Due to the UK’s Online Safety Act implemented earlier this year, accessing my Bluesky DM’s now means I need to allow a third-party service to scan my face, ID, or bank card. Understandably, that gives me the willies. So I can either simply never look at my messages again, whip out the likeness of Norman Reedus, OR I can log on via a VPN. However, the days of this vastly preferable third option may be numbered.
US states Wisconsin and Michigan have already proposed VPN crackdown bills aiming to close off this workaround—and the UK may be looking to follow suit. Online privacy nonprofit the Electronic Frontier Foundation recently criticised this strategy, taking aim at Wisconsin’s bill in particular, saying that blocking the use of VPNs is “going to be a disaster for everyone.”
The way I understand it, any company wanting to do business in the state would have to block access to their services from (anonymous?) VPN providers. That means IP blocks for PIA, mollivard, etc will be blacklisted by companies. There are already blocklists of IPs for VPN providers that many corporate web filters use (yes, they are terrible and inaccurate).
Yes, you would probably be able to fire up a VPS from a no-name provider and get through. However,