Comment by oblique
6 months ago
Banning VPNs seems effectively impossible. Any ip address can act as a vpn. There are also zero identity providers like mullvad.
6 months ago
Banning VPNs seems effectively impossible. Any ip address can act as a vpn. There are also zero identity providers like mullvad.
In the UK, ~55% of traffic comes from mobile [1]. The UK could approach Apple and Google and ask them to remove VPNs from their respective app stores when opened in the UK.
I imagine this would curtail a large proportion of mobile VPN usage.
Blocking desktop VPNs would be a bit more adhoc but it is possible to make it much harder for many people to download VPN clients.
[1] https://www.digitalsilk.com/digital-trends/mobile-vs-desktop...
Watching sports for cheap using a "dodgy firestick" or similar hardware is incredibly popular in the UK to watch sports for cheap even among those not tech-inclined, despite obviously being illegal. I'd predict the same to happen here, quickly you'll see plug-and-play boxes that will route their home wi-fi traffic through a VPN, and most people will have a mate of a mate who sells them for a few tenners.
Deep packet inspection can detect VPNs. The problem may be more that people have legitimate uses for VPNs, like at their work. Those could be whitelisted though.
I am pretty sure we are slowly but surely heading towards a point where every country will implement its own great firewall and block every website except those in a whitelist approved by the government.
They're not going to suddenly become competent enough to implement something like that.
Could they compel Starlink to not offer service there?
I don't know, is it easy for chinese residents to subscribe and pay invoices for a Starlink connection?
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