It's official: Utah is the U.S. state closest to banning VPNs • Hacker News Board

Re: It's official: Utah is the U.S. state closest to banning VPNs

#91

Post by gosub100 » Tue, May 05, 2026, 4:42 PM UTC

convolvatron wrote: post #24

OutOfHere wrote: post #8

This ban has got to be challenged in the Supreme Court for various reasons, not limited to the First Amendment and technological infeasibility. It is quite the coincidence that the NSA has their datacenter in Utah.

I assure you that the NSA has its own substantial backhaul infrastructure, so local policies don't really affect its operations in any way. I think Utah is just very politically receptive to the idea that citizens communications should be monitored. I guess sure, the NSA likes that position in general, but it doesn't really have anything to do with where they store the bits.

It's because the mormons are squeaky clean and can be trusted to deal with state secrets. Intel agencies love them for this.

Re: It's official: Utah is the U.S. state closest to banning VPNs

#92

Post by ButlerianJihad » Tue, May 05, 2026, 4:42 PM UTC

hellojesus wrote: post #52

darknavi wrote: post #45

> When Utah's Senate Bill 73 goes into force on May 6, websites subject to the state's age verification law will be legally barred from explaining how to use a VPN to get around age restrictions. This will definitely work. It sounds like it's time for some "How not to use a VPN" articles. https://www.grapecollective.com/prohibitions-grape-bricks-ho...

How is this not a 1A violation?

Because you also cannot counsel anyone on how to rob a house, or steal a car, or commit arson.

You can teach them how to start a fire, and fire safety rules for the home, and you can teach them how to secure their cars and point out common vulnerabilities, but you can't actually counsel people on how to commit a crime or do something illegal.

Well, you can and I guess that is your "free speech" but the judge is also going to show you the schedule of fines and penalties.

Re: It's official: Utah is the U.S. state closest to banning VPNs

#93

Post by fearmerchant » Tue, May 05, 2026, 4:42 PM UTC

jespinel wrote: post #9

IMO, this is one of the main strengths of the US: you have 50 different options to live according to your values and beliefs, and relatively little friction if you decide to move to a state that better reflects them.

That and we can observe how certain policies play out. I used to be a big decriminalize drugs guy but watching it play out in a few states has had me rethink that idea. I haven't done a 180 or anything but it is something I'd be more cautious about implementing.

Re: It's official: Utah is the U.S. state closest to banning VPNs

#94

Post by mothballed » Tue, May 05, 2026, 4:42 PM UTC

rexpop wrote: post #81

mothballed wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also some double standards. If you walk from Ecuador to Texas, passing through the Darien Gap and one of your kids gets ripped into some river never to be seen again, finally showing up in El Paso to sleep under a bridge until the heat exhaustion goes away, then you are a glorious immigrant who put it all on the line to give your family a better life. If you hitch-hike from California to Vermont while feeding…

> you are a glorious immigrant who put it all on the line to give your family a better life According to whom? The immense hardship endured by migrants isn't a badge of glory, but the direct result of a global economic system designed to extract wealth from the global south to enrich the global north. The current economic disparity between the United States and the countries to its south is not an accident. The wealt…

Name a single case of a parent being prosecuted for negligence, or even having their children taken away by the state for the dangers endured in the Darien Gap. They are treated like kid gloves compared to how a US parent is treated if they exposed their children to such risks in moving. No one is claiming the US didn't fuck up South/Central America, your point there is a red herring (US also spent hundreds of years stealing from its own poor too, and especially the slaves who might be the ancestors of those looking to move, so join the club).

It's not that they haven't suffered risks and dangers and "500 years" of historical grudges. It's that the main risk a broke American parent has of moving their children while broke is that they're going to run afoul of negligence and abuse laws of the US that don't allow you to live in the rough while hopping freight trains or however broke people are crossing the continent. If your kids get ripped away in a river you are going to jail, if you're caught living in tents in the forest or desert then child services is going to be contacted. Immigrants get to bypass this on the way to the US -- if their children dies in a river in the Darien it either gets ignored by greater society or written in a news blurb about how brave and unfortunate they were (maybe alongside your sad story about NAFTA -- your sob story narrative makes my point). This means they can actually move while broke and they might actually be able to get away with it in the eyes of the state.

