Across much of the globe, VPN bans and restrictions have gone from speculative policy ideas to active tools of control, imposed to expose journalists, disrupt organizing, criminalize dissent, and normalize surveillance. In countries where such bans are just being newly proposed, those organizing to oppose these restrictions have much to learn—and not much time to learn it.
The VPN Trust Initiative (VTI) and Fight for the Future are co-facilitating a workshop as part of Rightscon 2026 titled The Internet Without VPNs Is Not Free: Learning from the global community on Journalism, Activism, and Control. We are bringing together journalists, activists, technologists, and civil society leaders to examine VPN restrictions not as a market issue, but as a human rights and democratic governance issue—grounded in lived experience from regions already dealing with these harms.
This is a hybrid virtual/in-person event taking place 11:00 am-3:00 pm CAT/CEST; 5:00 am-9:00 am EDT on May 5, 2026. Participation is free if attending remotely, and Rightscon registration is required if attending in person. You are invited to sign up here if you are attending in person or remotely.
The Agenda
Session 1 (11:00am-12:00pm CAT): The Internet Without VPNs Is Not Free
What VPN bans actually do to people
Start with this grounding session led by a journalist, grassroots activists, an educator, and a digital access practitioner working in restrictive environments. Together, they will describe how VPN restrictions function in daily life, the gap between stated policy goals and lived impact, and why these policies disproportionately harm journalism, education, and civic organizing.
Rather than a technical or policy overview, this session centers firsthand experience: what really happens when privacy tools disappear, what risks emerge, and what freedoms are quietly lost.
Output: Recorded session and joint summary.
Session 2 (12:00pm-1:00pm CAT): Circumventing Censorship and Surveillance in the Global South
What happens after VPNs are restricted
This case-driven discussion is led by journalists, activists, and technologists working across the Global South, where VPN bans, registration regimes, and network-level blocking are already shaping daily life. This session highlights the region not as an abstract policy example, but as the place where the real-world consequences of censorship and surveillance are being felt first.
Participants will examine how full bans, licensing and registration systems, and ISP- or platform-level blocking impact civil society, independent media, education, and cross-border collaboration; and how communities adapt under pressure.
This session intentionally centers Global South expertise as essential knowledge for global advocacy, rather than as a secondary or regional perspective.
This session is designed to seed the outline, core arguments, and lived-experience grounding for a major narrative piece along the lines of: “VPN bans: fight them now, before a bad idea becomes a stranglehold.” By co-authoring with speakers who are already living under these policies, this article—with lived experience as its foundation—will speak directly to policymakers, funders, and advocates in regions where these ideas are still being debated.
Output: Foundation for a co-authored post-event report or feature article, developed with one or more Global South panelists, warning against the normalization and export of VPN bans and censorship frameworks.
Session 3 (1:00pm-2:00pm CAT): Journalism and Activism When Privacy Tools Are Criminalized
Survival, risk, and resistance under criminalization
This roundtable with journalists, activists, and digital security practitioners examines what it means to work when basic privacy protections are treated as criminal acts. The session will address real-world safety risks, the limits of adaptation strategies, the chilling effects of criminalization narratives, and the long-term impact on free expression and organizing.
In addition to personal and professional impact, this session will examine the legal, political, and narrative pathways that have allowed privacy tools to be reframed as criminal, laying the groundwork for understanding how these policies take hold.
Output: A media-ready infosheet on how VPNs support journalism, activism, education, and civic organizing, countering criminalization narratives.
Session 4 (2:00pm-300pm CAT): What We Stop Next
From shared understanding to coordinated action
This session focuses on turning the lessons of the day into practical next steps. Participants will identify early warning signs of emerging VPN restrictions, align on narratives that counter stigma and criminalization, and outline opportunities for cross-regional coordination to prevent harmful policy.
The session will be supported by a shared collaborative document, allowing both in-room and remote participants to contribute asynchronously and thoughtfully.
Output: Joint roadmap and civil society statement outline.
Sign up here to attend, either in person or remotely.
About the Co-Facilitators
The VPN Trust Initiative brings policy coordination, technical credibility, and post-event synthesis.
Fight for the Future connects policy risk to movement-level advocacy and public mobilization.
Together, we will ensure this conversation remains grounded in human rights rather than industry self-interest. The Internet without VPNs is not free, and the lessons we need are already being written.
We hope you will join us.
About Rightscon
Each year, RightsCon convenes business leaders, policymakers, general counsels, government representatives, technologists, academics, journalists, and human rights advocates from around the world to tackle pressing issues at the intersection of human rights and technology. In engaging fireside chats, hands-on workshops, strategic roundtables, private meetings, and a lively exhibition space, RightsCon is where a global movement comes together to build strategies and drive forward change toward a more free, open, and connected digital world.