, saying "Mastodon isn't a social media site. It's a thought-control site. Their moderators seek to impose their personal agendas upon the rest of the world." I'm guessing that by now the moderators were watching everything I was posting and looking for excuses to get rid of me, and by now I knew I was on the way out so I really didn't care if I offended them or not. For the second charge, I was once again given a strike for asking a question. I asked, "May I respectfully ask why the left never speaks out about the crimes of Democratic Party politicians? Why was nothing said when Biden tried to impose censorship across social media? Why was nothing said when Obama made it legal for the US government to use propaganda against citizens? I'm really curious." Even though my questions were based on factual events that I could easily prove, the moderators apparently decided that protecting the hive was more important than discussing reality. They kicked me out. I did not appeal, because I knew that it was pointless.

Although I like the Vivaldi browser, I cannot continue to use or support it. It's my firm belief that free speech is the only way to prevent the world from sliding into oppressive totalitarianism. We can't protect our freedom when we're overly concerned with protecting someone's feelings or preserving any delusions they're holding onto that were created by fascist (government/corporate) propaganda. Unfortunately too many people prefer the illusion of safety over their God-given freedom, and companies like Vivaldi seem very willing to go along. By permanently suspending my Vivaldi Social account, Vivaldi Technologies has made the decision to silence me, a decision I endorse if I continue to use their products.

And in case you're wondering, I now use the Floorp browser, a version of Firefox developed by an independent team in Japan. I like it so far, and they haven't tried to impose their social or political views on their users. Not yet, at least.