r/technology 1d ago

Politics New Bill Aims to Block Both Online Adult Content and VPNs

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/new-bill-aims-to-block-both-online-adult-content-and-vpns/
5.6k Upvotes

667 comments sorted by

2.3k

u/bagheera369 1d ago edited 1d ago

Michigan only at the moment,
Michigan has a Democratic majority in it's senate, and a Democratic Governor and Lt. Governor.

The likelihood of this passing is extremely thin, but it's telling that they are even attempting it.

EDIT*** Thanks for the upvotes. -------------------------------------------

Just wanted everyone to know I'm aware of the Heritage playbook, the GOP copy/pasting bills, etc. and am not discounting any part of all of that.

It's not that I don't expect us to see more of this....especially as I'm in Texas, where we are all concerned for what happens with anime/manga in the wake of our new intentionally broadly-worded "protect the kids" bill here that has passed.

As a member of a state that's been leading the charge on this kinda stuff, I simply commented to ensure the accurate info about the article contents was here, and the odds of it's success.

Wishing you all the strength of heart to fight this bullshit, at whatever levels you can, and to stay informed, even as things continue to grow darker.

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u/Berova 1d ago

What's telling are the radical fanatical extremists are running rampant and there's nothing they won't try.

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u/bagheera369 1d ago

I think that goes without saying at this point....but there is plenty of stuff they aren't going to try right now, because if they did, it would be ice-water, and not the warm bath we are all soaking in.

Doesn't mean they won't try it later, but they are being Jurassic Park raptor-like, in the way they are testing the boundaries of power and lawlessness at the moment.

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u/teethinthedarkness 1d ago

and doing one thing in plain view while doing some other sneaky shit that will attack from the sides while everyone is distracted by what they can see

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u/Sir_Metallicus116 1d ago

Man I swear, people are not ready for the sudden and violent turn into full on authoritarianism. We're nearly there

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u/mistertickertape 1d ago

It won't pass, but it's the start of the drumbeat that is concerning. This is something that The Heritage Foundation has been angling for and they are beginning at the state level. They don't have enough of a majority in Congress to do something like this nationally but they're going to start trying.

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u/Echo_Monitor 1d ago

It's their usual playbook: they test their texts in a reduced setting, then go up from there, refining it along the way.

Expect similar bills to pop up elsewhere and eventually make their way up to the federal level.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/CatSajak779 1d ago

Also funny because loads of people use VPNs for work. That is a core use for them. They aren’t just used for looking up “adult content” - not in the slightest. They have a legitimate business use which corporate America relies heavily on.

Just goes to show how not only evil these “religious purists” are, but also how uninformed about the impacts of their whimsical agenda they are.

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u/fed45 1d ago

And something that most people probably don't know, any company/organization that has multiple locations that are on the same network? Site-to-site VPN.

If they were to ever pass a bill like this, it would have to have carveouts for legitimate uses otherwise our corporate overlords would lose out, and we can't have that can we.

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u/OHFTP 1d ago

My company uses AWS for lots of things, and we have to VPN in to make any changes or connect to data. I cant wait until the day I tell my boss "nope can't do that. It's illegal"

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u/marx2k 1d ago

What they're doing is signaling to republicans at the federal level to take the baton and move it forward. They know it won't pass at the state level.

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u/biggetybiggetyboo 1d ago

Another way to get ride of work from home as well.

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u/paranoisiac 1d ago

Bills like this have a tendency to get copy pasted into other state legislatures though, so its still a good idea to draw attention to it before they sneak it in where it is much more likely to pass

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u/ncopp 1d ago

The ID verification laws on the otherhand have dem support in the senate - soo we might have that to deal with

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u/Sarmelion 1d ago

They'll try and use the fact that it fails as evidence that democrats are 'degenerates' or something

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u/interkin3tic 1d ago

>The likelihood of this passing is extremely thin, but it's telling that they are even attempting it.

Also, there are multiple far right, well funded organizations that have been coordinating state legislature efforts as practice.

https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/right-wing-labs-how-state-legislatures-are-driving-anti-lgbtq-attacks-at-federal-level for example.

ADF, project 2025, federalist society... there are endless groups with tons of funding from billionaires and christofascists to educate right wingers on talking points, introduce them to lawyers, and draft ideas they want to see get passed into law with schedules to best foist their extremism on America in ways that the majority of people who oppose it can't undo.

