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vpn-use-soars-in-uk-after-age-verification-laws-go-into-effect

VPN use soars in UK after age-verification laws go into effect

Also on Friday, the Windscribe VPN service posted a screenshot on X claiming to show a spike in new subscribers. The makers of the AdGuard VPN claimed that they have seen a 2.5X increase in install rates from the UK since Friday.

Nord Security, the company behind the NordVPN app, says it has seen a “1,000 percent increase in purchases” of subscriptions from the UK since the day before the new laws went into effect. “Such spikes in demand for VPNs are not unusual,” Laura Tyrylyte, Nord Security’s head of public relations, tells WIRED. She adds in a statement that “whenever a government announces an increase in surveillance, Internet restrictions, or other types of constraints, people turn to privacy tools.”

People living under repressive governments that impose extensive Internet censorship—like China, Russia, and Iran—have long relied on circumvention tools like VPNs and other technologies to maintain anonymity and access blocked content. But as countries that have long claimed to champion the open Internet and access to information, like the United States, begin considering or adopting age verification laws meant to protect children, the boundaries for protecting digital rights online quickly become extremely murky.

“There will be a large number of people who are using circumvention tech for a range of reasons” to get around age verification laws, the ACLU’s Kahn Gillmor says. “So then as a government you’re in a situation where either you’re obliging the websites to do this on everyone globally, that way legal jurisdiction isn’t what matters, or you’re encouraging people to use workarounds—which then ultimately puts you in the position of being opposed to censorship-circumvention tools.”

This story originally appeared on wired.com.

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Appeals court blocks FCC’s efforts to bring back net neutrality rules

“The key here is not whether Broadband Internet Service Providers utilize telecommunications; it is instead whether they do so while offering to consumers the capability to do more,” Griffin wrote, concluding that “they do.”

“The FCC exceeded its statutory authority,” Griffin wrote, at one point accusing the FCC of arguing for a reading of the statute “that is too sweeping.”

The three-judge panel ordered a stay of the FCC’s order imposing net neutrality rules—known as the Safeguarding and Securing the Open Internet Order.

In a statement, FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel suggested that Congress would likely be the only path to safeguard net neutrality moving forward. In the federal register, experts noted that net neutrality is critical to boosting new applications, services, or content, warning that without clear rules, the next Amazon or YouTube could be throttled before it can get off the ground.

“Consumers across the country have told us again and again that they want an Internet that is fast, open, and fair,” Rosenworcel said. “With this decision it is clear that Congress now needs to heed their call, take up the charge for net neutrality, and put open Internet principles in federal law.”

Rosenworcel will soon leave the FCC and will be replaced by Trump’s incoming FCC chair pick, Brendan Carr, who helped overturn net neutrality in 2017 and is expected to loosen broadband regulations once he’s confirmed.

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