Russia Wants to Ban VPNs and Proxies

2017-07-06 10_15_10-Free photo_ Mosque, St Petersburg Russia – Free Image on Pixabay – 2290299

With their recent laws, legislations, and general views on what its citizens should or should not access, Russia has become one of the leading countries when it comes to blocking websites. In an attempt to win this war on undesired content, Russia will go as far as it needs to, and they have already proven that.

This nation has even gone as far as to offer ultimatums to search engines, browsers, and now even VPNs. They simply don’t allow access to content under restrictions. Services that will provide that access are from now on going to get bans themselves. This means that VPNs, proxies, and anonymous browsers are the new main target in Russia.

Russia plans to ban VPNs

Since VPNs are such important tools when it comes to accessing what most countries would simply block, they are, naturally, the greatest threat. Thanks to their servers that are spread around the world, you can change your IP address and widen your online reach.

That means that, when your government blocks something, you simply use another government’s rules to bypass the ban. Now, Russia is really banning a lot of online content, and even its citizens have had enough of it. The fact that the country needs to go to such lengths and actually ban VPNs proves it.

VPNs allow its citizens to disobey, and Russia can’t have that. This is why they have the new bill.

What is the bill about?

Even Russia won’t ban the VPNs, proxies, and the rest of such services right away. No, instead, it will first offer them a chance to cooperate.

Apparently, Russia has no issues with people accessing content under geo-restrictions. However, when it comes to that under their own censorship, accessing it will become illegal. Basically, if another country keeps something to itself, you can access it with a VPN, as long as the Russian government is ok with it.

If they are not, and you try to use a VPN to get to it, it will be a crime. But that is not all. Whenever Russia decides that some content should become unavailable to its citizens, VPNs will get a notice about it. They will then have around 72 hours to block that content themselves.

If they fail to obey this rule, even the VPNs will get a ban in Russia. This is the newest plan to control what the internet users will be allowed to access, and an obvious attempt to control VPNs and proxies.

Facebook and Google are looking for negotiators

Bypassing internet censorship in Russia will become really though in the following period. This also goes for increasing privacy, downloading content secretly, and more. Good luck with unblocking YouTube videos if Russian government decides that they aren’t good enough for their standards.

Even the corporations like Google and Facebook, that are dominant in the majority of the internet world are looking for negotiators. They need someone who will interact with Russia in their stead and try to calm the situation down. Or, at the very least, extract a good deal for their own companies.

What will happen next?

Well, people use a VPN for two big reasons. One is to have online security and protection, and another one is to access content under restriction. If VPNs can’t provide these services, then what good are they?

Russia is putting them in a very uncomfortable spot, where they can choose between becoming almost useless and getting a ban. There is also a possibility of receiving a fine, but any VPN that goes that far probably won’t stop until they get a ban.

So far, Russian citizens could count on major VPN providers like TorGuard and GhostVPN for help. They could use them to access what they wanted and needed. Now, it is unsure what will happen, and if anyone can stop this before it is too late.

Whatever the case, Russian citizens will soon find themselves in a very desperate spot.

Conclusion

Russia’s paranoia is reaching new limits every year. The restrictions, rules, bills, and legislations that the country is changing all have the same goal. This is to limit what the citizens can access, but slowly and surely.

By using this method, the country is taking away little by little, which is a clever way to go, but it will have some very negative results.

Passion for Cyber Security and Technology.

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