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In 2024 alone,Proton VPNrecorded asurge of new users in 119 countriesacross the world.
So, should the future of censorship-resistant technology go beyond VPN services?
And, more importantly, is that even possible?
Instead, they’re designed as security software that boosts online anonymity.
IP-spoofing, however, became an efficient tactic to bypass censorship.
Censors are not limited to improving their tactics, though.
New ad-hoc laws that regulate the use of VPNs have also been enforced in a few countries so far.
VPNs are also the main target ofMyanmar’s new cybersecurity law.
Another issue with most VPN solutions available right now may be linked to their centralized infrastructure.
Not all VPNs are made equal, and not all VPNs take care to protect people’s data.
What if the service itself is responsible for its resilience?"
After all, popularencrypted messaging appsSignal andWhatsApphave already implemented some circumvention capabilities in their system.
Big media companies like the BBC and Deutsche Welle did something similar for their news app, too.
Are we ready to ditch censorship-resistant VPNs for good?
Developers have spent a lot of resources tailoring existing VPN protocols for maximum results in such restricted environments.
He’s also skeptical whether Google, the company behind Jigsaw, will ever make its own apps censorship-resistant.
“Will YouTube embed this technology or not?
I think they will not.”
Today, were introducing Stealth, our new custom-built anti-censorship protocol for Proton VPN.
The provider launched an advanced, obfuscatedStealth VPN protocolin 2022 to better evade VPN blocks.
So, you need both."
Bottom line
Internet censorship is changing targets and tactics, but it isn’t going anywhere.
Year by year, in fact, digital rights groups witness record levels of restrictions worldwide.
EncryptedDNS servers, like the Swiss-basedQuad9, are emerging as solutions to DNS-based blocks, for example.
Are censorship-resistant VPNs set to become obsolete?
Then we can exchange technologies, we can learn from each other.
So, the more we are, the better."
