News Round-Up: Austria to Ban Social Media for Kids; VPN Downloads Spike Across 62 Countries; Brussels: Work Remote, Cut Travel Now
Twice a week, the editorial team of Freedom Research compiles a round-up of news that caught our eye – or what felt like under-reported aspects of news deserving more attention.
Over the past few days, the following topics attracted our attention:
Austria to Ban Social Media for Under-14s
VPN Users Surge in 62 Countries
Brussels: Work From Home and Travel Less
Austria Plans to Ban Social Media for Children Under 14
Austria is the latest country to plan a ban on social media for children under the age of 14. According to information released so far by Austria’s conservative-led coalition government, the draft legislation is expected to be ready by the end of June. If possible, an EU-wide age verification app would be used, the BBC reports.
Social Democrat Vice-Chancellor Andreas Babler, who announced the plan, said the government cannot stand by and watch as social media turns children into “addicts and often sick individuals.” Babler stated that it is the responsibility of politicians to protect children, and the ban should be treated like those on alcohol or tobacco. “There must be clear rules in the digital world too,” he said. Austrian Education Minister Christoph Wiederkehr emphasized the “harmful” nature of social media and the need for people to learn to use it responsibly. The draft bill is expected to specify technical solutions for age verification. Where possible, the EU system will be used. Otherwise, Austria’s own solution would be implemented.
Christian Hafenecker, secretary-general of the opposition party, condemned the social media ban plan, calling it an attack on young people’s freedom of speech and freedom of information.
It appears that worldwide, the push for social media bans on young people and children has been fueled by a ruling handed down in March by a Los Angeles court. The court found that two social media giants - Meta and YouTube - had intentionally created addictive algorithms that harmed young people’s mental health. The case reached the court following a complaint alleging that the platforms had caused the plaintiff to develop a social media addiction during childhood. The court awarded the plaintiff $6 million (approximately €5.5 million) in damages, of which $3 million (approximately €2.8 million) was compensatory and $3 million was punitive. The court found that the platforms acted with “malice, oppression, or fraud.” Meta must pay 70% of the damages, with Google covering the remaining 30%. It is believed that this ruling will likely affect hundreds of similar cases currently pending in U.S. courts.
Meta and Google announced that they disagree with the court’s ruling and intend to appeal it. Meta argues that teenagers’ mental health is extremely complex and cannot be attributed to a single app. Google explained that YouTube has been misunderstood in this case because it os “responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site.” The platforms have also noted that users under the age of 13 are not permitted to join their platforms and that parental control versions are available.
VPN Users Surge in 62 Countries
Proton, a developer of virtual private networks (VPNs), reported that it recorded a sharp increase in demand for its VPN service in 62 countries. The company defines a sharp increase as any rise exceeding 100% of the previous baseline. Demand grew by more than 1,000% in 10 countries, over 5,000% in 6 countries, and up to 10,000% in 4 countries. Proton cites increasing internet restrictions by governments as the cause, including blocks, closed platforms, and mandatory age verification. However, for many users, the concern is not merely about access to the internet or a particular website, but rather the requirement to provide official identification or biometric data to access websites. This comes against the backdrop of several major data breaches.
Thus, Proton concludes that the past year was yet another challenging year for democracy and internet freedom. Authoritarian governments are increasingly willing to damage their own economies and their citizens’ livelihoods by implementing total internet shutdowns. According to Proton’s report, the most serious examples come from countries where the internet has been blocked due to conflicts or political control. For example, in Iran, authorities imposed a near-total internet blackout for three days on June 18 during the Iran-Israel conflict. The government cut off international connections and blocked access to websites, social media, messaging apps, and foreign VPN servers. Citizens could only use the country’s internal network and government-approved services. When limited connectivity was restored, Proton recorded a 5,500% increase in VPN users by June 26.
In Afghanistan, the increase was even greater. On September 29, the Taliban authorities imposed a 24-hour internet blackout, allegedly for moral reasons. The internet blockade was implemented after the regime began removing books written by women from universities and restricting girls’ education after the age of 12, which pushed learning toward online platforms. When connectivity was restored, access to social media remained restricted, including Facebook, Instagram, and X. However, VPN registrations increased by 35,000%. Subsequent internet disruptions, including the outage on October 14, have kept demand for VPNs in Afghanistan high.
Tanzania blocked the internet for five days during the October general election. This was due to protests that broke out in several cities after the two main opposition candidates were barred from participating. Tanzanian security forces responded to the protests with lethal force, and when service was restored, VPN registrations surged by 2,000%.
In March, Papua New Guinea temporarily blocked Facebook, claiming it was a “test” to limit misinformation, hate speech, pornography, and other harmful content during a national emergency. According to critics, the restriction coincided with Prime Minister James Marape’s testimony in a corruption trial and was intended to suppress real-time news and commentary. For many residents of Papua New Guinea, Facebook is the primary gateway to the wider internet, which is why demand for VPNs surged by more than 14,000% on the very first day of the block.
