Turkey has reportedly banned some of the best VPN services in another wave of internet outages.
The move comes as the country enters its fourth day of blocking Instagram, making VPNs a crucial tool for anyone hoping to regain access to the platform.
Turkish authorities imposed the ban on the popular social network on Friday, without giving much explanation. However, there is speculation that the government acted in response to the Meta-owned platform's restriction of condolence messages following the recent assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Why is Türkiye blocking VPN apps?
Over the weekend, citizens and visitors across the country have been turning en masse to circumvention software such as VPN apps.
That's because a virtual private network (VPN) is a security software that encrypts internet connections and spoofs the location of your IP address. This last ability is exactly what you need to grant access to content that would otherwise be geo-restricted.
As the chart below shows, popular free VPN provider Proton VPN saw a 4500% increase in subscriptions.
“We also saw usage in Turkey increase ninefold on Friday after the lockdown was announced, and traffic levels continued to rise over the weekend as people looked to get around the lockdown,” David Peterson, general manager of Proton VPN, told me.
Which VPNs are blocked in Türkiye?
According to the Istanbul-based Association for Freedom of Expression (IFÖD) (see tweet below), 27 of Turkey's most popular VPN apps appear to have been blocked at the time of writing.
Among the names are some of our top recommendations, including NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark, Proton VPN, Private Internet Access (PIA), CyberGhost, Hide.me, and IPVanish.
However, Peterson said the alleged block is not affecting Proton VPN users at the time of writing.[Users] “There are still hundreds of thousands who can connect,” he told me.
Turkish VPN service lists: pic.twitter.com/OQHpGoHa5tAugust 4, 2024
A NordVPN spokesperson also confirmed that while the team did notice a slight increase in the number of people unable to connect, no significant outages were reported. NordVPN also noted that it had not received any communication from either the Turkish authorities or the IFÖD.
I have also reached out to other vendors who were supposedly affected by the ban, but at the time of publishing I am still waiting for a response. I will update the page as I get more information.
What to do to avoid VPN ban
Whether you live in Turkey or are heading to the country soon to enjoy your summer vacation, unrestricted internet access is probably among your top priorities.
Proton's Peterson recommends having a VPN app installed beforehand whenever possible, “in case internet censorship tightens further and access to VPN websites is restricted.”
I also suggest you sign up for multiple services so you can switch between them in case you have trouble using specific providers. Check out our dedicated guide for the safest free service out there right now.
Using the The Tor browser can also help you bypass restrictions by signing up and logging into the VPN app. It's worth noting that Tor reroutes your connection through at least three layers of encryption, so it can slow down your connection.
For more tips on how to avoid potential VPN blocks, there's also a helpful Reddit thread from Proton VPN here.
We test and evaluate VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. We protect your online security and strengthen your online privacy when you are abroad. We do not support or tolerate illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Future Publishing does not endorse or approve the consumption of pirated content for which you pay.
