Court agrees with EFF: Utah's VPN law demands a technical impossibility
A federal judge blocked Utah's anti-VPN age-verification law, agreeing with the EFF that the statute demands the technical impossibility of perfect geolocation.
summary is enough The summary and key points cover the court ruling and technical arguments thoroughly without needing the full EFF post.
summary
A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction halting Utah's SB 73, which required adult websites to block or geolocate VPN users and verify visitor ages. The court ruled that the statute imposes unconstitutional burdens out-of-state and demands a technical impossibility, as perfect geolocation of VPN traffic is infeasible. Digital rights advocates welcomed the decision, warning that such laws foster dragnet surveillance under the guise of child safety. Commenters noted that while some commercial VPNs can be blocked, custom or self-hosted proxies render absolute compliance impossible.
key points
- Utah's SB 73 forced adult websites to block VPNs or geolocate all users accurately to enforce mandatory age verification.
- The federal court ruled the law violates the Constitution by regulating out-of-state conduct and requiring technical perfection that does not exist.
- Attempts to detect VPNs fail against self-hosted proxies and unlisted exit nodes, making strict legal liability an impossible standard.
who should read it
Engineers and legal professionals tracking internet regulation, digital privacy, and cybersecurity compliance.
discussion positive
consensus
Commenters generally agree that the law was designed as intentional 'lawfare' to shut down adult platforms rather than a practical safety measure, and that achieving perfect VPN detection is technically impossible.
pushback
A minority argued that filtering known commercial exit nodes or restricting traffic to residential IPs might satisfy more lenient regulatory interpretations, though strict perfection remains out of reach.
There are a category of things that are technically impossible until a burly man threatens to break your arm if you don't do them, and a category of things that are still impossible.
Doesn't help your arm, but when they're asking for things in that second category, it doesn't help them either.
It sharply distinguishes between things made possible by coercion and things that remain fundamentally technically impossible.
Generated by an LLM from the article and thread. Check the sources before relying on it.