The world has seen an increasing demand for virtual private network (VPN) services, especially in light of governments trying to enforce internet censorship during times of unrest and warfare revealed.
The ongoing protests in Iran have resulted in a surge of VPN use in the country by 3,082 percent at its peak, found a report by Top10VPN. The protests in Iran erupted after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was allegedly beaten to death during her custody with Iran’s morality police for wearing her hijab too loosely.
The death galvanised thousands of protestors, including thousands of young women, into rising up against the Iranian government. While the government has attempted to crack down on the protests, even resorting to firing live ammunition into crowds, the protests have continued to spread across the country. Part of the crackdown involved shutting down internet access by restricting websites and throttling speeds.
VPNs, which in theory establish a secure connection between a user and the internet, can be used to circumvent such restrictions. As a result, daily VPN use in Iran has risen multifold as protestors use these to circumvent internet blackouts.
The researchers' report from Top10VPN also highlights that the demand for VPN increases dramatically during times of unrest when governments institute internet blackouts.
The massive protests in Sri Lanka saw demand for VPN services jump by a whopping 17,075 percent, while the protests in Kazakhstan saw VPN demand surge by 3,405 percent. Other countries which saw a significant surge for VPN services in 2022 include Russia, Ukraine, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia.
In 2021, Ethiopia, Zambia, Nigeria, Myanmar, Colombia, India, Germany, Bangladesh, Senegal, Hong Kong and Uganda also saw huge spikes in VPN demand in response to government-ordered internet blackouts.
While VPNs can be used to circumvent government bans on websites and internet access, countries are now bringing in laws to plug the loophole. The Indian government brought new regulations for VPN providers wherein the providers must keep records of customer names, IP addresses and other sensitive information for a period of five years and hand the information over to the government when asked, which violates many of the privacy policies that VPN providers have in place and dilute their security standards.
As a result of these new regulations, which came into effect from September 25, major VPN providers — including Surfshark, Nord VPN and ExpressVPN — have already shut shop in India.
“The law is also overreaching and so broad as to open up the window for potential abuse. We believe the damage done by potential misuse of this kind of law far outweighs any benefit that lawmakers claim would come from it. ExpressVPN refuses to participate in the Indian government’s attempts to limit internet freedom,” ExpressVPN, one of the world’s leading VPN service providers, said on its blog.
Surfshark had told CNBC-TV18 that it "proudly operates under a strict 'no logs' policy, so such new requirements go against the core ethos of the company."
