Russia: VPN ban is a major blow to internet freedom

A new law signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin banning anonymizers and virtual private networks (VPNs) is a major blow to internet freedom in Russia, Amnesty International said today.

To understand how the ban will work, it is enough to look at China, where Apple has just made a deplorable decision to remove most major VPN apps from the local version of its App Store

Denis Krivosheev, Deputy Director for Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International
“To understand how the ban will work, it is enough to look at China, where Apple has just made a deplorable decision to remove most major VPN apps from the local version of its App Store. In doing so it has aided the online censorship efforts of the Chinese government and jeopardized the rights of countless internet users.”