SoundCloud has banned VPN access • Hacker News Board

Re: SoundCloud has banned VPN access

#181

Post by NoteyComplexity » Tue, Dec 16, 2025, 12:22 AM UTC

siva7 wrote: post #157

If this is true, i will cancel my subscription. I'm using tailscale and certainly won't use a service that wants to dictate me how to use my device.

Just cancel it.

Soundcloud these days is nothing but a spambot filled website that have ripped countless users’ tracks and scam to earn fake followers, which the platform doesn’t block these bot but instead shallow banning proper users. The support is also nonexistent and my support ticket hasn’t being been responded for more than an year.

I ended up trashed my account because I got shadow banned for no reason while they keep on stripping off basic features. Some of the users in my community also faced the similar stories.

Unless there is an irreplaceable feature in SoundCloud you rely on, I see no reason to use it.

Re: SoundCloud has banned VPN access

#182

Post by qingcharles » Tue, Dec 16, 2025, 12:43 AM UTC

itintheory wrote: post #162

infecto wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TOS are pretty meaningless in cases like this. It amounts to getting rejected as a customer and your account canceled.

I think ToS violations can also run afoul of CFAA.

I don't think they can any longer, I think there is case law on this.

Illinois law makes it a misdemeanor to violate web site ToS, though. And felony for the second time IIRC. Other states probably also.

Re: SoundCloud has banned VPN access

#183

Post by qingcharles » Tue, Dec 16, 2025, 12:45 AM UTC

MangoToupe wrote: post #133

acka wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Years on, our primary data source is literally holding dozens of subscriptions to every commercial provider we can find, and enumerating the exit node IP addresses they use. Assuming your VPN identification service operates commercially, I trust that you are in full compliance with all contractual agreements and Terms of Service for the services you utilize. Many of these agreements specifically prohibit commercial…

> I trust that you are in full compliance with all contractual agreements and Terms of Service Why? It's not like there's any real moral (or, likely, legal) reason to care beyond avoiding the service's ban hammer.

In Illinois you could, in theory, be jailed for up to three years for violating a web site ToS. (classified as "Computer Tampering")

Re: SoundCloud has banned VPN access

#184

Post by kristopolous » Tue, Dec 16, 2025, 12:47 AM UTC

Oh this is why I can't download some podcasts from China.

I worked around it but it was a pain

Re: SoundCloud has banned VPN access

#185

Post by MangoToupe » Tue, Dec 16, 2025, 12:47 AM UTC

qingcharles wrote: post #183

MangoToupe wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I trust that you are in full compliance with all contractual agreements and Terms of Service Why? It's not like there's any real moral (or, likely, legal) reason to care beyond avoiding the service's ban hammer.

In Illinois you could, in theory, be jailed for up to three years for violating a web site ToS. (classified as "Computer Tampering")

I don't think that would hold up in court anymore.

Re: SoundCloud has banned VPN access

#186

Post by 1shooner » Tue, Dec 16, 2025, 12:48 AM UTC

butlike wrote: post #144

webstrand wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This only works so long as you're not interesting to anyone. You never know what past information associated with your identity will be weaponized against you. By the government, corporations, or individuals to justify harming you. Even if you're safe and secure in the belief that your neighbors will never turn on you, others are not so lucky. Did you travel to get an abortion? Someone might be interested in charging…

You make a couple of good points. The necessity to commit a felony in the name of healthcare as traveling to get an abortion is shameful. I can't believe it's come to that. Have people been rounded up into camps and exterminated for innate human qualities and beliefs? Yes. And it's disgusting I have to type that as well. But beyond that I disagree with your sentiment. These things need to be stopped as they come. Wit…

> I can't live my life out of fear.

I compare it to ecology. You're saying you will deal with the sea when it has risen to your doorstep rather than reduce emissions, or even build a levy. You've chosen to not worry about the sea, either because you don't think you can stop it, or it is not convenient for the moment to try. People who believe the sea is rising can't help but fear it because they are rational. People building privacy levies are not living in fear, they are reacting rationally to a hazard.

Re: SoundCloud has banned VPN access

#187

Post by marcus_holmes » Tue, Dec 16, 2025, 12:51 AM UTC

hdgvhicv wrote: post #63

marcus_holmes wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have worked for fintech companies that mandate VPN use as a security measure. It's going to be interesting when the majority of the UK accesses the internet via VPN because of the increasingly ridiculous hoops that the UK makes them go through, and the government tries to stop them while also allowing VPNs to be used by the tech sector. I agree, these are two separate legal processes powered by the same technology.…

They mandate you use Nordvpn? Or surf shark? I doubt that.

No obviously not. There are specialist products for this, and it's not hard to roll your own if you want.

The tech is the same, though. That's the point.

Re: SoundCloud has banned VPN access

#188

Post by NicuCalcea » Tue, Dec 16, 2025, 1:22 AM UTC

jijijijij wrote: post #116

socalgal2 wrote: post #101

I keep wishing “privacy” company, Apple, would release a VPN such that no business would be able to block it as they’d lose too many customers

Unless Apple would make an anonymizing VPN connection mandatory, I don't see any difference to the situation as is. As long as people can be pressured to turn off the VPN, nobody loses any customers. Additionally, I don't think paying customers are the target, since they usually provide identifying information anyway.

I don't think mandating that all traffic on Apple devices must be routed through their servers would be that great for privacy.

Re: SoundCloud has banned VPN access

#189

Post by discordance » Tue, Dec 16, 2025, 1:30 AM UTC

szszrk wrote: post #155

jabroni_salad wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone googles "free VPN" so they can watch region locked videos and now their connection is a part of that network too. They may or may not realize that this is the arrangement.

Or his kid uses a free game with a lot of grinding, not knowing that the child's phone is now technically part of a botnet.

I would like to know more about this. Got a source?

Re: SoundCloud has banned VPN access

#190

Post by Dylan16807 » Tue, Dec 16, 2025, 1:35 AM UTC

blibble wrote: post #96

ranger_danger wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This will also cause problems with anyone that happens to (even accidentally/unknowingly) use apps that integrate services from companies such as BrightData/Luminati/HolaVPN/etc. where they sell idle time on your device/connection to their VPN/proxy customers. The legitimate end-user will then no longer be able to use e.g. SoundCloud.

I fail to see the problem if people that allow their internet connection used by scammers/AI crawlers are banned from every service

Sort of valid today.

But the more sites that require a residential VPN for normal use, the less legitimate that argument becomes.