Equally serious, however, has been the growing threat to internet freedom in Western democracies, which are generally considered “free.” In democratic countries, internet control does not mean blocking access outright, but rather introducing an increasing number of legal measures and regulations. These often require individuals to verify their age and identity online, creating pressure to share personal data even to access legal content.
The United Kingdom is at the forefront of such regulations. The controversial Online Safety Act came into force last July, requiring websites to verify users’ ages and imposing numerous other obligations under threat of massive fines and sanctions. This also required adults to verify their identity, for example, using official identification or biometric data. At the same time, several large-scale data breaches have come to light, such as the Tea app data breach, which involved 72,000 images, including 13,000 user photos and ID card images, followed by breaches at Discord and Mixpanel. All these incidents confirmed fears about how web services collect, store, and protect personal data, which is why Britons are not very confident about submitting their data to websites. After the law came into effect, demand for VPNs in the UK rose by 1,200%.
Spain, however, has so far imposed internet restrictions in a rather clever and indirect manner. The increase in demand for VPNs was driven by blocking requests from La Liga (the soccer league). La Liga sought to combat the illegal streaming of matches and obtained a court order authorizing it to require internet service providers to block IP addresses associated with piracy. However, since many of these IP addresses were hosted on Cloudflare’s infrastructure, thousands of legitimate websites were also blocked. According to Proton, this situation persists in Spain to this day, with the government increasingly announcing various restrictions publicly - social media ban for minors and hate speech detection using artificial intelligence - rather than relying on indirect measures. In any case, VPN service registrations in the country have increased throughout the year, particularly by 110% in February and 200% in October. Proton also points out that demand for VPNs in Spain grew with every new block, not just during the games. This growth was likely driven by the need to access blocked legal websites.
In the United States, Proton recorded a 520% surge on January 19, 2025, when TikTok and CapCut were briefly offline and when TikTok disappeared from app stores during the enforcement of the federal sales ban. Although the enforcement was later postponed, the incident demonstrated how quickly consumer restrictions can drive demand for VPNs.
In conclusion, Proton notes that instead of a single major event, there were many large spikes in sign-ups throughout the year. This points to the fact that users are trying to access regular websites that are also subject to indirect blocking. According to Proton’s assessment, last year’s trends show no signs of abating this year. Governments around the world are increasingly willing to restrict internet access, particularly in the face of political pressure, civil unrest, or for regulatory purposes. Authoritarian states act more overtly, imposing more frequent and severe disruptions, while democracies act more subtly, yet pose an equally significant threat to internet freedoms.
Brussels Official: Work From Home and Travel Less
European Commission Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen is urging people to work from home, drive and fly less, and calling on member states to rapidly adopt renewable energy sources. The top official also warns of a prolonged energy crisis caused by the conflict in the Persian Gulf, according to Politico.
EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen’s speech echoed remarks made at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. He stated that Europe is facing a very serious situation with no end in sight. “Even if ... peace is here tomorrow, still we will not go back to normal in the foreseeable future,” he said after an emergency meeting of EU energy ministers held on Tuesday. According to the energy commissioner, the more citizens can do - especially by conserving diesel and jet fuel - the better for everyone.
Jørgensen called on member states to follow the recommendations of the International Energy Agency, which advised prioritizing working from home whenever possible, driving more slowly, reducing highway speed limits by 10 km/h, promoting public transportation, limiting the use of private vehicles, increasing car-sharing, and adopting a fuel-efficient driving style. The Energy Commissioner added to the already long list a call to invest even more in renewable energy. He explained that the current moment must be used to finally change course and become truly energy independent.
Although the ministers’ meeting ended without concrete proposals, Jørgensen promised that the Commission would soon announce a package of measures at the EU level. The discussions reportedly also covered the need for state aid, nuclear energy, and the Commission’s proposal to support greater use of biofuels.
In any case, the scope of the energy crisis has expanded with each passing day, with prices surging daily. Since the conflict began, gas prices have gone up around 70%, and oil prices have risen 60%, adding €14 billion to the EU’s import bill. There are fears of a crisis even more severe than the 1970s oil crisis, with global economic consequences comparable to those of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Let me get this straight. The US created an energy crisis, the EU is using it as an excuse to make permanent changes such as banning use of private property (cars) and regulating daily life of citizens (lockdowns; travel restrictions) and banning energy independence for individuals (use of fossil fuels), and it is being sold as a way for nations to gain energy energy independence?
That is profoundly twisted, deceptive, and tyrannical.
Australia banned under 16s , the teens just found alternative platforms or ways to circumvent the system .