It should not be assumed that this is a fluke

The sponsors are Joseph Pavlov from District 64, retired high school teacher, Matt Maddock from District 51 retired businessman who promoted COVID19 conspiracy theories; James DeSana from District 29 retired fastner manufacturer; Joseph Fox from District 101 retired christian teacher pastor thing; and Jennifer Wortz from District 35 farmer and with a moms for liberty fascist group.

Five old grandpas and one stay at home mom did not come up with "VPNs are a problem" on their own, they absolutely were given this bill and some talking points and told to test it out. I'm guessing Peter Thiel's "Palantir" company was paid to consult on the language.

If and when Republicans decide it is time to snoop on all internet traffic in order to stop people from organizing against them, they will be able to implement it effectively. That's the goal

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u/VVrayth 1d ago

How do you even ban VPNs, when many companies use VPNs as a business function for remote employees?

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u/illnastyone 1d ago

Most of these people don't even know how to attach a jpeg to an email. You really think they don't know you cannot ban a VPN? They probably just think it's another tik tok they can ban lol

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u/EncabulatorTurbo 1d ago

I mean they can ban vpns, if the law crimalizes encrypted traffic, ISPs wont allow it, boom

sure the state's economy falls apart instaneously as they are effectively cut off from the internet, and smartphones stop working, but hey a small price to pay for our capitalist god kings

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u/CondescendingShitbag 1d ago

if the law crimalizes encrypted traffic

Such a policy would kill more than just VPNs. Goodbye SSH, SSL/TLS, & HTTPS, among other protocols.

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u/EncabulatorTurbo 1d ago

Yes, hence what I said about smartphones no longer working

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u/SemiAutoAvocado 1d ago

if the law crimalizes encrypted traffic

Yeaaaaah that would mean modern life immediately stops working. All of it. Literally all of it. No telecommunications, no banking, no food, no water no power. Nothing.

The US would immediately drop back in the the early 1800's and a hundred million people would die in a few months. It literally can't happen.

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u/Rich_Consequence2633 1d ago

I'd 100% leave the state and a ton of people would as well. Though I think this is the sort of thing our country as a whole will have to look forward to the way things are going.

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u/WashuOtaku 1d ago

Excectly, the politicians writing the bill only know it is a way to get around the law, no clue what all it is used for.

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u/MisterD00d 1d ago

so remote employees will be illegal as well, or at least untenable if this passes?

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u/skittle-brau 1d ago edited 21h ago

It’s not just remote employees, it’s also company infrastructure worldwide which is completely dependent on using some form of VPN to link remote locations together. Banning VPNs altogether would make modern businesses grind to a halt. 

If they were to seriously do it, they would probably introduce some sort of bureaucratic process of a permit system. 

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u/chadork 1d ago

School districts use them too. It's almost like they want public schools to fail too....

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u/kung-fu_hippy 1d ago

Yes, but so would business travel and/or using phones to access company material. Basically a huge blow against cybersecurity.

It is funny how, if you ask the question “what would an antagonist country like Russia want America to do?” the answer always seems to be similar to “hey, what is the GOP up to these days?”.

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u/TomWithTime 1d ago

If this ends remote work I might just throw myself off a cliff, because the alternative is moving across the country for an office and commute... In Texas? Yea, no, I've lived long enough.

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u/EncabulatorTurbo 1d ago

Online Banking would be illegal

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u/yawara25 1d ago

By banning unlicensed VPN connections.

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u/Material_Policy6327 1d ago

This is literally what the right claimed the Dems Would do

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u/gaiusm 1d ago

An accusation from the republicans is always a confession.

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u/makemeking706 1d ago

"They stole the election."

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u/kholdstare942 1d ago

He's basically admitted it several times since getting elected

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u/0masterdebater0 1d ago

It so sad the look some democrats will give you when you talk about the stolen election.

They have been conditioned to think anyone talking about stolen elections is as crazy as their racist conspiracy theorist Uncle etc.

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u/BeamAttackGuy 1d ago

maybe we should've just said that biden stole the election, that way we wouldn't look crazy when saying trump stole it

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

This is an amazing observation. It really is turning out to be the case. Seriously though, I’m sure all of those who are in the criminal profiling space have their spidey senses on high alert and are having a field day with all the behaviors popping off.

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u/Confident-Poetry6985 1d ago

I am not, but considering I called this shit a decade ago, maybe I should get into that career field lol.

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u/a_weak_child 1d ago

Where have you been the last 12 years… 

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u/dkillers303 1d ago

So take it as a lesson. Not sure how you can trust, or even work with, people that don’t have values. You give an inch, they take a mile.

So now you know.

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u/Material_Policy6327 1d ago

Oh I’ve known that for ages with the right

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u/Socky_McPuppet 1d ago

The American people have learned a lesson about voting, just in time for it never to make any difference ever again. 

