5 ms·

Who said the UK is going to ban VPN? Genuine question. That's news to me and I'm here.

by LightBug1 4mo ago

arbol 4mo ago
When they realise their social media ban for children doesn't work
iAMkenough 4mo ago
Think of the children that will bypass all of the "protections" recently adopted by the UK.
- gonzalohm 4mo ago
  How would they even do that? A VPN is just a remote machine. Anything can be a VPN
  - ifwinterco 4mo ago
    And some including mullvad already accept payment in crypto, there will always be some dodgy VPN company in some dodgy jurisdiction that will take your BTC in exchange for an account. I don’t think that will stop them trying though
    - Natfan 4mo ago
      mullvad would accept a cash envelope, i don't see how a government will stop that
  - tryauuum 4mo ago
    Like in Russia - drop wireguard / OpenVPN packets crossing the country border - analyze https traffic to detect traffic patterns not matching https fully and block such connections
    - Borealid 4mo ago
      The state of the art, "xray-reality", is not blockable. It's a legit tls connection with data smuggled inside it.
      - tryauuum 4mo ago
        Are you taking from the experience that this is not blockeable in Russia? EDIT: I might be confusing vless/xray/reality but seems like there are no problems to block it based on ip reputation + tls fingerprint + amount of connections https://habr.com/ru/articles/1044396/ https://habr.com/ru/articles/1044396/ Of course this would block some valid websites but when has government cared about that
        Borealid 4mo ago
        The IPs are Cloudflare, the TLS fingerprint is uTLS Chrome, and the number of connections with xhttp is the same as your normal browsing. If you are willing to block browsing all ordinary web sites fronted with a CDN, then yes you can block reality/xhttp. You cannot, however, differentially block it via any of the three things you mentioned.
        tryauuum 4mo ago
        They are willing to break some cloudflare-fronted websites. That's already a reality in Russia. The government (any government) hates its citizens and the freedoms it had to allow them
  - frollogaston 4mo ago
    They can make it impractical for most people by repeatedly banning VPNs by IP address. Users have to pay upfront to figure out if their chosen VPN even works, then it could still break later.
  - Magnusmaster 4mo ago
    Probably by forcing VPNs to only allow approved operating systems to connect to the Internet via hardware attestation, then those operating systems will only allow users to install signed apps, and only government-approved VPNs will be allowed.
ravenical 4mo ago
https://xcancel.com/BBCBreakfast/status/2066788360606138759 https://xcancel.com/BBCBreakfast/status/2066788360606138759
subscribed 4mo ago
https://stateofsurveillance.org/articles/government/uk-lords-vpn-ban-surveillance-software-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/articles/government/uk-lords... It mostly happened already and it's in motion.
tentacleuno 4mo ago
The "Technology Secretary" is actively investigating it[0]. [0]: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/new-vpn-rules-uk-households-34129495 https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/new-vpn-...
jasonvorhe 4mo ago
They said so. "Nothing is off the table" was the quote, iirc.
domh 4mo ago
Apologies for the youtube shorts link, but Liz Kendall was on LBC yesterday talking about VPNs: https://youtube.com/shorts/WvHl3G6KojI https://youtube.com/shorts/WvHl3G6KojI I believe they're "doing research" into it, which basically means they don't understand how any of it works.

Who said the UK is going to ban VPN? Genuine question. That's news to me and I'm here.

arbol 4mo ago

When they realise their social media ban for children doesn't work

iAMkenough 4mo ago

Think of the children that will bypass all of the "protections" recently adopted by the UK.

gonzalohm 4mo ago
How would they even do that? A VPN is just a remote machine. Anything can be a VPN
- ifwinterco 4mo ago
  And some including mullvad already accept payment in crypto, there will always be some dodgy VPN company in some dodgy jurisdiction that will take your BTC in exchange for an account. I don’t think that will stop them trying though
  - Natfan 4mo ago
    mullvad would accept a cash envelope, i don't see how a government will stop that
- tryauuum 4mo ago
  Like in Russia - drop wireguard / OpenVPN packets crossing the country border - analyze https traffic to detect traffic patterns not matching https fully and block such connections
  - Borealid 4mo ago
    The state of the art, "xray-reality", is not blockable. It's a legit tls connection with data smuggled inside it.
    - tryauuum 4mo ago
      Are you taking from the experience that this is not blockeable in Russia? EDIT: I might be confusing vless/xray/reality but seems like there are no problems to block it based on ip reputation + tls fingerprint + amount of connections https://habr.com/ru/articles/1044396/ https://habr.com/ru/articles/1044396/ Of course this would block some valid websites but when has government cared about that
      - Borealid 4mo ago
        The IPs are Cloudflare, the TLS fingerprint is uTLS Chrome, and the number of connections with xhttp is the same as your normal browsing. If you are willing to block browsing all ordinary web sites fronted with a CDN, then yes you can block reality/xhttp. You cannot, however, differentially block it via any of the three things you mentioned.
        tryauuum 4mo ago
        They are willing to break some cloudflare-fronted websites. That's already a reality in Russia. The government (any government) hates its citizens and the freedoms it had to allow them
- frollogaston 4mo ago
  They can make it impractical for most people by repeatedly banning VPNs by IP address. Users have to pay upfront to figure out if their chosen VPN even works, then it could still break later.
- Magnusmaster 4mo ago
  Probably by forcing VPNs to only allow approved operating systems to connect to the Internet via hardware attestation, then those operating systems will only allow users to install signed apps, and only government-approved VPNs will be allowed.

ravenical 4mo ago

https://xcancel.com/BBCBreakfast/status/2066788360606138759 https://xcancel.com/BBCBreakfast/status/2066788360606138759

subscribed 4mo ago

https://stateofsurveillance.org/articles/government/uk-lords-vpn-ban-surveillance-software-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/articles/government/uk-lords... It mostly happened already and it's in motion.

tentacleuno 4mo ago

The "Technology Secretary" is actively investigating it[0]. [0]: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/new-vpn-rules-uk-households-34129495 https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/new-vpn-...

jasonvorhe 4mo ago

They said so. "Nothing is off the table" was the quote, iirc.

domh 4mo ago

Apologies for the youtube shorts link, but Liz Kendall was on LBC yesterday talking about VPNs: https://youtube.com/shorts/WvHl3G6KojI https://youtube.com/shorts/WvHl3G6KojI I believe they're "doing research" into it, which basically means they don't understand how any of it works.