The post Expert Untangles VPNs as Brazil’s Twitter Ban Sparks New Interest appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

Last week, the government of Brazil banned X, formerly Twitter, cutting off millions of users from the Elon Musk-owned social network. It is one of the more high-profile examples of restrictions placed on platforms, and disputes around the world span a multitude of reasons: free speech (at least in the U.S.), political dissent, copyright, and illegal activity. While alternate social media platforms like Bluesky saw a surge in new users from Brazil after the ban, some still insistent on using X have turned to virtual private networks (VPNs)—though doing so is also forbidden by the Brazilian government, and violations could come with a hefty daily fine. Other sophisticated tools for obfuscating your location include the Tor Browser. Not all VPNs are created equal. Decrypt spoke to the executive director of Unredacted Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides free and open services that help people evade censorship and protect their right to privacy. What is a VPN? IP addresses—numbers assigned to every network on the internet—are like a digital fingerprint. They reveal a considerable amount of information, including physical location, what internet provider you use, and so on. They are typically the way access is “geofenced” or restricted to or from specific regions or jurisdictions. VPNs obscure this information as well as encrypt connections to prevent snooping by third parties. “For example, if you are in Brazil and X is blocked, you can use a VPN to tunnel packets destined for X inside of a VPN tunnel to another country,” Zach, the executive director of Unredacted Inc., told Decrypt. (He asked that his last name not be used.) “An ISP or government couldn’t inspect what’s inside that tunneled traffic without the encryption keys from your VPN provider or device.” A mega thread about how Brazilians (& others) can circumvent the…

---

Filed under: News - @ September 7, 2024 3:16 pm