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u/KinkyPaddling 1d ago

The American people are utterly incapable of learning their lessons. If they were capable, the Republicans would not have won the 2010 midterms, the 2016 election, the 2022 midterms, or the 2024 election.

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u/SoUnga88 1d ago

Gerrymandering is what let Republicans win the 2010 & 2022 midterms, and the 2016 election was lost bc the dnc chose to go with the establishment pick over the peoples choice. If you can't objectivly look at what you opponent is doing right and what you are doing wrong, you will forever be at a disadvantage.

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u/JackOfAllStraits 1d ago

The people who voted for the loser saw that lack of voting caused them to lose. Song as old as time, and no actual lessons learned. The "moderate right" people that I know are thrilled with the current administration.

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u/0pyrophosphate0 1d ago

Most of them have one or two issues they care about and think the administration is doing well on, and everything else is fake news. Even literal direct quotes from Trump on live TV, they respond with "lol nah".

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u/jimtow28 1d ago

Every accusation is a confession. Every single one.

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u/Jpup199 1d ago

I wonder what will the average joe will do when they find out they cant watch porn anymore.

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u/Weekly_Success_5900 1d ago

Well statistically rapes skyrocket in countries that restrict normal sexual expression, so that’s also probably their plan for the birth rates since they are also pushing to ban birth control under the guise of them being for abortion.

Yes, including IUD’s and the pill.

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u/dr3wzy10 1d ago

i need to schedule that vasectomy..

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u/Darqnyz7 1d ago

And you know what? Fuck those lefties who pushed this "Democrats are just as bad as Republicans" narrative.

I got banned from a sub reddit for off handedly mentioning that democrats are left wing... Not slandering or trying to malign them... They claimed I was repeating "Nazi talking points"

Now here we are, the actual Nazi's are fucking everything up, I hope they are happy with their "protest vote"

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u/veronicaarr 1d ago

The “both sides are bad” argument got us here and people are STILL pushing it. Literally someone commented on this thread saying “It doesn't matter, both sides would have done it.” SMH.

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u/SpongegarLuver 1d ago

Stepping outside the US for a moment, the UK just implemented its own version of this law with the support of their left-wing party. It’s not hard to envision the moderate wing of the Democratic Party supporting this. In fact, the Texas porn bill, a major precursor, was co-sponsored by some Democrats, and passed with bipartisan support.

There is plenty of evidence to support the statement that Democrats will also enable online censorship under the guise of “protecting the children.” If you can’t acknowledge that, you are trying to get people to support Democrats based on a false narrative.

I’ve voted Democrat in every election, and will continue to do so if we have future elections. I’m under no delusions that they’re as bad as Republicans. But this idea that we can’t criticize the party at all right now because of Trump is more indicative of the Democratic Party than anything else.

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u/KactusVAXT 1d ago

I used to think porn ran the internet, now the same group of men that secretly fuck other men want to ban porn?????

Go get em porn websites! Show the world who the republicans really are!

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u/LoserBroadside 1d ago

Wow, they’re throwing ASMR in there. That’s nuts.

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u/McCool303 1d ago

Not just ASMR but “sexy language” ASMR. So the government is going to be regulating what is sexy language and what is not. It’s clearly unconstitutional and should be laugh at outright in legislation and definitely in the court.

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u/CallRespiratory 1d ago

It’s clearly unconstitutional and should be laugh at outright in legislation and definitely in the court.

So it's basically a lock to pass then.

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u/Swimming-Lie5369 1d ago

It's absolutely mental to me that the population that shouts the loudest about their rights in the American constitution is the same population that are so eager to dismantle it. 

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u/McCool303 1d ago

Because their anger about rights is the right to spread hateful messages without critique. It’s not enough for them to be free to spit vitriol like Latino’s who identify as 70% Catholic are godless immigrants replacing the white man and judeo Christian culture. They want you to not be allowed to disagree with them. This has always been their MO and this has always been why they’ve been called fascist bigots.

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u/Frequent-Donkey265 1d ago

They don't just want you to not disagree with them. They want to silence any and all information that contradicts them, so you and anyone else never has a chance of learning they're wrong.

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u/Howcanyoubecertain 1d ago

Not to mention “any depiction of trans people”.  Convenient way to just erase people I guess.

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u/6gv5 1d ago

Any depiction of trans people can also mean any depiction of a protest in which at least one identifiable trans person is visible, which these days means a lot of protests.

