- Proton VPN Free saw a 2,500% increase in registrations in Spain
- This increase coincides with the new IP blocks pushed by LaLiga to combat illegal streaming
- The blockage also affected legitimate services, with users turning to VPNs to restore access.
A dramatic increase in new users for one of the top VPN providers has highlighted the growing battle for internet freedom in Spain.
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The massive influx of users is a direct response to government-backed policy. the crackdown on illegal streaming, strongly led by the country’s premier football league, LaLiga.
Spanish courts have granted LaLiga the power to order Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block IP addresses and services suspected of facilitating piracy. However, the aggressive nature of these blocks causes significant collateral damage, impacting legitimate Internet users and services.
Thousands of Spaniards now use privacy tools like Proton VPN to bypass blocks and regain access to the open Internet. Proton’s secure and free service has become a popular choice for those affected by the new restrictions.
TechRadar has contacted Proton for further comment on the situation, but we are still awaiting a response at the time of publication.
The severe blocking of intellectual property in Spain
The heart of the problem lies in the dynamic and broad nature of the new blocking orders.
In its efforts to eliminate unauthorized broadcasting of football matches, LaLiga targets not only specific pirate sites, but also the underlying infrastructure they use. This notably forced ISPs to block dynamic connections DNS providers, such as the popular No-IP service.
As TorrentFreak reports, these measures mean that any website or service using the targeted infrastructure becomes inaccessible to most of the Spanish population.
Cloudflare is blocked across Spain, preventing many people from accessing game servers (i.e. Blue Protocol), streaming services, and many other parts of the internet. The following chart therefore shows a brief 200% increase in free Proton VPN signups from Spain. pic.twitter.com/wN6MG2o4YWOctober 22, 2025
Dynamic DNS is a legitimate tool used by countless individuals and small businesses for everything from remote access to personal computers to hosting personal websites. By blocking the entire service, anti-piracy measures effectively throw the baby out with the bathwater, restricting access to a wide range of legal content and services.
It is the latest chapter in an ongoing fight over how best to deal with online piracy, with tech companies like Cloudflare already embroiled in disputes over blocking measures in Spain and the UK.
Experts have repeatedly warned against using basic internet infrastructure, like DNS resolvers, as a censorship tool, arguing that it sets a dangerous precedent and leads to the type of excessive blocking currently seen in Spain.
How a VPN Restores Access
For Spanish users who discover that their Internet access has been suddenly restricted, a the virtual private network (VPN) offers an immediate and effective solution. A VPN works by encrypting a user’s Internet connection and routing it through a secure server in a different geographic location.
By connecting to a Proton VPN server (or any other VPN server for that matter) located in another country, Spanish users get a different IP address and encrypted traffic. This helps them bypass local ISP blocks and access restricted websites.
With increasing online controls, VPNs have become essential to digital freedom. The increase in Proton VPN usage in Spain shows how much people want to bypass censorship and keep the internet open.
