Following the same legislative and narrative pattern as the EU for “Chat Control”, similar laws and rhetoric are now cropping up in the US. The narrative is “save the children from porn” but the action is censorship, mass surveillance, and the elimination of privacy on the Internet.
As of this writing, Wisconsin lawmakers are escalating their war on privacy by targeting VPNs in the name of “protecting children” in A.B. 105/S.B. 130. It’s an age verification bill that requires all websites distributing material that could conceivably be deemed “sexual content” to both implement an age verification system and also to block the access of users connected via VPN. The bill seeks to broadly expand the definition of materials that are “harmful to minors” beyond the type of speech that states can prohibit minors from accessing—potentially encompassing things like depictions and discussions of human anatomy, sexuality, and reproduction.
Wisconsin’s bill has already passed the State Assembly and is now moving through the Senate. If it becomes law, Wisconsin could become the first state where using a VPN to access certain content is banned. Michigan lawmakers have proposed similar legislation that did not move through its legislature, but among other things, would force internet providers to actively monitor and block VPN connections. And in the UK, officials are calling VPNs "a loophole that needs closing.
FTFY:
Lawmakers
Want to Ban VPNs—And TheyHave No Idea What They’re DoingI know governments work slow but these guys are still trying to figure out if freeing the slaves was a good idea.
Lawmakers
Want to Ban VPNs—And They HaveNoIdeaWhatThey’re Doing
At some point we’ll just have to tunnel IP over DNS, and then they can’t block traffic without destroying the entire internet. Not that it’ll dissuade them.
“Legislators Want to Ban the Internet”
It will just be a few approved sites that you are allowed to visit, and just by chance those sites are the ones that pay the goverment the most! Those sites will have records in the approved DNS, that you can not change. Other DNS requests are blocked, along with everything else that isn’t approved.
Lawmakers Have No Idea What They’re Doing
Sounds like a headline for literally every issue regarding technology.
As usual. Our government, your government, totally clueless about how the internet works or what it actually is. And with all the money they waste every day, there seems to be no cent left to get some professional who could explain things on a politicians mental level. We’ve got people who successful teach computers to seniors, maybe politicians should hire some…
I think this is mostly a symptom of the gerontocracy. Most elected officials have not grown up with computers, which is already likely to make them incurious about them. Couple that with being in office so long, likely developing a very high opinion of themselves that they know best. I would guess a significant minority is actively hostile to learning anything about computers, so you can hire any professional to explain stuff with baby talk, it won’t work on them. Combine that with the rest of the technologically illiterate politicians just being indifferent, and you get this kind of policy.
My home network is all under Mullvad for a few months now, and I’ve noticed that recently a lot of pages block it. I just get a 403 error and I need to disable it to access. Honestly I expect this to happen more and more, which is BS.
ah yes, every time they want to do something abhorrent, they cry “its for the children!” to immediately try and silence any critics.
Porn websites should just start blocking access for any lawmakers that are okay with this legislative garbage.
They might be using onlyfans
There’s a genocide going on. It’s not the porn degenerates, it’s the moral religious people. Don’t push this garbage onto children. At least wait until they’re 25 and their brain is fully developed before you teach them that women are the problem, that little boys should be fondled by grown men, and that it’s OK to commit a genocide against the people who pray to a different sky wizards than you.
…really hoping this comment is dripping with sarcasm.
It’s not sarcasm, it’s cynicism.
Why? Do you identify as a witch burner, a hospital bomber, or someone that pushes gays off roofs, or something?
these people deserve a big FUCK YOU to the face, in front of an audience.
Republicans, defending a pedophile as president, should get a full swing of a bat in the teeth every single time they say anything “… for the children”
My IT experience is fading fast so can anyone explain this bit?
block the access of users connected via VPN
I’m running a Digital Ocean droplet on the other side of the Pond with my own, static IP. How could a site detect I’m using a VPN? Imgur blocks me if it’s on. How do they know?!
Generally, they know you’re using a VPN because of where your traffic is coming from.
They probably block Digital Ocean’s IP pool as a whole as it’s often a hub for cybercrime and it would only affect a fraction of users.
There are lots of companies selling data, just one of them is a list of known VPN IP addresses. Updated every X days. Just plug that into your service and it gets a lot harder, but still not impossible, to use with a VPN.
Anyone know how to get started with Tor?
You can do whatever you want on i2p. Nobody knows who you are.
Next on the list for a ban. They came for my neighbors ID, and I said nothing, then they came for my neighbors VPN, and an I did nothing, and now they are coming for me on I2P, and there is no one left to speak for me…
I thought L2P was just for torrents. How do I use it with my internet connection? Does it cost money?
I2P is for whatever people put on it. It’s all the Internet services that already can exist, specifically behind a piece of software such as i2pd for example. It’s free, just setup i2p software on a computer. Then you can make some local services visible to it, for example a web server.
So, I won’t be able to VPN into my university’s network right?
They’d have to exclude sanctioned VPN traffic, or the entire financial system doesn’t work at all.
or pretty much all remote IT work.