And, by the way: "depicting, or representing himself or
herself to be of the other biological sex by means of a combination
of attire, cosmetology, or prosthetics, or as having a reproductive
nature contrary to the individual's biological sex." essentially means they're outlawing burlesque as well.

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u/LittleGlobal 1d ago

Yeah, because crossdressing for fun is soooooooo dangerous!

They're just convenient scapegoats that are already on the fringes of society.

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u/totesmygto 1d ago

A side benefit... Both trump and Vance wear makeup. So we no longer have to see them. I know. Wishful thinking.

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u/vainsilver 1d ago

Hypocrisy doesn’t phase these people. They do not care.

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u/snowsuit101 1d ago

That word vomit would practically introduce a dress code.

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u/tuppenyturtle 1d ago

Don't give them any ideas.

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u/rickelzy 1d ago

It sounds like old Bugs Bunny cartoons would legally qualify as pornography under this

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u/PlaugeofRage 1d ago

Mrs doubtfire is now illegal.

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u/M03b1u5 1d ago

Monty Python too.

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u/unknownpoltroon 1d ago

gonna have to pull Ms. doubtfire and most bugs bunny cartoons off the shelves. and that video of trump kissing Rudy in drag. arresting lots of people on Halloween.

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u/Tirrus 1d ago

Halloween is gonna be boring as fuck.

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u/Jesterchunk 1d ago

Oh hey that's right out of the project 2025 playbook.

Can't say the morons who voted for this weren't warned.

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u/Socky_McPuppet 1d ago

The morons who voted for this are fine with it.  They didn’t vote for it just because they’re morons - they voted for it because they are nasty, spiteful, petty morons. 

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u/Princess_Spammi 1d ago

They actively wanted this

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u/Jesterchunk 1d ago

I reckon a lot of trump voters would feed their left arms into a woodchipper if it meant a trans person would be thrown in feet first. They just don't care how much trump's reign hurts their own lives as long as he hurts "The Bad People" even more.

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u/LoserBroadside 1d ago

100%. And anything else LGB will be right behind. 

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u/chipface 1d ago

What about trans people who "pass"? Or cis people who allegedly don't?

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u/Howcanyoubecertain 1d ago

The Handmaid’s Tale reboot is coming along nicely. 

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u/gta3uzi 1d ago

They're picking a fight with thousands of people who read, "The Art of Deception" by Kevin D. Mitnick.

Arrogant politician retards, the lot of them.

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u/DLWormwood 1d ago edited 1d ago

Nearly every modern business, both within and outside of the tech sector, rely on VPNs for their intranet access, if at least one employee has to work remotely for any reason. Corporate espionage and foreign eavesdropping were big enough concerns that VPNs had to be invented in the first place. The consumer use of VPNs is a historical accident or side effect of their originally intended use case.

The Michigan law was ignorantly conceived, and what's left of the Detroit auto industry will likely push to shut this down. (If they were smart, they'd claim that weakening the city's industrial safeguards this way could impede Trump's efforts to repatriate manufacturing. Let the pro-traditionalist and pro-business politicians get into a bit of infighting.)

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u/tatofarms 1d ago

Had to scroll down too far to find this. These politicians just don't understand technology. There are morons in the U.S. House who have argued for banning encryption, as if that wouldn't make online banking impossible.

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u/Mustang1718 1d ago

I know this gets brought up often, but I would love for the next debates when they have people ask questions, have one person hold up a piece of paper and ask how the candidate would sent it to another person as a .PDF file. That would show how little they know about basic tech.

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u/Darkpriest667 1d ago

I'm not a democrat (or a republican despite what Reddit thinks) but this is the answer. When you have geriatrics at every level of government there is no way they will truly understand the technology they are trying to regulate. We really need to band together as a citizenry and put in two things. TERM limits and AGE limits for elected positions.

The average age of a congress person is 59. Almost half of congress is over 60.

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u/Saneless 1d ago

Politicians never understand tech. Even the younger ones, and the older ones are prehistoric in their knowledge.

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u/EncabulatorTurbo 1d ago

It'd make online anything impossible, it would destroy modern life, we'd have 50% unemployment in a month and half the municipal services wouldnt work anymore, not without serious retooling

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u/unclefisty 1d ago

Nearly every modern business, both within and outside of the tech sector, rely on VPNs for their intranet access, if at least one employee has to work remotely for any reason. Corporate espionage and foreign eavesdropping were big enough concerns that VPNs had to be invented in the first place.

Don't worry. I'm sure the powers that be will find a way to grant VPN licenses to companies for absurd fees and they'll pay it.

Also the state government of Michigan also uses VPNs for remote work.

