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Fast Company
29-07-2025
- Politics
- Fast Company
The U.K.'s Online Safety Act has sparked an explosion in VPN downloads
It's a tough time to be an adult online in the U.K. right now. Last week's passage of the Online Safety Act, a law aimed at shielding children from inappropriate (read: adult) content, has brought about a version of the internet that feels more like being back in school. You now essentially need a hall pass, in the form of official ID or a live selfie, to go almost anywhere. The U.K. government clearly aimed the Online Safety Act at restricting access to porn websites. But the law's broad requirements—especially around age verification and content moderation—are sweeping up other parts of the web, too. Because of this, it's a great time to be a VPN provider. Usage of these services, which route traffic through other countries to disguise a user's location and prevent tracking, has jumped more than 1,000% in the days following the act's passage. 'It's no wonder VPN downloads soared in the U.K. over the weekend,' says Kate Ruane, director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology. 'Privacy and free expression are human rights, and governments should protect them by passing laws to enhance people's privacy and free expression rights, not endanger them.' There's growing concern that the new rules are causing more harm than they prevent. In trying to keep children away from harmful content, the government may have inadvertently pushed tens—or even hundreds—of thousands of people toward tools that make lawful tracking and oversight far more difficult. Critics argue the implementation has been more performative than effective, with little meaningful enforcement behind the measures. Even those who represent VPN providers are surprised by the sudden surge in interest. 'The surge in VPN usage we've observed across the U.K. is a direct response to the Online Safety Act's extensive controls and age verification requirements,' says Alexey Kozliuk, chair of the VPN Guild, an industry group. VPNs remain legal in the U.K., but their sudden rise in popularity appears to have taken the government by surprise. Officials are reportedly considering restrictions on advertising the services. While VPNs can offer a layer of privacy, not all are trustworthy—especially free options, which may come with risks like data tracking, harvesting, or malware. 'Users should look for transparent privacy policies, a strict no-logs policy, robust encryption, and a proven track record,' Kozliuk says. Cybersecurity experts share that concern. 'The purported benefit of protecting private data by avoiding submission to a third-party age verifier is compromised if instead they entrust another third party with their browsing data,' says George Loukas, professor of cybersecurity at the University of Greenwich. 'Of course, there is a variety of more and less reputable VPNs with and without no-logs policies, but I insist that VPNs should be used as cybersecurity tools, not for circumvention of restrictions,' he adds. Graeme Stewart, head of public sector at Check Point Software, notes that the U.K.'s rush to VPNs—and the government's potential pushback—puts the country in dubious company alongside China, Russia, and Iran. 'That should tell you everything,' he says. 'People are turning to VPNs because they don't trust the system, and who can blame them?'
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
What is Revenge Porn?
First Lady Melania Trump appeared in front of Congress on Monday to lobby to take on revenge porn. In her first solo public appearance since she resumed the role of first lady, Trump met with Congress to advocate for the 'Take it Down Act' which would make it a federal crime to knowingly publish or threaten to publish intimate imagery online without an individual's consent. The act would also include any 'deepfake' content generated by AI that resembles an identifiable person. During a roundtable discussion, the First Lady spoke of the threat the issue poses for young women and girls.'It's heartbreaking to witness young teens, especially girls, grappling with the overwhelming challenges posed by malicious online content, like deepfakes,' Trump said. 'Every young person deserves a safe online space to express themself freely, without the looming threat of exploitation or harm.' While there is no federal law addressing revenge porn, nearly all states—save for South Carolina— have laws around the issue. However, the laws and penalties vary widely from state to state—and not all laws extend to cover AI generated images. Many revenge porn cases are beginning to go to court as more states adopt laws criminalizing non-consentual pornography. In 2024, a Texas woman was awarded $1.2 billion dollars after her boyfriend posted intimate photos of her online after their breakup. In the first two cases to be tried under New York's 2019 revenge porn law the plaintiffs were awarded $1.5 million and $2 million. Many female celebrities have found themselves victims of deepfake porn. In 2019, Scarlett Johansson spoke out about the dangers of the practice after her face was grafted onto explicit videos. More recently, sexually explicit deepfakes of Taylor Swift bypassed moderation filters on X—recieving over 27 million views and more than 260,000 likes in 19 hours before the account that posted the images was suspended. During her first term, the First Lady launched a youth initiative called 'Be Best'—a pillar of which focused on tackling online safety for youth. Melania Trump appears to be working to revive the initiative as part of her return to the White House. Digital privacy experts, meanwhile, have warned that, while progress needs to be made to combat real and deepfaked non-consensual intimate imagery, the bill's lack of guardrails could threaten user privacy and freedom of expression. 'In its current form, the bill creates a notice and takedown (NTD) mechanism that would result in the removal of not just nonconsensual intimate imagery but also speech that is neither illegal nor actually NDII,' a group of digital privacy organizations including the Center for Democracy & Technology and the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote in a letter to to the Senate earlier this month. 'This mechanism is likely unconstitutional and will undoubtedly have a censorious impact on users' free expression.' Write to Simmone Shah at
