+ So Your Country Is Censoring The Internet. What Now? +
+24/07/2025
+The UK's online safety act sucks. Let's get around it.
++ If you use one of many popular social networking sights and + are a resident of the hellhole commonly referred to as "The + United Kingdom," you have likely recently been asked to submit + your ID for age verification. If you haven't yet, it's coming + soon to whatever sites you use - Bluesky, as of this morning, + are asking every UK user to get an ID check in order to use + DMs or see 'adult' posts. Instagram and Facebook are about to + roll it out too. Twitter probably won't but only because it's + the nazi site. You should not be using twitter unless you're a + nazi. +
++ If you're like me, you probably think this is Quite Bad. And + it is Quite Bad! The cause of this is the 'Online Safety Act,' + a well-intentioned but ultimately disastrous effort by the UK + government to Protect The Children by preventing easy access + to 'adult content.' Unfortunately as ever this means a lot of + not adult stuff, particularly queer media and LGBT people's + accounts, get caught in the dragnet. Considering the UK's + current approach to queerness (they hate it, especially + transgressive genderfucks like me) this may worry you. It + should. +
++ So, maybe you want to avoid uploading your ID to a third party + who can use that data how they then wish. (They all promise to + delete your ID. I do not trust them to do this.) Great news! + Much like all UK internet legislation, it is quite trivial to + avoid this. Admittedly, it is not as easy as avoiding IP + blocks on pirate websites, which was as simple as changing the + DNS settings on your connection. but it's not actually that + far off. +
++ You have probably heard of VPNs by now. Every other youtuber + is advertising them. Unfortunately, they are advertising the + dogshit ones that you simply should not use if you care about + privacy. Surfshark, specifically, will not hesitate to hand + your data over to authorities. It should ONLY be used for + watching other country's netflix catalogues. +
+But I digress.
++ As part of my own research to get around this, I had a scan + over the current crop of paid VPN services currently + available. After some evaluation, my recommendation is + ProtonVPN. Proton + is a swiss company that specialises in privacy-focused + internet applications. They started with ProtonMail (which I + also use), but ProtonVPN is their next-most mature offering. +
++ Proton offers exit points in basically every country in the + world, with quite a lot of servers in each. Speeds are solid + (I have basically not noticed a drop) and ping seems + serviceable for those of you who play a lot of twitch + shooters. The free offering lets you connect to 5 random + countries for one device, which isn't a whole lot of good - if + the countries you draw don't include say, Iceland, Switzerland + or the Netherlands, you're not gonna live a truly uncensored + life. The free tier is also what every other prole is using, + so speeds are going to be generally worse than on the paid pro + version. The pro version is £8 a month which is IMO + quite reasonable. +
++ Like many other offerrings, Proton provides its own app on all + platforms that allows you to choose the country to connect + via, but it also supports router-level configuration via + OpenVPN and Wireguard, the two most common VPN protocols. +
++ "What are these things?" ok yes I just said scary words. You + probably don't need to worry about it - the pro tier supports + 10 independent devices, so you can install the VPN on every + geneal purpose computing device you have without worrying + about the router level stuff. +
++ But I'm a nerd, and the purpose of this particular post is to + inform people about these things! So let's get into those + scary words. OpenVPN and Wireguard are open-source VPN + protocols, they are used to standardise how you connect to a + VPN on any device. All the apps that VPN services provide are + based on one of these two protocols. Most modern routers + that are not provided by your ISP support one or both + of them! +
++ So yes, if you want router-level protection you will probably + need to buy a new router, and realistically that's gonna be + another £50 - £100. Which I grant is a significant + outlay! Hence why I don't think any random person is going to + want to do this unless they're a nerd like me. I already + maintain a lot of my own network infrastructure, so yes, I'm + the freak here lol. +
++ But! If you do go down that route, it's worthwhile, because + you can + set up your network to route all traffic via your + VPN, + ensuring every device you use in your home is private. It's + what I'm doing! But like I said I'm a freak so don't + necessarily follow my lead on this one. +
++ ANYWAY. Point is it's actually kinda trivial to get this nerd + shit set up nowadays! The apps services provide are simple and + easy, and they're also pretty cheap! I suggest getting one + now, before the continued censorship of the internet gets + worse! OK thanks I'm out, see ya later for a more interesting + post probably. +
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