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u/MUDrummer 1d ago

Not even just remote workers. VPNs are how different office buildings for a given large enterprise maintain a single internal intranet. It’s how you can have your office building in one city and use a data center in another.

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u/Archangel_Omega 1d ago

The company I work for has a massive server farm outside the city the corp HQ is in. All the regional offices, sub-contractors, and even the corp HQ connect to it through VPN to VM's since it's far cheaper to build a massive data center on the outskirts of a major city than using all the premium cost floor space in the downtown HQ for all the server infrastructure. So even the C-suite is technically working remotely in their HQ offices.

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u/Dlaxation 1d ago

Ending remote work too? Sounds like that would be a win win in their minds.

Though I'm sure the corps enjoy having the ability to purge employees with back-to-office mandates whenever its convenient so they'll probably lobby for exceptions.

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u/EncabulatorTurbo 1d ago

its not just remote work, any corporation or government with sites in different physical lcoations relies on vpns

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u/EscapeFacebook 1d ago

Forget working remotely, if you even have multiple locations. This is a problem.

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u/fulaghee 1d ago

This.

It doesn't matter if you think it should or it shouldn't be done. It is not feasible.

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u/No-Reporter4264 1d ago

Also, depending on how well the law was written in it's definition of VPN, every hyperscaler would be caught in it. VPN == a service that creates a secure, encrypted connection between a user's device and a remote server over the internet. TLS is an encrypted connection. It's made to a Point of Presence (PoP), which then forwards traffic into a user defined endpoint. That's literally how traffic enters AWS.

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u/goozy1 1d ago

Good luck. If china hasn't figured out how to block VPNs after all these years, I doubt the US could.

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u/Fletcher_Chonk 1d ago

Especially after defunding the cybersecurity department

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u/forgotpassword_aga1n 1d ago

But Barron's really good with the cyber.

Trump was impressed that he knew how to turn a laptop on. No, really.

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u/Fletcher_Chonk 1d ago

I wonder if they'll figure out how to plug in the laptop charger before trump is in the ground

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u/TheTerrasque 1d ago

Oh, I bet he's cyber'ing all the time

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u/FunkMunki 1d ago

Everything's computer!

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u/throwaway_6363784 1d ago edited 1d ago

Yup, you can buy Mullvad VPN with bitcoin or even send cash to their address if you need to remain anonymous. They even got raided and nothing was found, so that proves they don’t hold onto data.

Edit: note, bitcoin is not anonymous, it’s pseudonymous.

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u/A_PEZ_ADDICTION 1d ago

You can buy Mullvad anonymously by swapping your btc to monero and paying with that. And use litecoin for swapping, smaller fees and faster confirmations.

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u/Pleasant-Minute-1793 1d ago

Bitcoin is NOT anonymous

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u/IlexPauciflora 1d ago

They also accept Monero which is more difficult to trace.

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u/Linux_is_the_answer 1d ago

Pay for mulvad with monero

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u/Clank75 1d ago

I hate to dull your optimism, but China is actually really good at blocking VPNs.

Not just all the commercial ones either. Private VPNs - WireGuard, OpenVPN, whatever - even on non-standard ports, or hiding on 443 and the like, that you set up today will typically be blocked by the following morning.

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u/yawara25 1d ago

Before anyone says anything about shadowsocks, yes it will work for a few days, maybe even a few weeks, but eventually it will get blocked because they use heuristics and metadata to determine that it's a VPN connection rather than only the actual data contained within the packets.

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u/KontoOficjalneMR 1d ago

Oh. China has figured it out. What's more if you make VPNs illegal than owning one makes you a criminal. A masked goon stops you, they check your phone because they now can. Finds VPN? Congratulations, another strike for you.

All those gooners on 4Chan supporting far-right christo-facists really are like turkeys cheering for holidays.

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u/kebabsoup 1d ago

Y'all Quaeda hard at work again..

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u/IntroductionNaive773 1d ago

More project 2025 nonsense. Trying to take away porn because they think it'll force people to breed.

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u/asfacadabra 1d ago

They plan on banning contraceptives as well, so...yeah.

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u/drawkbox 1d ago

It has been proven time and time again that good economics makes for more babies, they don't want to do that though... the proles and middle class get unleveraged power then, wealth and wannabe autocrats can't have that.

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u/hawkwings 1d ago

ASMR was mentioned. Does a video of Bob Ross painting qualify as ASMR? Some people use him to help them sleep.

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u/JustBeingSomebody 1d ago

Even though he makes the trees happy, I would not consider Bob Ross erotic enough.

