- Denmark drops the proposal to ban the use of VPNs for illegal streaming
- The decision follows significant backlash from privacy advocates
- Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt said he never intended to ban VPNs
The Danish government has abandoned a controversial bill that would have banned the use of VPNs to access geo-restricted streaming content and bypass website blocks. The move comes soon after the bill drew widespread condemnation from digital rights advocates and the public, who raised serious concerns about its impact on internet freedom.
The Danish Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt announced on Monday that he is cutting the controversial section from the bill. “I do not support making VPNs illegal and I have never proposed doing so,” Engel-Schmidt said in a statement. He admitted that the original text “was not worded precisely enough” and led to a fundamental misunderstanding of its purpose.
The original proposal, which was part of a broader effort against piracy, sought to make it illegal to “use VPN connections to access media content that would otherwise not be available in Denmark, or to bypass blocks on illegal websites.” This sparked alarm among privacy groups, who warned that the vague wording could criminalize not only streaming enthusiasts, but also ordinary citizens who use the best VPN services for legitimate privacy and security reasons.
A quick turnaround
The backlash was immediate and violent. As reported last week, critics such as Jesper Lund of IT-Politisk Forening described the proposal as having a “totalitarian touch” and warned that it could go further than measures seen in more authoritarian countries. This public pressure appears to have been effective, forcing the government into a quick U-turn.
In his latest statement on the matter, Engel-Schmidt tried to put an end to the growing debate surrounding the proposal. Pressure had been mounting from both digital rights advocates and technology users, who feared the new legislation could inadvertently limit tools widely used for online privacy and security.
Engel-Schmidt addressed the confusion head-on and tried to quell the controversy completely. “I am therefore removing the section on VPNs from the proposal so that there is no longer any doubt that I do not want to ban VPNs in any way,” he clarified.
His comment was intended to reassure the public that the government had no intention of criminalizing or restricting the use of virtual private networks, which citizens and businesses commonly use to ensure data privacy and secure access to online services.
This reversal is a significant victory for privacy advocates in Denmark and throughout Europe. It highlights the growing tension between aggressive copyright enforcement and citizens’ basic digital rights.
As the Danish government continues to push other controversial technology-related legislation, including its advocacy of the EU’s “Chat Control” law, this episode shows that public opposition can still force a change of course. The rest of the anti-piracy bill will now continue without the clauses that caused such widespread alarm, leaving the right to use VPNs in Denmark intact.
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