VPN Users Risk 20-Year Jail Sentences in the US Under New Restrict Act

Which specific part of the bill allows &quot;VPN users&quot; to be punished with &quot;20 year jail sentences&quot;? Does the bill even ban VPNs? I skimmed the article and the linked tweet and can&#x27;t find anything to that effect. The closest I can find is this<p>&gt;This could include VPNs if they are used to access banned websites such as TikTok.<p>which seems like a standard anti-evasion provision. They&#x27;re not going after your VPNs, people. While it (edit: <i>might</i>) technically be the case that you could face 20 years in jail if you were using a VPN <i>and you were using it to evade tiktok bans</i>, it&#x27;s hugely misleading to characterize it as &quot;VPN Users Risk 20-Year Jail Sentences&quot;. It would be like if the government was trying to pass a bill to ban people from smuggling explosives across the border, and that bill being characterized as &quot;Drivers risk 20-year jail sentences under new law&quot;, because driving can be used to smuggle explosives and therefore some forms of driving could land you in jail.

We need to ban TikTok because they might be spying on you.<p>Solution: a bill that allows us to spy on you unconditionally for all activities, anywhere, anytime for any reason.<p>Also, we will be immune to FOIA or any kind of oversight.

Earlier threads:<p>&quot;The next Patriot Act, but so much worse: Bill S.686, the RESTRICT Act&quot; (<i>6 comments</i>) <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=35336366" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=35336366</a><p>&quot;The Patriot Act on steroids: anti-TikTok Trojan horse for censorship and surveillance&quot; (<i>156 comments</i>) <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=35334851" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=35334851</a><p>Tiktok hired ex-gov people, how did they try to address natsec concerns? <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.mintpressnews.com&#x2F;nato-tiktok-pipeline-why-tiktok-employing-national-security-agents&#x2F;280336&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.mintpressnews.com&#x2F;nato-tiktok-pipeline-why-tikto...</a><p><i>&gt; the threat to completely shut down its platform, subsided only after TikTok began appointing Western officials to important positions within its organization, thereby giving the state considerable influence over the content and direction of the app.</i><p>On the perennial topic of poorly conceived legislation, let&#x27;s not forget US (CA, UT) and UK laws which mandate age-verification, <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.techdirt.com&#x2F;tag&#x2F;ab-2273&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.techdirt.com&#x2F;tag&#x2F;ab-2273&#x2F;</a> and &quot;Utah is first US state to limit teen social media access&quot; (<i>600+ comments</i>), <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=35307647" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=35307647</a> and UK Online Safety Bill, <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.techradar.com&#x2F;features&#x2F;uk-online-safety-bill" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.techradar.com&#x2F;features&#x2F;uk-online-safety-bill</a>

Basically turns the department of commerce into the equivalent of the DHS, which already does the key aspects of the act, with some NEW special powers. If they think your company is a threat, they can close you down. But only foreign threats, just like the Patriot Act was sold to ya.<p>It will be interesting to see the new rules the commerce department puts in place to monitor and control the internet. For your safety of course.

So much concern over TikTok and America&#x27;s personal data, yet no action from congress when half the nation&#x27;s personal data is leaked every other week by dozens of other companies. Do they not think China is buying access to all these leaks?<p>Last time I checked haveibeenpwned my email address had appeared in about 3,000 separate data breaches.

Summary and text of S686<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.congress.gov&#x2F;bill&#x2F;118th-congress&#x2F;senate-bill&#x2F;686" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.congress.gov&#x2F;bill&#x2F;118th-congress&#x2F;senate-bill&#x2F;686</a>

I wonder if any of TikTok’s competitors helped create the bill and are now regretting it.

Business travelers use VPNs out of China, from behind the Great Firewall. This is just too paranoid.

This is wildly hyperbolic as far as I can see.<p>The bill (which I do not endorse) is focused on threats to critical infrastructure and other natsec considerations from designated foreign enemies. Also, it&#x27;s just been introduced and might not go anywhere.