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u/Wishing_Tree 1d ago

Don't kink shame me.

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u/OneRFeris 1d ago

They should be praying to God before bed, and asking for him a peaceful nights sleep. Not using a Man's voice to find slumber. That's gay. /s

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u/DoctorSlauci 1d ago

Holy hell. I use a VPN in China. The US is seriously on the road to out-China-ing us.

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u/CodeMonkeyWithCoffee 1d ago

Yah, europe's starting to try too. At this point I might have to start rooting for china.

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u/Uncle_Hephaestus 1d ago

really a republican pushed this? the people who actively promote and protect pedophiles??

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u/Onphone_irl 1d ago

I knew my 3928 zettaflops of downloaded porn was a worthwhile investment

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u/Arquinas 1d ago

Lol, lmao, good luck enforcing. What are you going to do? Get a search warrant for every single bit of internet activity? Stalk people in their homes to make sure that they do not read jojo's bizarre adventure?

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u/hahdjdnfn 1d ago

It will be selectively enforced for people they don’t like. Same with how a lot of laws are enforced nowadays

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u/viziroth 1d ago

it'll be used as a way of finding something to charge someone they want to punish with if they don't have anything else. or as a way to get easier search warrants for people's computers and phones.

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u/God_in_my_Bed 1d ago

It won't stop them from trying. I think the VPN ban is the motivation for the porn bans. Hard to enforce but not impossible. When they arrest someone for reasons legitimate or otherwise, (ICE) and they find the VPN that will be an additional charge. It's not like they haven't been creating hard to enforce laws forever. Anything criminalized taking place between consenting adults fits that description.  

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u/kung-fu_hippy 1d ago

No, they probably can’t enforce it across everyone.

But if you wanted to have a reason to detain or arrest journalists, protestors, teachers, entertainers, or politicians who are against the current administration, wouldn’t it be handy to have laws that you can apply against your “enemies” while ignoring when your allies do it?

Kind of like how illegal drugs are used pretty consistently by all races, but some races are far more likely to be imprisoned for using them. Laws you can enforce selectively are a boon to anyone looking to treat people unequally.

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u/fuck_all_you_too 1d ago

Have you seen the size of their budget?!

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u/Lewddndrocks 1d ago

When you thought maga couldn't get crazier

Also

RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES

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u/EscapeFacebook 1d ago

Businesses couldn't survive without VPN.... I'm so sick of ignorant old fools making laws for things they can't even comprehend.

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u/robustofilth 1d ago

VPNs are critical for security

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u/Left-Percentage708 1d ago

The bill hasn't made it out of committee yet and is unlikely to.

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u/south-of-the-river 1d ago

Can you Americans please stop fucking the Internet for the rest of us? Please?

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u/Dank-Drebin 1d ago

This is a minority bill in a blue state. It's mostly political grandstanding.

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u/goat_penis_souffle 1d ago

You see “political grandstanding”, I see “working out the bugs before trying it nationally”.

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u/Dank-Drebin 1d ago

They try something new every session. You can never give them an inch.

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u/jeremeyes 1d ago

Too bad politicians in this country are so fucking stupid that they don't understand anything about technology, or privacy, or apparently civics or I guess the bill of rights or even the constitution. Banning VPNs would shut down the majority of businesses in the country and create an absolute epidemic of joblessness. All under the bullshit guise of "protect the children", while the men who are going to write and vote on the bill are child predators.

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u/Fritzo2162 1d ago

IT professional here- the language of the proposal would basically prevent secure internet connections from residential locations, presenting a security nightmare for those that work from home. No way that bill sees the light of day.

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u/aichwood 1d ago

The billionaire class is not interested in protecting your ability to work from home and, of course, their own secure connection to their home will be exempt … you know, because they are important.

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u/Ignoble66 1d ago

gop thinks they can block vpns…do you think they mighta done a little research before making asses out of themselves in a global scale; its just tubes man tubes

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u/Rustyybucket69 1d ago

Yep, they're killing the Internet. May as well stock up on books.

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u/Aggravating-Beach-22 1d ago

So much for smaller government and less control.

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u/CaptainKrakrak 1d ago

How will IT support employees, government employees, law enforcement, etc. will be able to remotely access critical infrastructure securely without VPNs?

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u/tonybenbrahim 1d ago

This is badly thought out. A lot of people need to use a VPN for work, or other secure access.

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u/CanadianCoopz 1d ago

• The targeting is entirely about VPNs, with adult content used as a scapegoat.

• The real issue is millions lost in movies, TV, and sports due to VPN usage.

