1. United States
2. N.Y.
3. Letter

Oppose any effort to ban or restrict VPN use in this state. Russia's crackdown on VPN apps is a warning, not a model. After banning Western social media, blacklisting opposition media, and blocking FaceTime, Russia's state media watchdog Roskomnadzor is now pulling VPN apps from Apple's App Store. Bloomberg reported that Russia has also added Apple and Microsoft to its state surveillance registry, forcing them to hand over user data to security services on demand. That is where the road of government-controlled internet access leads. VPNs are a basic privacy tool. They let people control who sees their online activity and access information without being tracked. Several U.S. states have already floated banning VPNs to enforce age-gating laws. Framing a privacy tool as a loophole does not make it one. Restricting VPNs to plug gaps in invasive laws is censorship by another name, and it sets a precedent that should alarm anyone who values free expression online.