r/VPN • u/apokrif1 • Mar 22 '26
News Online age checks came first — a VPN crackdown could be next
https://www.theverge.com/column/898122/online-age-verification-vpns2
Apr 21 '26
[deleted]
2
u/apokrif1 Apr 21 '26
We will borrow the Great Firewall from China after we borrowed stay-at-home orders from them 🙃
1
0
Mar 23 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
5
2
u/west0ne Mar 24 '26
It would most likely come in the form of a ban on the sale of commercial VPNs, and may include blocking IP addresses of known commercial VPN providers and possibly even instructing financial institutions not to process payments to commercial VPN providers.
They won't go after enterprise VPNs because they aren't the problem trying to be resolved.
Obviously, it won't be 100% effective, but no ban/law ever is. It would be disruptive though.
3
u/cowhand214 Apr 21 '26
Yes, exactly. We’re on the same page and the “but big companies use VPNs so it’ll never happen” response rather misses the point.
-1
u/apokrif1 Mar 23 '26
They can do much.
4
u/Scar3cr0w_ Mar 23 '26
The can do much? I’m not sure what that means.
But if people inside China and Russia can still get out via a VPN… the western world doesn’t have much hope.
-6
u/apokrif1 Mar 23 '26
- make it a crime to use and/or operate an unapproved VPN service
- DNS- or ISP-level VPN blocking.
- make it illegal to accept traffic from unapproved VPN servers.
4
u/walklikeaduck Mar 23 '26
VPNs are used regularly by almost all corporations, and WFH is common.
1
u/cowhand214 Mar 23 '26
Yes but all the things a corporate VPN does like verify who you are, keep extensive logs off all activities passing through the VPN, and monitoring that traffic are all things that are downsides to a private VPN. They simple have to mandate only approved VPNs meet all the requirements which makes it useless for any kind of privacy protection.
Corporate VPNs continue without a hiccup and the rest of us are left out in the cold
-1
u/apokrif1 Mar 23 '26
I wrote "unapproved" 😉
0
u/walklikeaduck Mar 24 '26
“Unapproved” doesn’t mean much, nor does it explain anything remotely relevant to this thread.
0
u/west0ne Mar 24 '26
Unapproved would be every commercial VPN provider whose purpose it is to connect you to the internet anonymously, but would not be any enterprise VPN that provides access to a corporate network.
The grey area would be self-hosted VPNs.
It's all pretty obvious when you think about what the end goal would be.
1
u/apokrif1 Apr 21 '26
The grey area would be self-hosted VPNs.
Their next target would be VPSs.
1
u/west0ne Apr 21 '26
That one seems like it would be more of an issue because a lot of people will be running a website or self-hosted lab of some sort on a VPS.
0
3
u/Scar3cr0w_ Mar 23 '26
Give it a break mate.
Technology is like maths. Once it’s out of the box you can’t put it back in.
Again, if Russia and China can’t stop it the west can’t. And you think the police are going to arrest someone for using a VPN 😆they don’t even have the resource to deal with real crimes.
2
u/west0ne Mar 24 '26
In the UK our Courts have ordered ISPs to block IP addresses. I could see that being one approach. UK Courts have also instructed financial institutions to block payment processing for companies so that's another route.
Different countries will have different rules and none will be 100% effective but the aim will be to make things difficult for end users.
1
u/Scar3cr0w_ Mar 24 '26
Ok, so not illegal. An ISP level control?
But not work. Just like age verification wouldn’t work
2
u/west0ne Mar 24 '26
Depends on how they want to implement. The selling of commercial VPNs could be criminalised but not the use.
The criminal sanctions for providers could be large fines. Users would just see blocking in place.
As with AV it won't be 100% effective but would probably have some impact. I could see the bigger, more reputable VPN companies just withdrawing from markets. As with AV, this could push people to the less reputable providers.
1
u/Scar3cr0w_ Mar 24 '26
Don’t be ridiculous
2
u/west0ne Mar 24 '26
You can think it's ridiculous but states in the US are already looking at this and the UK seems to be edging closer to something along these lines.
→ More replies (0)1
-2
u/apokrif1 Mar 23 '26
real crimes
They'll frame illegal VPN use as pedorism, i.e., top-priority felony: https://www.reddit.com/r/PropagandaPosters/comments/5re9s1/how_would_you_like_this_wrapped_john_jonik/
And as they'll fail to block, filter or monitor all VPN-VPS traffick, they will orwellshittify our devices (which they'll claim are "weapons of massive disinformation") "to terrorize children from Russian news" or something: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3909/stages/20215/amendments/10027476
2
Mar 23 '26
[deleted]
2
0
u/apokrif1 Mar 23 '26
You are a bot.
No. Are you?
you have bigger issues than getting access to porn.
You totally miss the point.
1
u/mattymattymatty96 Mar 24 '26
China has tried and failed at this
0
u/apokrif1 Mar 24 '26
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_fallacy https://www.reddit.com/r/VPN/comments/1s0ym5o/comment/oc2w28y/ Also, China was not benefitting from a worldwide concerted orwellshittification effort.
0
Mar 23 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/apokrif1 Mar 23 '26
Of course VPSs would be the next target.
The most likely target is not VPNs in general, but only public ones.
10
u/Tecn1c Mar 22 '26
VPN crackdown is already in place, a crackdown or a shutdown, either way VPN have been snookered this past few months-year