If you thought yesterday’s VPN news coming out of Russia was bad (Apple has reportedly removed at least four top VPN services from its App Store on July 4, 2024, with more services expected to disappear in the coming days), you should know that the Kremlin isn’t the most active when it comes to removing apps.
A recent study of the availability of 50 popular VPN apps worldwide on the Google and Apple app stores concluded that the gold medal in app blocking once again goes to China. AppCenorship researchers found no Chinese VPN apps on Apple’s App Store, the only one of the two platforms available in the country.
“Not only are the services and servers of these VPNs being blocked or attacked by the authorities, but [China] “It really ensures, through Apple, that no one will be able to even download them,” Benjamin Ismail, project manager at AppCensorship, told me, commenting on the findings.
#VPN is an essential tool for people in authoritarian contexts. How widely available are VPN apps in the world's major app stores? Read our latest study 🔗 Lack of availability by region shows Asia-Pacific has the most incidents, with 63… pic.twitter.com/z6QyTTFfoUJuly 1, 2024
Iran, Russia, and Turkmenistan also have low levels of VPN unavailability due to government censorship.
Among the most popular providers affected is our favourite, NordVPN, which confirmed to TechRadar that it will be withdrawing from Russian app stores in 2023 “for moral and legal reasons”. Also in the crosshairs were ExpressVPN, which is currently blocked in Iran’s Google Play Store (Apple’s app store is banned in the country), Private Internet Access (PIA), Proton VPN, CyberGhost and Surfshark.
These findings are especially concerning, as VPN apps are a critical resource for escaping online surveillance and censorship. A virtual private network (VPN) is security software that encrypts internet connections to increase your anonymity when browsing the web. At the same time, VPN apps spoof your real IP address to allow you to bypass geographic restrictions, including government-imposed social media blocks.
Suffice it to say, as VPN usage skyrockets around the world while internet restrictions continue to increase (digital rights advocacy group Access Now described 2023 as the “worst year of internet shutdowns on record” since they began their monitoring in 2016), so too does VPN censorship among the countries most at risk.
It's worth noting, however, that AppCenorship's findings don't refer to levels of censorship per se. “What we can offer in terms of information is simply availability versus unavailability,” Ismail said. “There's no algorithm that can detect censorship because censorship is a matter of intent. Why was it removed? Why is it not available? Everyone needs to do more research to understand the reasons behind this.”
The lack of VPN availability is only part of the problem. For example, even though Apple in Russia is currently removing more VPN apps, the Kremlin generally tends to block their use directly from the server level rather than removing the apps from the platforms.
That’s why providers like Proton VPN have been investing in more sophisticated anti-censorship techniques to evade law enforcement scrutiny. Could the rise in VPN app takedowns be another chapter in this endless game of cat and mouse?
Alternative ways to download VPN apps
What is certain now is that people living in the Asia-Pacific, African, and Middle Eastern regions often need to find alternative ways to download reliable VPN apps.
If you are an Android user, sideloading may be the easiest way to go. This refers to the ability to install apps on mobile devices without using the official app store. All you need to do is download the app file to your device and follow the steps.
Another alternative is to change the country in your Apple ID and download the VPN you need. However, this can be complicated and cause other usability issues.
In some cases, providers create alternative installation pages. This is what Le VPN, one of the VPNs affected by the recent wave of takedowns in Russia, did, for example. However, this could only be a temporary solution. “As soon as you publish it, the authorities will detect the URL of that page and block it,” Ismail said.
If you are still having trouble downloading a secure VPN app, I recommend opting for alternative ways to bypass restrictions altogether.
For example, the Tor browser is another very popular way to protect online anonymity (it reroutes internet traffic through at least three layers of encryption for maximum security) and spoofs IP location. GreatFire, the organization behind the AppCenorship project, has also released a tool called FreeBrowser that can be installed directly on your Android phone to grant access to geo-restricted content.
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