India will begin blocking VPNs, end of anonymity

Discussion in 'Civil Liberties' started by kazenatsu, Jun 29, 2022.

  1. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Some of you have in the past ignorantly assumed that any internet laws did not matter because internet users could always use a VPN.

    Well now India has just passed a law that requires all VPNs operating to keep user's data and hand it over to authorities when requested. Foreign companies that do not comply will have their sites blocked. In other words, this is going to turn into a war against anonymous VPNs, with government constantly trying to find their addresses and block them.

    You won't be able to simply type into a search "VPN", because the government will have already gone through all those search results and blocked any of those addresses that did not comply to the government requirements.

    This is not real anonymity.

    Some VPN companies are already ceasing to offer services in India as a result of this new law.
    India exodus continues as another VPN pulls the plug | TechRadar

    Probably China will be soon to follow.
     
  2. Jolly Penguin

    Jolly Penguin Well-Known Member

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    It's illegal to use a VPN in China.
     
  3. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The law is not very widely enforced in China. But if the authorities do not like what that person is writing then they might use this law against the person.
    There are a huge number of things a Chinese person could write about that could cause this to happen (like writing about the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident, advocating for self-rule of certain provinces, trying to organize a protest, criticizing the Chinese Communist Party, poking fun of the Chinese President, promoting religion outside the control of the Chinese state churches, or even exposing corruption of local Party officials, etc)
    There was recently a rare case where a Chinese person was charged with this law. He had used a VPN to browse Wikipedia. He may have been looking up topics that the government did not like.
    According to the post of one Chinese person, there has recently been a surge in cases of Chinese persons being arrested for VPN use but it is mostly happening in smaller less developed regions, not the big cities.

    China has a huge number of very restrictive laws which go mostly unenforced, or are not commonly enforced. The government likes having all those laws to be able to use them against individual people if they feel there is a reason to, it helps allow for more control over the population.
     
    Last edited: Aug 5, 2022

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