Utah first state to hold websites liable for users who mask their location with VPNs — law goes into effect, designed to prevent bypassing age checks
2026-05-03 15:50 UTC
Replies (40)
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@limonfiesta@lemmy.world 2026-05-03 16:39
Web services and websites should block all Utah IP addresses and redirect to page explaining that because they cannot tell who’s using a VPN, their only option is to block all of Utah. Yes, I understand how dumb that is, but sometimes you have to fight stupid with stupider.
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@TryingToBeGood@reddthat.com 2026-05-04 02:41
Good thing my firm doesn’t have an office in UT; we’re all on a VPN to work from home.
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@bagsy@lemmy.world 2026-05-03 22:52
Websites need to block all Utah traffic. If their leaders are going to be shitheads, then no traffic for you until you elect new leaders.
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@Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 2026-05-04 02:08
This is just another dog and pony show. If the company doesn’t have any offices or assets in utah, then they don’t have to care. Utah can censor it’s own internet if it doesn’t like it. This law simply has no legs to stand on.
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@KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 2026-05-03 23:05
It’s literally going to be easier for websites to just block all Utah IPs and Geolocations.
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@cley_faye@lemmy.world 2026-05-03 21:30
Remember when we told people “they’ll make it illegal to use a VPN” and we got snarky replies like “it’s not enforceable LOL”. The fuck it isn’t. Traffic coming from a VPN? That’s a paddlin’, kiddo. They’re not even trying to masquerade it as… oh, yes, they’re still trying to masquerade as a “think of the children!” measure. Those fuckers.
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@fizzle@quokk.au 2026-05-04 03:12
I’m so weary of everything getting a little bit worse every day. I’m sure we all used to be excited about the future of the internet but now it’s just shit.
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@TyrionBean@lemmy.ml 2026-05-04 05:01
This from the people who elected a notorious pedophile, “thinking” that he would find the real pedophiles.
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@Zephorah@discuss.online 2026-05-03 16:13
How is this enforceable?
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@Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2026-05-04 05:03
utah must have a porn problem, because they have pretty high traffic to PH, or its affiliates.
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@adespoton@lemmy.ca 2026-05-03 19:49
Wait… this is specifically about websites? Easy solution: stick your website behind a CDN. That way, people are using a VPN to contact a CDN, and only the CDN ever connects to your website. And if Utah thinks two degrees of separation isn’t enough… well, it’s likely that every legislator in Utah is two degrees away from someone who will break this law, so they should obviously be the first to be subject to its penalties.
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@Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2026-05-04 09:58
From my point of view, all I want is that Europe doesn’t follow the US into suiciding it’s own future in Tech by structurally dismounting the workings of the Internet for the purpose of autoritarian surveillance. Mind you, given the seeming high amounts of corruption and kompromat for European politicians - especially EU ones - I fear that even here they might send us down the path of Technological Black Age to satisfy whatever large American Tech Companies that pay them or populist American or Israeli politicians holding kompromat on them.
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@green_goglin@thelemmy.club 2026-05-04 10:33
lol Mormons have the NSA servers in Utah.
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@quack@lemmy.zip 2026-05-04 11:29
So how do they plan on figuring out if any given user behind a VPN is in Utah?
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@StarryPhoenix97@lemmy.world 2026-05-04 18:27
It seems like it’s just a matter of time until the US has it’s own red firewall.
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@Alpha71@lemmy.world 2026-05-05 11:59
I find it so interesting that they will dance all the way around VPN’s, yet do nothing to make them actually illegal.
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@Microtonal_Banana@lemmy.zip 2026-05-05 11:51
This is what happens when you elect morons to legislate technology they dont understand.
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@manchicken@infosec.pub 2026-05-05 13:07
Maybe we should just start blocking Utah like folks block North Korea. Utahans clearly want only Facebook and MySpace, and it’s rude of us to second-guess.
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@uberdroog@lemmy.world 2026-05-04 16:23
But spoofing a phone number and harassing me all day isn’t worth solutioning. This Gov. is not representing us.
