- On September 25, advocates call people all over the world to sign a petition to defend VPNs
- Defense VPNs Action is an initiative created by Fight for the Future and supported by some major VPN providers
- VPN -blo -blocking debate has grown all over the UK and USA, where Michigan suggests a complete ban
VPNs are a crucial tool for promoting a safe and free internet all over the world. Still, their use has never been at greater risk. A lawyer group has decided to rise to their defense – and it needs your help.
On Thursday, September 25, 2025, the Defense Day of Defense marks an action day, an initiative organized by battle for the future in response to a growing debate on VPN blocking.
In the past, a power to more authoritarian nations, such as China, Iran and Russia, democratic governments have increasingly begun to consider banning VPNs completely.
In the wake of mandatory age verification in the UK, downloads for the best VPN apps as the British sought ways to avoid sharing their most sensitive information while continuing to use several online services. This has led politicians to question whether the Labor Party should block VPNs.
A similar debate has also spread across the United States when several states enforce some form of age verification legislation. Michigan has been the most radical so far and proposed a bill aimed at banning not only VPN use but also promoting this important piece of technique.
“We want to make some noise and take the first step towards being high advocates of VPNs,” campaigns and communications director at Fight for the Future, to Lia Holland, told Techradar. “It is important to make legislators aware that if they come to this technology, they face an incredible uphill against more or less the whole internet.”
Defends VPN -Entaging Day – all you need to know
Fight for the Future asks everyone all over the world to go to their page defendvpns.com and sign a petition to call their government to take a “principled leadership” against VPNs.
If you are in the US, campaigns also invite everyone to use their call prompt (see picture above) to reach out to the US Congress and directly ask legislators to refrain from implementing VPN limits.
“We will hit them in the face with numbers to start,” the Netherlands said, explaining that these signatures (and calls) aim to build the basis for more advocacy on circumvention of tools.
Petition signatures are actually anything but the final goal. As the next step, Fight for The Future hopes to join forces with other civil society and ramp up in the movement’s momentum.
“We start with Big Splash and VPN users. If society can emerge for us in a big way, we may be that we can move mountains as we have done in the past. So I really hope people will take a moment on Thursday to attend,” Holland said.
Why it is important to defend VPNs
A virtual private network (VPN) is security software that millions of adults use daily to increase their online privacy, security and overall internet experience. Thanks to IP-spoofing capabilities, VPNs are also great tools to bypass online geo-constraints by making you look like you’re reviewing from another country.
The latter is precisely the reason why Proton VPN experienced Times spikes in use as high as 1,400% in the UK from July 25, when mandatory age verification was enforced. However, it is impossible to know if there are adults behind these statistics who simply use a VPN for their daily protection, others will not be willing to give sensitive details to prove their age or under the age of 18 who want to avoid the controls completely.
This was not enough to stop the children’s commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, from considering this technology a “loophole that needs closure.” Neither does Michigan Republican representative, Josh Schriver, to create a bill in which ISPs would be forced to “monitor and block known bypass tools.” Something that violently collides against the 2024 call from the US-supported Open Technology Fund (OTF), which called on Big Tech to step in and support the circumvention of software.
According to the Netherlands, this is the first step to painting a measure of this technology. “I don’t think it will stop unless we show how incredibly unpopular this step would be, and ask these politicians to focus on Big Tech, not privacy protection.”
That’s exactly where defends VPN’s action coming in.
Windscribe is one of the largest VPN providers who actively support the fight for the initiative of the future.
“Obviously, we are against the VPN ban and talk where we can, but the reason we support this initiative is that Fight for the Future has a proven story of actually moving the needle on digital rights,” a spokesman for the company told Techradar.
If you are a subscriber, expect a review from Windscribe via E -Mail and directly within the app.
While the full list of VPN providers who take up the initiative is not public, both I2Coalition (a consortium that includes NordVPN and ExpressVPN) and VPN-Guild (non-profit behind Russian providers such as Amnezia VPN) confirmed their participation in Techradar.
All in all, Windscribe said, “We almost never ask our customers to support something outside of Windscribe, so the fact that we do to tell you how seriously we take this.”
