Privacy Watchdog EFF Lambastes Lawmakers Over Terrible Plan To Ban VPNs

A new wave of state-level proposals targeting virtual private networks has stirred up an unusual amount of alarm from digital-rights groups, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation isn't pulling punches. In a detailed critique published this week, the organization called efforts in Michigan and Wisconsin "misguided," "technically incoherent," and a direct threat to the privacy and security of users.

The flashpoint is Michigan's Anticorruption of Public Morals Act (HB 4938), introduced by six state representatives. The bill claims that it's intended to crack down on adult content and devices used to circumvent that censorship. In practice, it would outlaw both the use and sale of VPNs, require ISPs to detect and block VPN traffic, and impose steep penalties—on the order of hundreds of thousands of dollars—for any company that "knowingly facilitates access" to prohibited material. In Wisconsin, a similar proposal ties VPN blocking to mandatory age-verification ...