- Utah’s SB 73 law targeting VPN users has officially gone into effect
- Fight for the Future has called the legislation a “waste of money”
- The Digital Rights Group also claims it is “impossible by design” to enforce
Utah is making history as the first US state to pass a law specifically targeting virtual private networks, but digital rights advocates are furious.
The legislation, known as SB 73, officially took effect on May 6. It aims to crack down on residents who use the VPN services to circumvent government age verification mandates.
However, the digital rights group Fight for the Future pulls no punches. In a fiery statement shared with TechRadar, the group called the law “a waste of money” while criticizing the state for passing legislation that fundamentally misunderstands how the Internet works.
“Utah just became the first state in the US to target VPN use, and they’re embarrassing themselves,” said Lia Holland, campaign and communications director at Fight for the Future.
Last year, Fight for the Future launched a major initiative to defend VPN access, highlighting that everyone from abuse survivors to small businesses rely on these tools to stay safe.
What is the Utah VPN law and why are experts so angry?
The bill’s most controversial element is Section 14, which expressly states that individuals are deemed to be accessing a website from Utah if they are physically there, “regardless of whether the person uses a virtual private network, proxy server, or other means to hide or misrepresent the individual’s geographic location to make it appear as if the individual is accessing a website from that location.”
According to Holland, these requirements have “sections that sound like AI slop” because they mandate the impossible.
A reputable Virtual Private Network (VPN) protects your privacy by completely encrypting your traffic and hiding your real IP address. Therefore, the site you are physically visiting cannot determine whether you are browsing from Utah or elsewhere.
“This feat is literally impossible by design for even the best hacker,” Holland noted, questioning whether lawmakers actually understand what the security software does.
Because websites cannot pinpoint a VPN user’s true location, Fight for the Future warns that businesses are left with limited options. They must either attempt to block all global VPN traffic, implement mandatory age verification for all visitors worldwide, or censor all content that falls under Utah’s “harmful to minors” umbrella.
Or, as Holland suggests, there’s a fourth option: “sue Utah.”
In fact, Fight for the Future said to “preemptively endorse” any legal actions filed to hold Utah politicians accountable. The guilt? “Continue to ignore, in the year 2026, the fundamentals of how the Internet attempts to regulate functions,” the group notes.
A growing battle for digital rights
This isn’t the first time digital rights advocates and VPN providers have sounded the alarm over these types of age verification mandates.
Earlier, cybersecurity experts at the Electronic Frontier Foundation described the Utah bill as an unworkable “technically tight-lipped-a-mole,” while major provider NordVPN criticized the legislation as a dangerous “liability trap.”
Similar efforts to restrict VPNs in other states have faltered. Recently, Wisconsin lawmakers scrapped a proposed VPN ban from an age verification law after significant pushback, a move that advocates called a rejection of a “spectacularly bad idea.”
For Fight for the Future, the message to state legislators is clear.
“Instead of doubling down on more embarrassing laws that are bound to fail, Utah should strike a real blow against Big Tech and put rights that keep people safe, like privacy, at the center of their legislative agenda,” Holland said.
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