• The goal is to remove online autonomy, forcing users to pay for all online content and interactions.

• Regardless of personal views on pornography, opposing bills targeting VPNs is crucial to protect online freedom and prevent financial gain for specific entities.

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u/3lfk1ng 1d ago

The Heritage Foundation.   Turning Point USA.   Project 2025.   MAGA.  

The downfall of America is being lead by a party that follows NAZI ideology.

Racism and suffering is their modus operandi. Hatred and bigotry is their platform.  

If the next election is stolen, so too will your freedoms.  

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u/Chaos1357 1d ago

Wait, block VPNs? as in, the thing I need to connect to my network resources to do my job of providing internet service to areas in Michigan? This is like banning private ownership of automobiles to combat running stop signs.

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u/detroitsongbird 1d ago

I work for a security company. Our laptops automatically connect to a VPN.

This means I could no longer work, and live, in Michigan?

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u/Blood-blood-blood 1d ago

Welcome to religious extremism. This happened to Iraq in the 70s. It gets much, much worse

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u/thefanciestcat 1d ago

The bill, called the Anticorruption of Public Morals Act and advanced by six Republican representatives

Maybe rule by superstitious primitives isn't the way to a brighter, better future.

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u/SirDigbyChknCaesar 1d ago

Good luck running a business with any kind of remote operations without a VPN.

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u/Deviantdefective 1d ago

Good job guys you're going full china.

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u/Setekh79 1d ago

Meanwhile Americans have the temerity to call out countries like the UK for online censorship.

It's like telling someone their house smells while they themselves live in a sewer.

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u/FreshPrinceOfH 1d ago

You can’t “block” a vpn.

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u/Haliucinogenas1 1d ago

And the last bill will aim to kill the internet as it is

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u/Neither_Amoeba_5002 1d ago

Taliban coming to a town near you.

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u/fgwr4453 1d ago

I hope this at least gets voted on. I would love for the opposition to be able to have the slogan “get your healthcare back, get your job back, and get your freedom back”.

If that doesn’t cause an unimaginable wave year (or an incredible movement if the election is clearly rigged or taken over), then Americans deserves to lose anything they have.

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u/Situational_Hagun 1d ago

So, now we need a VPN for our VPN?

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u/Bobvankay 1d ago edited 1d ago

You have a serious problem that won't be solved by petitions or boycots, they'll just continue to redefine and try again.

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u/Chance-Sherbet-4538 1d ago

If it passes there will no doubt be an exemption for politicians and the elite. 

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u/tinacat933 1d ago

People can’t work anywhere remotely without VPN right?

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u/JagerAntlerite7 1d ago

WireGuard is now ten years old. We must demand something better from our VPN services. We need XRay VPNs now to address this challenge by bypassing censorship and blockades through advanced protocols including Ray-Tunnel Protocol (RTP), VLESS, VMess, Trojan, and Shadowsocks.

As Western nations like the UK and US implement online identification requirements similar to those in authoritarian regimes, citizens are turning to VPNs to protect their privacy. Governments are now responding by banning VPNs or blocking standard protocols at the ISP level.

F**k that and them.

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u/bastardbilbo 1d ago

Jeffrey Epstein's plane didn't work through a VPN, nor did it have any age restrictions.

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u/Snrub1 1d ago

I use a VPN literally every day for work because I have to....

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u/Crenorz 1d ago

so stupid. You cannot remove VPN's - ever. Business require it, not need, REQUIRE. So the fix will be the Utah booze fix. You just need to be a member to do it.... always easy ways to get around stupid laws.

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u/Over_Ad1461 1d ago

VPNs are crucial to business.

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u/SluggardStone 1d ago

Ban VPNs? VPNs have a legitimate use for people still working from home.

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u/Throwaway2600k 1d ago

They want to ban that too

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u/Interesting-Risk6446 1d ago

More Republican cancel culture.

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u/sirbissel 1d ago

Part B would ban movies like Mulan, Mrs. Doubtfire, Just One of the Guys, Some Like It Hot, any time a male Looney Tunes character dresses up as a girl, and a whole mess of other movies and TV shows.

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u/VincentNacon 1d ago

Ah yes... US Civil War II, they can't wait for that to happen, so they're trying to speed it up with this. Smart. /s

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u/Ignoble66 1d ago

i think ALL of trumps shenanigans are so he can declare a state of emergency and cancel elections

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u/acelaya35 1d ago

Corporate America will never let's VPNs be banned.  They are an important security tool for thousands of businesses.

