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Ask HN: The government of my country blocked VPN access. What should I use?

1309 points rickybule | 4 comments | 28 Aug 25 16:43 UTC | HN request time: 0.653s | source

Indonesia is currently in chaos. Earlier today, the government blocked access to Twitter & Discord knowing news spread mainly through those channels. Usually we can use Cloudflare's WARP to avoid it, but just today they blocked the access as well. What alternative should we use?
1. Aachen ◴[28 Aug 25 16:58 UTC] No.45054443[source]▶
Aren't there local (online or print) newspapers to get news from, as an alternative to Discord? Hope I'm not asking a dumb question
replies(2): >>45054520 #>>45054618 #
2. alluro2 ◴[28 Aug 25 17:06 UTC] No.45054520[source]▶
In countries where it comes to government blocking/censoring internet traffic, traditional media is cleared of all dissent and fully controlled long before. Last stages of that are happening in my country, Serbia, currently.
replies(1): >>45054904 #
3. wafflemaker ◴[28 Aug 25 17:15 UTC] No.45054618[source]▶
It's not a dumb question at all. Level on hn really got down lately if you're getting downvoted.

Think about it Aachen. If the government has enough power to censor internet traffic, that what was the first thing it censored? Which media is traditionally known for being censored or just speaking propaganda? That's the classical newspapers. It's not uncommon in authoritarian countries for editors to need state to sign off on the day's paper. And if not that, articles are signed and publishers are known. They will auto-censor to avoid problems. Just like creators on YouTube don't comment on this one country's treatment of civilians to avoid problems.

4. Aachen ◴[28 Aug 25 17:43 UTC] No.45054904[source]▶
Right, that makes sense. Did some looking up and nonfree press seems to be indeed the case for Indonesia: https://rsf.org/en/country/indonesia

It's a mixed bag apparently, free press is technically legal since 1998 but selective prosecution and harassment of those actually uncovering issues (mainly becomes clear in the last section, "Safety")

Tried looking up Serbia next on that website but got a cloudflare block. I'm a robot now...