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@disorderly@lemmy.world 2026-05-03 17:06
> To date, the only countries that have made progress in blocking VPN traffic with some success are authoritarian regimes with ISP-level surveillance. You know you're on to something when the only playbook you can find was written by the Chinese government.
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@Archangel1313@lemmy.ca 2026-05-03 22:56
These aren't "age checks"...it's identity tracking.
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@spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works 2026-05-03 18:18
This is like holding a car manufacturer liable when a teenager drives to a liquor store and uses a fake ID.
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@fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 2026-05-03 21:32
Age verification is a red line. I will not comply
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@52fighters@sopuli.xyz 2026-05-04 11:14
If I were a lawyer arguing against the law in court, my primary argument would be that this violates the interstate commerce section of the US Constitution.
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@spacegoat@lemmy.world 2026-05-03 21:56
The pedophile class has the audacity to dictate access to a utility under the guise of protecting the children
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@DarkFuture@lemmy.world 2026-05-04 17:44
More ways to control our lives and track our movements. "Party of small government". Personally, I would stop using any site that did this. We all know nothing matters in this country but money. Companies stop making as much, they'll get legislation changed.
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@ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip 2026-05-03 23:53
Get a list of every dumbass politician who voted this through, and access their campaign websites through a VPN from a computer in Utah. Boom. Self owned.
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@Tempus_Fugit@lemmy.world 2026-05-03 16:17
Utah flexing those evil Mormon muscles huh? Well get bent Utah and get fucked Mormons.
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@knighthawk0811@lemmy.world 2026-05-03 20:34
they will use this specifically to prosecute whoever they choose and will only enforce it for that reason
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@mrmaplebar@fedia.io 2026-05-03 16:45
Religion is delusional mass psychosis.
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@A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 2026-05-04 23:50
if they are so concerned about children, how about doing something about the mormon church and the fucking horrible crimes that are committed against women and children in it?
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@Iusedtobeanalien@lemmy.world 2026-05-04 01:59
Ah Utah The medieval backward heartland of the USA
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@Puddinghelmet@lemmy.world 2026-05-04 12:14
[Russia's VPN crackdown disrupts banks, marketplaces and government services](https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/russias-vpn-crackdown-disrupts-banks-marketplaces-and-government-services/ar-AA21U3Z8) And so if I'm in Utah as a traveller I can't check my local news by vpn? Ok
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@atrielienz@lemmy.world 2026-05-03 17:04
"Designed to prevent bypassing age checks by people who don't understand the technology they are trying to regulate" more at 11. Legislators should be required to understand technology or consult experts in the field before they enact legislation. This is a waste of tax payer dollars and I'm not even sure it's enforceable.
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@NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip 2026-05-04 16:15
Have they thought about passing a law that checks to see if the people making the law have an IQ above 50? This is the dumbest, most waste of time bullshit particularly when the rest of the country is imploding. Maybe they should focus on things that matter.
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@Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 2026-05-04 08:56
Wait a second... how can they enforce this legislation when a VPN is masking the user's location? How do they know a user using a VPN is from Utah? Correct me if I'm wrong here, but aren't the users they're trying to regulate the exact subsection of users that they don't have the ability to identify as being citizens of Utah? Like if a user appears to be in Utah, then they're probably not using a vpn. And if the user appears to be from out of state, then they *could* be using a vpn, but also Utah law doesn't apply to those people because they're not from Utah (as far as they know)... So essentially this law can't actually apply to... anyone?
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@jordanlund@lemmy.world 2026-05-03 20:41
Problematic now that Firefox has a free VPN with 50gb / mo.
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@homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 2026-05-03 19:05
Someone explain TOR to them
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@flop_leash_973@lemmy.world 2026-05-04 18:26
Every website would be better served to come up with a way to block all IP ranges that come out of Utah ISPs. Better to just block the whole state than try to play this game.
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@PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world 2026-05-03 23:45
Looks like Utah is run by buncha pedos