This VPN is now the resistance tool of choice in authoritarian regimes trying to control the internet
Proton VPN executives and engineers tirelessly work to outmaneuver internet firewalls in Russia, Venezuela and China in a digital war for a free and open internet.
As the official campaigning period in Venezuela’s presidential election began earlier this summer, one by one, news websites started to go offline. First, two fact-checking websites, Cazadores de Fake News and Es Paja, went dark for Venezuelan users. Within a week, a handful of other fact-checking and civil society sites were blocked. As election day approached, the blocks snowballed, with more than 70 media outlets and NGO sites—and even Wikipedia—inaccessible by the end of the month. Under the cover of that censorship, the government of Nicolás Maduro planned to steal the election.
To evade the blocks, thousands of Venezuelans downloaded virtual private networks, services that allow users to bypass geo-restrictions and anonymize their internet use. Downloads of the most popular of these—Proton VPN, made by the Swiss-based secure communications company Proton—spiked 4,000% in the run-up to the vote. The company’s app surged to the top of the download charts in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, partly because Venezuelan activists and NGOs had endorsed it, partly because it was offering free access to Venezuelans, and partly because the government’s false claims that the app was a scam designed to farm user data had Streisanded the app into notoriety.
