The people who stay in Russia and China for business or fun will probably have noticed it: certain websites and social media like Facebook and LinkedIn are blocked by the government and therefore aren’t accessible for travellers who happened to be there. But still something like VPN exist right? Yes, that is true, but now there is a low in both countries which prohibited the use of a Virtual Private Network anonymously and you can’t surf the web without geographical blockages
What is a Virtual Private Network?
A Virtual Private Network is an encrypted internet connection that offers safe and anonymously surfing on the internet. This is often used to prevent hackers from leaving with your personal data or to avoid geo restrictions. With a VPN you can get safe access everywhere to public WIFI networks without worrying. Besides, you can also get access to content that normally isn’t available in your country. The whole time it looked like the perfect solution to visit blocked websites and social media like Facebook, YouTube or LinkedIn while you were in countries like Turkey, Iran, China or Russia. However, the last two have passed a law that prohibits the use of a Virtual Private Network.
What is a VPN ban?
With a VPN connection you could hide or camouflage your internet identity. According to this you have more privacy and you can have access to content that normally wouldn’t be available. With a VPN connection you could surf to websites that were normally blocked. Really useful if you travel a lot to countries like Russia or China. However, now there is a VPN ban in these countries which makes it impossible to access this kind of network from the 1th of November. In practise this means that Russia and China will obligate their internet companies to store data of civilians. Next to different social media, Russia also has a whole black list with banned websites. This list would allegedly protect children against suicide, child pornography and drugs.
Given the fact that the Russian government has stated that the prohibition for a VPN connection is mainly for the given reason, the use of such connections could lead to a trial. However we still have to wait and see how this evolves. In China this prohibition goes a lot further
How to avoid this VPN Blockage?
Such blockage will have a result of many providers being blocked to give VPN connections. These VPN restrictions will make sure that the use of it is illegal, in practise the use of a Virtual Private Network won’t have any legal consequents. In the best case scenario you already have a subscription with a VPN provider and therefore you were proactive. A list of all the IP Addresses with such networks is never complete. To make sure you are safe, you will have to look for a provider that hasn’t been blocked yet.