Re: It's official: Utah is the U.S. state closest to banning VPNs

#95

Post by r14c » Tue, May 05, 2026, 4:42 PM UTC

Ajedi32 wrote: post #40

Aurornis wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and relatively little friction if you decide to move to a state that better reflects them. True when compared to emigrating to another country, which is much harder than most assume. Moving is extremely disruptive if you have a lot of family and friends nearby, though. You go from having a huge community and social circle to almost nothing. Maybe some work friends to begin seeding a new social life, but everything…

Fair point, though I still think it's a pretty good backstop if the worst thing a tyrannical government can do to you is force you to move 100 miles.

For context, states within 100mi of Salt Lake City are:

- Wyoming

- Idaho

100mi doesn't get you into the population center of either state. the western US is BIG, really you're talking like 1k miles to get anywhere that's meaningfully different from utah. Depending on where you live in utah, that might not get you out of the state either.

Re: It's official: Utah is the U.S. state closest to banning VPNs

#96

Post by Avicebron » Tue, May 05, 2026, 4:42 PM UTC

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #28

This is the next part of the national Orwellian surveillance system that is "age verification". The first part installs spyware in every operating system. The second part makes it illegal to work around it or find any alternative means of privacy. The final step is a government-mandated ID for logging into these devices with the OS controls, so the government can track everything you do on every device. This is the m…

As hyperbolic as it stands, right to privacy should be an amendment. As long as the internet continues to be an integral part of banking, insurance, healthcare, education, (name anything vaguely personal) we can't allow free, unmonitored transit around it to be curtailed. Imagine losing your health insurance because the rightspeak of yesterday became the wrongspeak of today. It's insane people can't grasp this.

Re: It's official: Utah is the U.S. state closest to banning VPNs

#97

Post by GLGirty » Tue, May 05, 2026, 4:43 PM UTC

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #28

This is the next part of the national Orwellian surveillance system that is "age verification". The first part installs spyware in every operating system. The second part makes it illegal to work around it or find any alternative means of privacy. The final step is a government-mandated ID for logging into these devices with the OS controls, so the government can track everything you do on every device. This is the m…

> This is the most wildly dangerous threat to liberty in this nation's history.

You better sit down before you look up “citizens united."

Re: It's official: Utah is the U.S. state closest to banning VPNs

#98

Post by vkou » Tue, May 05, 2026, 4:43 PM UTC

3form wrote: post #85

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #28

This is the next part of the national Orwellian surveillance system that is "age verification". The first part installs spyware in every operating system. The second part makes it illegal to work around it or find any alternative means of privacy. The final step is a government-mandated ID for logging into these devices with the OS controls, so the government can track everything you do on every device. This is the m…

From the outside, it's particularly ridiculous given your 1st Amendment and all. I hope the tide turns for you and everyone else.

None of the amendments but the second do anything in 2026, and exercising that one is now sufficient grounds to be held down and executed on the sidewalk by a group of masked bandits.

It's a major problem with no fix for it.

Re: It's official: Utah is the U.S. state closest to banning VPNs

#99

Post by dylan604 » Tue, May 05, 2026, 4:43 PM UTC

jnovek wrote: post #34

roumenguha wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People make tradeoffs when it comes to where to live. You can surely move, but that assumes you have the financial means (if finding a new job is possible for you and your partner, and your children aren't at a point in their lives where moving would be detrimental), the support system, the friend circles, the third spaces and accompanying social systems, the kind of nature and access to that nature that you've grown…

I think people who aren’t or haven’t been poor often don’t realize that moving to another state — or even away from your hometown — is a privilege that is cost prohibitive for many Americans.

This is definitely something lost in an echo chamber like HN. Moving out of state is quite expensive. Most jobs do not provide moving expenses as a perk of the new job and receiving them shows just how privileged you are. For the foreseeable future the fuel costs of moving will also contribute to that expense making it worse. Some family connections make it very difficult for some to break away. For those that can, it is hard to understand.

Re: It's official: Utah is the U.S. state closest to banning VPNs

#100

Post by sigbottle » Tue, May 05, 2026, 4:43 PM UTC

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #28

This is the next part of the national Orwellian surveillance system that is "age verification". The first part installs spyware in every operating system. The second part makes it illegal to work around it or find any alternative means of privacy. The final step is a government-mandated ID for logging into these devices with the OS controls, so the government can track everything you do on every device. This is the m…

No amount of technology solves social, political, and ethical problems, unfortunately.