China and Iran top new VPN censorship list – here’s how to bypass the bans

If you thought yesterday’s VPN news out of Russia was bad (Apple reportedly removed at least four of the 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 research on the availability of 50 popular VPN apps worldwide on both Google and Apple app stores found that the gold medal in application blocking once again goes to China. Researchers at AppCenorship found no Chinese VPN apps on Apple’s App Store, the only of the two platforms available in the country.

“Not only are those VPNs’ services and servers being blocked or attacked by authorities, but (China) is actually making sure, through Apple, that no one can download them in the first place,” Benjamin Ismail, project director at AppCensorship, told me in response to the findings.

Also in Iran, Russia and Turkmenistan, VPN is only available to a limited extent due to government censorship.

Popular providers affected include our favorite NordVPN – which confirmed to Ny Breaking that it was withdrawing from Russian app stores in 2023 “for moral and legal reasons.” Also in the mix were ExpressVPN, which is currently blocked on Iran’s Google Play Store (the Apple App Store is banned in the country), Private Internet Access (PIA), Proton VPN, CyberGhost, and Surfshark.

These findings are particularly concerning because VPN apps are a crucial resource for evading online surveillance and censorship. A virtual private network (VPN) is security software that encrypts your internet connections to increase your anonymity while surfing the web. At the same time, VPN apps spoof your real IP address to allow you to bypass geo-restrictions, including government-imposed social media blocks.

Suffice it to say, VPN usage is on the rise worldwide as internet restrictions continue to increase – a digital rights advocacy group Access Now described 2023 is expected to be the “worst year on record for internet shutdowns” since they began monitoring in 2016. This also applies to VPN censorship in the countries most at risk.

It’s worth emphasizing, however, that AppCenorship’s results aren’t necessarily about censorship levels. “What we can provide in terms of information is simply availability versus unavailability,” Ismail said. “There’s no algorithm that can detect censorship, because censorship is about intent. Why was it removed? Why is it unavailable? Everyone needs to do more research to understand the reasons behind that.”

VPN unavailability is also a side issue. For example, despite Apple removing more VPN apps in Russia today, the Kremlin generally blocks their use directly at a server level rather than removing apps from platforms.

This is why providers like Proton VPN have invested in more advanced anti-censorship techniques to evade the authorities’ scrutiny. Could more VPN app removals be a new chapter in this never-ending game of cat and mouse?

Alternative Ways to Download VPN Apps

What is certain now is that people living in the Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Middle Eastern regions will often have to look for alternative ways to download reliable VPN apps.

If you are an Android user, sideloading is perhaps the easiest way to do it. This refers to the ability to install applications on mobile devices without using the official app store. All you need to do is download the application file on your device and follow the steps.

Another alternative is to change your country in Apple ID and download the VPN you need. However, this can be tricky and may cause other usability issues.

In some cases, providers create alternative installation pages. This is what one of the VPNs affected by the recent wave of removals in Russia did, The VPN, did for example. However, this can only be a temporary solution. “Once you advertise it, authorities will pick up the URL of that page and block it,” Ismail said.

If you continue to have trouble downloading a secure VPN app, I recommend looking into alternative ways to bypass the restrictions entirely.

For example, the Tor Browser is another popular way to protect your anonymity online (it reroutes your internet traffic through at least three layers of encryption for maximum security) and spoofs your IP location. GreatFire, the organization behind the AppCenorship project, has also launched a tool called FreeBrowser which you can install directly on your Android phone to grant access to geo-restricted content.