VPN Bans and Regulation: What the Law Actually Does
How laws restrict VPNs without always banning them outright: blocking obligations, app store pressure, licensing, and the gap between regulation and technical blocking.
Topic
New censorship measures
6 articles in the Atlas on new censorship measures - VPN Bans and Regulation: What the Law Actually Does; Internet Censorship in China. How laws restrict VPNs without…
6 articles
Part of Censorship, DPI & Network Freedom · Search this topic
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Internet Censorship in China
Inside China's Great Firewall in 2026: DNS poisoning, SNI and QUIC filtering, VPN crackdowns, and what still gets through.
03
Internet Censorship in Iran
Inside Iran's internet controls in 2026: national shutdowns, DNS and SNI filtering, throttling, tiered access, and what still gets through.
04
Internet Censorship in Russia
How Russia filters the internet in 2026: TSPU inspection, VPN blocking, mobile whitelist shutdowns, and what still gets through.
05
Why a VPN Can Work Today and Fail Tomorrow
A tunnel that worked yesterday can stop working with no change on your side. The documented record shows four distinct causes, and only one of them is the censor.
06
How Often Do Countries Shut Down the Internet?
What an internet shutdown is, who orders one, and what the record shows: 313 documented shutdowns across 52 countries in 2025, the highest since tracking began in 2016.