‘Leave VPNs Alone’: Thursday’s Day of Action Against Possible VPN Bans

“Leave VPNs alone.” That’s the plea from anti-online censorship and surveillance group Fight for the Future, which designated Thursday as a VPN Day of Action, to press lawmakers not to ban virtual private networks.

The group of activists, artists, engineers and technologists is asking people to sign an open letter encouraging politicians to preserve the existence of VPNs and “defend privacy and to access knowledge and information online.” VPNs encrypt internet connections and can hide your physical location.

Joining the action on Thursday was the VPN Trust Initiative — comprised of NordVPN, Surfshark and ExpressVPN — and the VPN Guild, which includes Amnezia VPN.

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The open letter refers to recent “age-verification” laws propelling legislative moves to ban or restrict VPN usage. Such measures would lead to increased online surveillance and censorship, which “has a huge chilling effect on our freedoms, particularly the freedoms of traditionally marginalized people,” the letter notes. 

Lia Holland, Fight for the Future’s campaigns and communication director, said VPNs are vital for “people living under authoritarian regimes” to avoid censorship and surveillance, and have become an essential tool in exercising basic human rights. 

More from CNET: Welcome to the Era of Online Age Verification. Are You Ready to Identify Yourself?

Half of all US states have passed age-verification laws requiring internet users to prove their age with government-issued IDs, credit card checks and other methods. The laws have spurred consumers to sign up for VPNs to avoid giving out sensitive information, with one recent VPN sign-up spike in the UK.

Michigan is considering a bill banning adult content online and VPNs. If it becomes law, Michigan would be the first US state to ban VPNs. Many countries, including China, India and Iran, already ban or heavily restrict VPNs.

“Amid a moral panic, ignorant ‘save-the-children’ politicians are getting very close to kicking the hornet’s nest of millions of people who know how important VPNs are,” Holland said. 

Could a VPN ban happen?

Banning VPNs would be “difficult,” according to attorney Mario Trujillo of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an international digital rights group.

Trujillo told CNET that VPNs are best for routing your network connection through a different network. “They can be used to help avoid censorship, but they are also used by employees in every sector to connect to their company’s network,” he said. “That is a practical reality that would make any ban difficult.”

Trujillo added that the US lags behind the rest of the world in privacy regulation, and that lawmakers should focus more on privacy than VPN bans. 

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Fight for the Future identifies local lawmakers and provides templates for contacting them. This information is on the same page as the open letter.