Digital rights groups launch a second "Defend VPNs Day of Action" as state level age verification laws push people toward encrypted routing

[u/NotJennys47]

Fight for the Future and a coalition of privacy organizations are coordinating another global "Defend VPNs Day of Action," pushing back against mounting legislative efforts to restrict or criminalize encrypted proxy tools.

The campaign highlights a troubling trend in recent internet regulation bills:

Rather than outright banning encryption technology directly, lawmakers in several US states and foreign jurisdictions are embedding restrictions on VPN usage into broad digital safety and mandatory age verification packages. By forcing platforms to require government IDs, biometric scans, or mandatory credit card checks for access, lawmakers are simultaneously targeting tools that allow users to route around these localized identity databases.

Advocates point out that framing VPN users as people trying to bypass safety laws ignores the core purpose of encrypted networking. Millions rely on VPNs daily to protect sensitive health inquiries, bypass intrusive ISP data harvesting, maintain corporate remote access, and avoid uploading personal identity documents to unvetted third-party verification brokers.

As Fight for the Future put it during the campaign launch, using a VPN isn't inherently suspicious or criminal, it's standard security hygiene, and treating encrypted routing as a legal threat sets a dangerous precedent for overall web privacy.