Can Governments block VPNs/TOR and is there a risk they will?

GeorgeWashingtoff

GeorgeWashingtoff

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The UK has passed something called the Online Harms Safety Bill, supposedly to protect children but it's probably because the Gov can't stand the idea of a free internet where adults can click a mouse and see porn anytime they want.

This summer, porn sites are to implement age verification for British users or be blocked by the British Gov. Obviously easily workaround by using a VPN and setting it to any developed country apart from Britain. It's clear most of the politicians who supported the bill have no idea what VPNs even are. I understand some US states are already doing this.

My question is once everyone starts using a VPN and the boomer politicians who are shit with computers finally catch on, will they start to write and support a bill for VPNs to be blocked? Is this possible? If the Gov of your country orders ISPs to block VPNs and TOR does that mean they've won with no way around it and the only way to see digital boobs would be to do their age verification thing and have your name on the perv database?
 
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*looks up coomer*

I'm using porn as an example, but it is more broadly about internet freedom. There are also hints non-sexual content will also be targeted for age verification the Gov thinks will be "harmful". And you know what will happen, it will be a sliding slope where more and more stuff is put behind an age verification wall.
 
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GeorgeWashingtoff said:
*looks up coomer*

I'm using porn as an example, but it is more broadly about internet freedom. There are also hints non-sexual content will also be targeted for age verification the Gov thinks will be "harmful". And you know what will happen, it will be a sliding slope where more and more stuff is put behind an age verification wall.
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Buddy you have no idea. Hope your faggot government doesn't know you're on kiwifarms.
 
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GeorgeWashingtoff said:
This summer, porn sites are to implement age verification for British users or be blocked by the British Gov. Obviously easily workaround by using a VPN and setting it to any developed country apart from Britain. It's clear most of the politicians who supported the bill have no idea what VPNs even are. I understand some US states are already doing this.
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This law is stupid and unenforceable even without vpns because i'm guessing it works using some kind of blacklist of websites or keyword shit and both of those things are fairly easy to work around for enterprising porn website owners. I would guess you could probably bypass it by just not going to a major porn website and going to some random discrete porn message boards or some shit.
 
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Technically they could (they could attempt to).
:bogged:: in order to preserve the laws of this nation, to enforce the rules aimed at protecting its citizens, and to ensure that they're not broken or circumvented, equally for all, some "measures" will be put in place, like ID verification!

But I assume there will be an outrage due to it, and people will find more and more ways to bypass this. Just like ad-blocks find ways to up YouTube in the ad-war, and outsmart them.

Regardless, the Internet is the great cesspool of pornography, there will be no shortage of it, ever.
 
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GeekUSA said:
Imagine living in the UK, couldn't be me.
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Britain still hasn't progressed past the prudish "no sex please, we're British" stage. People lose their minds and clutch their pearls and faint if you say boobs.

Grub said:
This law is stupid and unenforceable even without vpns because i'm guessing it works using some kind of blacklist of websites or keyword shit and both of those things are fairly easy to work around for enterprising porn website owners. I would guess you could probably bypass it by just not going to a major porn website and going to some random discrete porn message boards or some shit.
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For it to work every porn site on the internet needs to comply by changing their website to identify British visitors and take them to an age verification page which they will need to pass before being allowed onto the site. Porn sites which don't comply are to be blocked by ISPs. Myfreecams is one example that won't comply, I emailed and asked and they replied they have no intention of introducing any changes.

"random discrete porn message boards or some shit."

Exactly, or torrents etc. Reddit has a tonne of porn subs too. Lots of ways to get porn and it isn't always crystal clear what defines a "porn site". The Gov are just going to make a mess and create big business for VPNs.
 
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It's technically possible yes but it's a cat and mouse game as you can disguise VPN traffic. If you had to, you could even jerry rig it so you rent a server somewhere and do all your hidden stuff in the browser, you cam even do remote desktop in the browser and the traffic can be encrypted via HTTPS so they'd have no idea even if you were running some forbidden desktop app.

Basically, yes, it's pretty easy to do for the low hanging fruit but for the determined, basically impossible if you're willing to adapt.

What you should be more scared of is encrypted data being saved for when we have super powerful computers to decrypt later when it's feasible.
 
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More like GeorgeJerkingOff

But seriously, in my (uneducated) opinion if your goverment does block VPNs/TOR, it's likely to be a blacklist on apps/programs specifically for VPNs, probably only the popular/big-name ones like NordVPN (based on how other countries do porn bans).

Besides, it seems like there are hundreds of new VPN apps uploaded to the Google Play Store/App Store/whatever APK site every day; is the government really going to make a blacklist and include each and every VPN app? I doubt it.

Speaking of porn bans, it's already been brought up by other users, but apps like Reddit and Twitter aren't considered "porn" apps, but it's still trivial to access porn on those apps/websites, and these websites are (usually) accessible in countries with porn bans. If you still need to get your fix, I doubt those two will be banned (but who knows what the UK government will do). All else fails, you will probably have the "artistic" sites (rule34, pixiv, probably some furry sites), lesser-known (and probably seedier) porn sites that simply fly under the radar, and if you're really desparate, lolcow nudes here on Kiwifarms :story:
 
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Tread Miller said:
Besides, it seems like there are hundreds of new VPN apps uploaded to the Google Play Store/App Store/whatever APK site every day; is the government really going to make a blacklist and include each and every VPN app? I doubt it.
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It's also not hard to make your own VPN by renting a server/VPS in another country and piping your traffic through it, it's virtually unenforceable in that regard.

CoffeeCup said:
We had these same concerns back beyond 2007 and not almost 20 years later here we are again.
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My nigger in christ have you seen the rest of the internet? The concerns were and continue to be valid in a broad sense, it's just very telling that most people don't seem to give a shit until their porn is at stake.
 
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