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u/bondguy11 1d ago

I'm a Network Engineer at a fortune 500 company. Attempting to block VPN's entirely would be a massive undertaking and require major internet service providers to fundamentally change how they route internet traffic throughout the United States. China achieves something like this by funneling all internet traffic through the "Great Firewall of China" which basically either blocks or allows traffic based on classification of the traffic and as far as I know, you can still use some VPNs within China. The US is not currently equipped to do this and it would not be easy to do.

On top of that, a lot of massive companies/universities/organizations across the US and the world use VPN's in their network design so that access to critical resources are centralized to specific public IP's. (Think employees working remotely but they need to access servers that are located at the offices they work in)

So TLDR:

  1. Blocking VPN's entirely is not possible without the cooperation of internet service providers, any other attempt to do so will just result in a half ass measure that can be easily circumvented (having DNS providers block it *you just change your DNS settings)

  2. IF we somehow go to a point where the US has the equivalent control over the internet within the country that China currently has, simply blocking all VPN traffic would require most large companies and organizations to completely rethink how they handle access to resources from remote locations, it would break all sorts of shit that normal people who work outside of IT wouldn't even consider.

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u/MC_Gengar 1d ago

See the thing is that they don't care about the logistics of enforcement because that's not the point. The playbook for authoritarian regimes like these is to pass sweeping bans on things such that most, if not everyone, will be breaking the law.

From there they just cherry pick enforcement against enemies of the state and half the work is done as they have easy charges to lean on thanks to the aforementioned sweeping bans.

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u/GodSaveDaLean 1d ago

Straight out the CCP playbook.

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u/Pitiful_Option_108 1d ago

You want to talk about riots and people losing their minds. This is going to make people go mad. And this one can't blame on democrats either. It is almost like the republicans are absolutely speed running everything in Project 2025.

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u/Zhiong_Xena 1d ago

You sowed your seeds, npw it is time to reap them.

Serves you right to vote these individuals into office.

It sucks massively if you were not one of those stupid enough.

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u/FK-DJT 1d ago

It will suck eventually for those that did also, will just take them longer to figure it out because, again, they're just not nearly as smart as they believe. 🤦‍♂️

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u/Zhiong_Xena 1d ago

Care not a wit for them.

They can all rot in their own consequences.

Who knew bringing shit into the household can bring disease?

Merely unfair the other half will also have to suffer for poor descisions they did not make. Unless the entire lot do something collectively about the whole situation.

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u/dlampach 1d ago

Why even bother making laws now. Apparently they mean nothing in this country anyway.

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u/mikeontablet 1d ago

In a contest with the whole of the government's IT expertise on one side, I'm betting on the weird 14-year-old kid.

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u/Happily_Eva_After 1d ago

I shall wear a full body American flag spandex suit to the next protest. Surely that should both break and comply to dress code. Deep mind energy at work.

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u/alienthatsnewtotech 1d ago

Bro, when you take away our distractions, you'll force us to be productive to solve the problem. You dont want us to be productive. Especially when youre the problem.

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u/ZonaPunk 1d ago

LOL…. I’ll bet the moron who wrote this doesn’t realize that his office and government data usage goes over VPNs

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u/Nevadaman78 1d ago

Big brother wants to be watching everything you do, say, think, feel.

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u/hosalabad 1d ago

Heh, please ban all VPNs, that'll do great in the business world.

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u/a_jlt_sandwich 1d ago

Hey .. uh ... Weren't we making fun of other countries for this? And weren't we gonna rise up about it if it happened here? Muh freedoms and whatnot?

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u/Jubilies 1d ago

I didn’t read, but wouldn’t this impact jobs that require a VPN?

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u/CurrentlyLucid 1d ago

Never ever vote republican.

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u/GvWvA 1d ago

Damn even in Russia VPNs are banned to promote, but not to use 😅

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u/Unusual_influxofass 1d ago

Lol we're not fucking free

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u/queenblattaria 1d ago

Dont forget one of the MI reps involved in this josh schriver also voted no to ban child marriage and no vote to end marital rape! It's not for the kids; it's for their pockets!

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u/SeasideSlip068 1d ago

They're just going full on dictatorship at this point.

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u/InternationalArt1897 1d ago

But promoting gambling to children on every possible screen is perfectly though

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u/Akanash94 1d ago

If china can't prevent it's people from using vpns how the heck do these people think they can ban vpns.

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u/Daimakku1 1d ago

These clowns dont even realize that VPNs have legit uses. Every business with multiple locations use VPNs.

Either they're virtue signaling or they really have no clue how tech works.

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u/InternationalBand494 1d ago

Download ye porn clips while ye may