DISINFO: US Government proposes 20 years of jail to VPN Users
SUMMARY
A bill has been introduced in the US Congress that provides a prison sentence of up to 20 years for people who circumvent blocks using a VPN.
The bill proposes criminal penalties for using a VPN to access websites and applications banned in the United States. A fine of one million dollars would be added to the prison sentence.
RESPONSE
Disinformation targeting confidence in the US government and freedom of speech.
In March 2023, bipartisan lawmakers partnered with the White House on legislation to ban applications suspected to present a risk to national security and more generally tackle National Security Threats from Foreign Technology. Some concerns began circulating on social media that this law will punish VPN users with 20 years of prison and one million dollar fines, with some claiming that the proposed text could be interpreted in this way.
The office of Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) denied this interpretation of the RESTRICT act: "This legislation is aimed squarely at companies like Kaspersky, Huawei, and TikTok that create systemic risks to the United States' national security – not at individual users".
A summary of the bill is available here.
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