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Bangladesh social media censorship leads to over 7000% increase in VPN usage (www.techradar.com)

submitted 1 month ago by lemmee_in@lemm.ee to c/technology@lemmy.world

9 comments fedilink hide all child comments

People in Bangladesh have turned en masse to the VPN apps to bypass ongoing internet restrictions in the aftermath of widespread anti-government protests.

The first spike in VPN usage was recorded on July 23, 2024, when authorities began to ease fixed-line internet restrictions after five days of complete internet shutdown.

Mobile connectivity was restored on Sunday, July 28. Yet, access to the likes of Facebook, TikTok, WhatsApp, and YouTube is still restricted at the time of writing. This explains why data shows VPN downloads and signups continue to be high across the region.

Proton recorded VPN usage spikes in 11 countries since January alone. Similarly to the Bangladesh case, most of them were linked with social unrest including Kenya at the end of June, New Caledonia in May, and Senegal in February.

With social media platforms being blocked in Bangladesh at the time of writing, VPNs remain a crucial tool if you're inside the country.

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[–] QuadratureSurfer@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Hopefully people adopting VPNs en masse will start pressuring services to better support VPN traffic.

Maybe even lemmy.world will one day officially allow posts/comments from those behind a VPN.

[–] undefined@links.hackliberty.org 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I didn’t realize instances were doing this! That seems to go against the spirit of federated social media, FOSS, etc.

[–] QuadratureSurfer@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah, I mean it sounds like too many users hiding behind a VPN were posting the kind of stuff that no admin wants to deal with and they got sick of it. So in that sense, I get why they did it. It's just unfortunate that VPNs get bad rep because of abuse like that.

https://lemmy.world/post/11967676

[–] undefined@links.hackliberty.org 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yeah, I’m a web developer and I get it from that perspective but as a VPN user I loathe websites that have a bunch of hoops to jump through. I just want better privacy laws (as well as to block ads/tracking, but that can be done without necessarily using a VPN).

[–] Beaver@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 month ago

And I was sitting here thinking maybe the country had a better government than India and Pakistan.

[–] TwinTusks@bitforged.space 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Another country joined Chinas tactics.

[–] Piemanding@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I wonder how many native Chinese use VPN's

[–] TwinTusks@bitforged.space 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Quite a bit actually. Traditionally, only those who wishes "freedom" would contact outside, then there people who work with foreign companies/individuals, any tech who work in IT would need vpn, those who came back from studying aboard, and newly, theres celebrity fans who use vpn only to follow their favorite celebrity.

[–] TheBigBrother@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Intelligence agencies are hard working people.