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 DoingLawmakers
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.
Welcome to:
People’s Republic of America
美利坚人们共和国
Long Live Chairman Trump
Maybe he reign a thousand years!
/s
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.
Porn websites should just start blocking access for any lawmakers that are okay with this legislative garbage.
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.
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”
Anyone know how to get started with Tor?
TOR Wikipedia page - explains the key concepts and gives a link to the website so you can download the Tor Browser.
Tails (Amnesiac OS) Wikipedia page - If you want the real Fort Knox solution to browsing something or sending something without anyone finding out. It’s more of a process than downloading Tor Browser, but probably the most secure option possible for browsing the web. (The OS runs everything through the TOR network, is only retained in RAM, and wipes the RAM clean during shutdown)
How secure is something like Orbot? I like the idea of connecting to Tor while still using my preferred browser.
It’s a half-measure, kind of like using a VPN. The problem with using your preferred browser is that it’s not designed to prevent any identifying leaks, so you could be fingerprinted at basically any time and your efforts will have been for nothing. Also, if you’re using an insecure OS (like the version of android that comes preinstalled with your phone), that’ll prevent its effectiveness full stop.
For situations like those, you aren’t really using Orbot (or any VPN-esque solution) for genuine privacy. Those tools are useful for Utility (circumventing region blocks, ISP filters, IP blocks, so on), and Plausible Deniability (Piracy, usually through torrenting). If what you seek falls into those two categories, good for you, but true privacy has to be achieved through something like Tails or a secure OS with Tor Browser, sorry.
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.
The thing is, VPNs won’t protect your privacy much. Browser fingerprinting technology has achieved its goal. True anonymity online is damn near impossible now.
VPNs are able to help circumvent authoritarian bullshit by making the traffic appear to come from somewhere else. So states that implement laws banning what is essentially protected speech aren’t able to really be effective in their efforts because the people that live there just route their traffic outside the state the have it all bounced back in. Banning VPNs would help them censor anything they consider porn.
That’s the real danger. A teenager jerking off is not the concern. It’s the excuse.
I wonder, what if we end run this with the cheap GPUs about to hit the market once the AI bubbles pop? Just set up a bunch of Remote Desktop instances people log in to pull shit up on and stream that to the browser. When they disconnect, nuke the container and pull the instance up again, route everything again. It’s basically Netflix of a remote session. And if they ban that, it would invoke the wrath of some incredibly powerful industries.
All because naked people are scary.
The thing is, VPNs won’t protect your privacy much. Browser fingerprinting technology has achieved its goal. True anonymity online is damn near impossible now.
except for traffic that does not come from a web browser at all. like API calls to download linux ISOs.
Linux distros are incredibly dangerous for children. They teach them they have options. It’s incredibly dangerous. We much protect them. For the
childrenshareholders
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.
Good luck with enforcing that, websites are likely to block access from Wisconsin. Isp’s in Wisconsin will just block vpns or not do anything at all. If the whole world banned vpns then we’d just all use the next work around.
Don’t worry once this bites them in the ass by exposing something they have said is bad they will get themselves an exception.
