UK Labour Party’s bid to stifle VPNs a ‘longterm pattern’ against anonymity: Tiana Doescher

Washington Examiner economics columnist Tiana Lowe Doescher said Wednesday that the scrutiny over the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act is “clearly” a bid to shut down “workarounds for internet anonymity.”

Various United States officials, including Vice President JD Vance, have criticized the U.K.’s Online Safety Act, a set of laws that aims to protect children and adults by tasking social media companies and search services with online safety. Vance warned last year that the U.K. could go down a “very dark path” of censorship with this law, saying the U.S. went down this path under the Biden administration.

The U.K.’s use of Virtual Private Networks has increased after the Online Safety Act passed last year, prompting some U.K. ministers to float a possible ban on VPNs.