this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2023
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List of countries prohibiting the use of a VPN:

  • ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China
  • ๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡บ Russia
  • ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ช United Arab Emirates
  • ๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ต North Korea
  • ๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ฒ Turkmenista
all 42 comments
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[โ€“] [email protected] 140 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Literally impossible to enforce. Any business worth a damn uses vpns. Blocking such would be bad for business. Also, ssl vpns are as far as I'm aware, indistinguishable from regular https traffic.

[โ€“] [email protected] 61 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Its France, your logic has no power here!

[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago

I shall block your filthy Internet queries with my OpenOffice firewall!

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

I'm sure they're already planning a traditional riot as I type this comment.

[โ€“] [email protected] 24 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Exactly, how would anyone work from home without a VPN?

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

In a very insecure way.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

They'll ban the known IPs of any well known VPN provider. It'll not really affect 90% of VPN users that are tech literate, but the 80% of the People that are Tech illiterate shall be punished and the Politicians shall pretend it works. This is how all the Countries blocking VPNs do it now.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Nah it's far more stupid than that. They want to ban some (most?) VPN apps from the iOS and Android stores. You would still be able to sign up for any VPN from your browser, and manually set it up on your phone.

That's the current proposal anyway, soon they'll understand how moronic it is and either double down and try to "fix" if or quietly drop it.

[โ€“] [email protected] 56 points 2 years ago

This kind of nonsense is only mandated out of fear, but in reality it's not only colossally stupid, but also really difficult to enforce. Any proper business uses one. Anyone who wants privacy, and ad network anonymity uses one. There's plenty of other uses people would want one, obviously

[โ€“] [email protected] 55 points 2 years ago
[โ€“] [email protected] 45 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

What a great ~~club~~ list to be a part of

[โ€“] [email protected] 23 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Take out Russia and it's the CUNT club

[โ€“] [email protected] 15 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Rearrange Russia and they can be the CUNTRs.
I like the sound of that.

[โ€“] Sproux 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Im a fan of CRUNT personally

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

You might want to fact check that edit.

[โ€“] [email protected] 23 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I've taught my daughter to use a VPN here in the U.S. There's "Kids Online Safety Bill" making it through congress, and if it passes, kids won't be able to access all kinds of websites. Porn, yes, but also just websites about LGBT+ stuff which are perfectly safe for kids. As I have a queer daughter, I want to make absolutely sure she can access those sites if she needs them.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (3 children)

May I ask how would the "Kids Online safety bill" differentiate between an underage user and adult? I'm not from the US so that's why I don't know

[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago

I don't know. From what I can see, that hasn't been made clear yet. I am guessing, like porn in several states, IDs will be required to access things like TikTok or maybe even YouTube because it requires them to filter content for minors.

There's a reason anti-LGBTQ bigots love it.

But even if that doesn't happen, it allows for parental surveillance, and I want her to know that I don't have the option to do that to her even if I wanted to. It should go beyond mere trust.

If she VPNs to Canada, none of those issues will be things she has to care about.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Oh it's such a fun and novel and not at all dystopian idea they've come up with.

Content requiring an adult will just require some kind of identification, surely you can't be against providing your ID to any website that hosts adult content or that website checking/accessing/logging with a national archive that you visited said website, right?

So far, no concrete things put forward, but all of them seem to be related to an ID-required system.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

I wonder how many people will send their IDs to porn hosting services

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

That's the big question no one has an answer for

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Nice, Good on ya ๐Ÿ™Œ

[โ€“] [email protected] -2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Sorry but I am curious, how did you find out your daughter is queer ? Is it the behavior towards other girls ?

[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Because I talk to her. You know people talk to their kids, right?

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

OP is probably assuming your daughter is very young and may not know herself.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

Fair enough! But you have to admit, that a hell of a strange age for all of us. Maybe the strangest!

My daughter is 11, not sure she has a clue what sexual orientation means, let alone her own.

(Just now getting her back in my life. Long story. Mom fucked around and found out.)

[โ€“] [email protected] 20 points 2 years ago

Russia isn't prohibiting the use of VPNs but it is making it increasingly more headache inducing (protocol based blocking, ip bans of popular vpn providers).

[โ€“] [email protected] 18 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

It's not a total ban of VPNs, I went to read a bit on the subject (easier since I'm french), it's just that some politicians came up with a few amendments relative to the bill called "SREN" which very literally translates to "Securing and regulating the digital space". As you may guess that bill also ticks the "child porn" box as a reason why it came to existence.

One amendment proposes to ban mobile VPNs that do no comply with European or french regulations in the context of app stores. So it's only on mobile, nothing about desktops.

Of course it's inapplicable in practice.

Several amendements already failed due to backlash, one was about preventing people from posting on social networks if they use a VPN.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Yeah was also just listening to a podcast about this. So yeah not a straight total ban. But from what I heard, it would ban people from using VPNs outside of Europe, which obviously is not OK.

[โ€“] [email protected] 16 points 2 years ago

I love our slow descent into authoritarianism with a hint of fascism to go with it.

[โ€“] [email protected] 13 points 2 years ago

Le smooth brain

[โ€“] [email protected] 13 points 2 years ago (2 children)

The UK also recently tried banning VPNs. It simply isn't possible. However, it'll make prosecuting dissidents and people with good opsec a lot easier because they can just say "well you might not have anything incriminating on your hard drives but you DO have a VPN client" and use that to get a tiny victory against someone who would otherwise go free.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago
[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Russia, China & UAE are quite successful with blocking VPN's. I wouldn't be so sure that in near future UK or any EU country censorship or heavy restrict VPN's.

[โ€“] [email protected] 12 points 2 years ago (2 children)

If all VPNs are banned, french companies are fucked. Any remote login happens via VPN.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Any remote login happens via VPN.

I don't support this, but you don't need VPNs for remote logins. SSH exists, it's just that VPNs are a better solution for companies among other things.

[โ€“] 100794 0 points 2 years ago
[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

I just wonder how the hell they plan on enforcing things like this

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

I fear that the UK might try to join this list not just out of authoritarianism, but out of a fear of technology they do not understand. Worse yet, the Conservative party once threw around the idea of banning encryption in its entirety and acted like WhatsApp is only used by criminals.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Doesn't Iran prohibit vpns?