- On September 25, lawyers were calling on people around the world to sign a petition to defend VPN
- Defend VPNS Day of Action is an initiative created by Fight for the Future and supported by certain major VPN suppliers
- The VPN blocking debate has increased across the United Kingdom and the United States, Michigan offering a complete ban
VPNs are a crucial tool to promote a safe and free Internet all over the world. However, their use has never been more at risk. A plea group has decided to raise its defense – and it needs your help.
On Thursday, September 25, 2025, marks the day of action for defense VPNs, an initiative organized by Fight for the Future in response to a growing debate on the blocking of VPNs.
Previously prerogative of more authoritarian nations, such as China, Iran and Russia, democratic governments have increasingly started to consider VPN.
In the wake of compulsory age verification in the United Kingdom, downloads for the best VPN applications have skyrocketed while the British sought ways to avoid sharing their most sensitive information while continuing to use many online services. This led politicians to wonder if the Labor Party should or may not block VPNs.
A similar debate has also spread to the United States, as more and more states apply a form of age verification laws. Michigan has been the most radical so far, proposing a bill which aims to completely prohibit the use of VPN, but also the promotion of this important element of technology.
“We want to make noise and take the first step towards noisy defenders of VPNs,” Director of Campaigns and Communications at Fight For The Future, Lia Holland, told Techradar. “It is important to become aware of the legislators that, if they come for this technology, they will face an incredible difficult battle against more or less the whole Internet.”
Defends the day of action VPN – everything you need to know
The struggle for the future asks everyone around the world to go to their Defendvpns.com page and to sign a petition to call on their government to take “leadership in principle” against VPNs.
If you are in the United States, activists also invite everyone to use their call prompt (see image above) to contact the US Congress and directly ask the legislators to refrain from implementing VPN restrictions.
“We want to hit them in the face with figures to start,” said Holland, explaining that these signatures (and calls) aim to build the foundation for more advocacy on bypass tools.
Petition signatures are anything but the final objective, in fact. As a next step, fight for future hopes to team up with other civil companies and increase the momentum of the movement.
“We start with the great users of Splash and VPN. If the community can present themselves for us in a significant way, then we can, we can move mountains as we have done in the past. So I really hope that people will take a moment to join them,” said Holland.
Why is it crucial to defend VPN
A virtual private network (VPN) is security software that millions of adults use daily to increase their confidentiality, safety and overall online internet experience. Thanks to IP assistance capacities, VPNs are also excellent tools to circumvent online geo-restaurants by making you appear as if you are traveling another country.
The latter is exactly the reason why the tastes of VPN proton experienced time hours for use of up to 1,400% in the United Kingdom from July 25, because a compulsory age verification has been applied. It is however impossible to know if behind these statistics, there are adults simply using a VPN for their daily protection, others do not want to provide sensitive details to prove their age, or those under 18 who seek to completely escape checks.
This was not enough to prevent the Children’s Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, from considering this technology a “gap that must be closed”. Nor the Republican representative of Michigan, Josh Schriver, to create a bill where internet service providers would be forced to “monitor and block known circumvention tools”. Something that comes up against the 2024 call for the United States (OTF) which has urged Big Tech to intervene and support bypass software.
According to Holland, this is the first decision to paint a target on this technology. “I do not think that it only stops if we show how incredibly unpopular this move would tell these politicians to focus on large technologies, not tools preserving confidentiality.”
This is exactly where VPN’s day of action defends between.
Windscriber is one of the main VPN suppliers actively supporting the struggle for the initiative of the future.
“Obviously, we oppose VPN prohibitions and we say where we can, but the reason why we support this initiative in particular is that Fight for the Future has a proven history to really move the needle on digital rights,” Techradar, a spokesperson for the company, told Techradar.
If you have a subscriber, you must expect a notification of Windscribes by e-mail and directly in the application.
Although the complete list of VPN suppliers who join the initiative is not public, i2coalition (a consortium which includes people like NordVPN and ExpressVPN) and the VPN guild (the non -profit organization behind Russian suppliers like Amnezia VPN) confirmed their participation in Techradar.
Overall, Windscriber said: “We almost never ask our customers to support something outside of Windscribe, so the fact that we do it should tell you how seriously we take this.”
