2024 was a pivotal year for internet freedom and democracy. With authoritarian governments increasingly turning to censorship to silence dissent, limit information, and manipulate public opinion, Proton VPN and the anti-censorship services it provides have never been more critical.
In 2023, Access Now recorded 283 shutdowns across 39 countries. We unfortunately expect this trend to continue over the year to come. In 2024 we observed spikes in signups to Proton VPN (a spike being any sudden increase of over 100% over the previous baseline) in 119 countries*, including:
- 20 countries with at least one spike in signups of over 1,000%
- 6 countries with at least one spike in signups of over 5,000%
- 4 countries with at least one spike in signups of over 10,000%
At Proton VPN, we feel protecting privacy and free speech is the best way to allow democracy to thrive, which is why we offer additional free VPN servers during moments of political instability and dedicate considerable resources to develop advanced anti-censorship features. These projects hold special importance to us at Proton as we believe the best measure of our success is our social impact.
This article provides an in-depth overview of our efforts in 2024, the effects they had, the censorship tactics we faced from authoritarian governments, and the ways citizens worldwide took steps to defend themselves. We highlight key milestones, share data from our observatory, and discuss VPN usage trends that underscore the increasing societal importance of internet privacy and access. Join us as we reflect on a year of challenges, innovation, and resilience in the battle against censorship.
- Eyes on elections campaign
- A closer look at elections
- Governments increasingly censor the internet
- Signup spikes by region
- Advanced anti-censorship features(nieuw venster)
- Proton VPN – the anti-censorship tool for everyone
Eyes on elections campaign
In 2024, 64 countries — home to roughly half the world’s population — held national elections, making it a record-breaking year for democracy. Unfortunately, many of these elections took place in countries with histories of stifling political opponents online, censorship, disinformation, and election tampering.
To support free and fair elections, Proton VPN provided additional free VPN servers in 21 countries for at least two weeks before and after election day. In some places, as we describe later in this report, we made our servers available for free for much longer in response to events on the ground. Using our Smart Routing technology, we ensured that anyone in these countries could access the unrestricted internet, even in places where it was impossible to securely deploy physical servers.
Thanks to this initiative, more than a million people worldwide were able to circumvent censorship and access a free and fair internet in the lead up to elections.
A closer look at elections
Venezuela
In late July 2024, Venezuela plunged into political unrest following another disputed presidential election. While both Henrique Capriles, the opposition leader, and President Nicolas Maduro claimed victory in the July 28 election, the (disputed) official results showed Maduro securing another term(nieuw venster). Opposition parties and outside observers alleged widespread electoral fraud, citing irregularities in vote tallies and voter suppression efforts.
Massive protests erupted in many of Venezuela’s major cities, with demonstrators demanding an independent audit. Law enforcement responded with force, detaining thousands of protesters, including hundreds of children, and killing up to 23(nieuw venster). In the face of growing unrest, the government implemented severe internet restrictions, blocking access to major social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and Facebook.
Proton VPN has a long history of supporting freedom of speech in Venezuela going back to 2019(nieuw venster), which led the Maduro regime to block our website before the election even began. However, the Venezuelan people are also accustomed to the regime’s heavy hand and knew to download our mobile apps or get our desktop version from GitHub. Over this period, Proton VPN saw a 13,000% increase in signups.
A few days later, on August 9, President Maduro attempted to silence dissent by blocking X for 10 days(nieuw venster), calling for a boycott of WhatsApp, and blocking Signal(nieuw venster). At the end of August, the nation’s internet was essentially turned off (the government blamed a blackout caused by the opposition party).
During this period, Proton VPN became a lifeline for many Venezuelans seeking access to accurate information on the internet. This led to another surge in signups, spiking to 51,000% over the new baseline, making Proton VPN the most downloaded app in the country on Google Play and the App Store.
In response to this unprecedented demand, Proton VPN expanded its server capacity, reaffirming its commitment to providing Venezuelans with access to a free and open internet. Meanwhile, state-run media launched a disinformation campaign against Proton VPN(nieuw venster), accusing it of colluding with foreign powers to undermine the government
Mauritius
In early November 2024, Mauritius faced an unprecedented political crisis ahead of the general election on November 10. A wire-tapping scandal(nieuw venster) engulfed the country, with leaked recordings implicating high-ranking officials in alleged corruption, including a police chief asking a coroner to change the cause of death after a suspect died in police custody. Public outrage mounted, leading to widespread calls for accountability and threatening the ruling coalition’s grip on power.
In response to growing unrest over the leaks, the government blocked access to major social media platforms(nieuw venster), including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, just days before the election.
Officials claimed the move was necessary to prevent the spread of misinformation, but critics, including opposition leaders and international observers, condemned the measure as a blatant attempt to stifle dissent and control the narrative during the run-up to the election.
The social media blackout was scheduled to last until November 11, the day after the election, but it immediately disrupted communication and mobilization efforts among opposition groups. In response, Mauritians turned to VPN services en masse to bypass the blocks. Proton VPN reported a 182,890% increase in signups within 48 hours — the largest spike of 2024 in our Global Observatory. Remarkably, this means that 10% of the entire population of Mauritius — over 120,000 people — signed up for Proton VPN over this two-day span. This also made us the second most popular app in Google Play for Mauritius.
The government eventually gave up its social media blackout on November 7(nieuw venster). Elections proceeded as scheduled on November 10, and the results — a landslide victory for the opposition — were accepted by both parties.
Governments increasingly censor the internet
Not all spikes in Proton VPN signups are linked to an election. While elections remain the primary cause for internet shutdowns, all kinds of crises can convince the government to censor the internet.
Brazil
In April, Justice Alexandre de Moraes concluded an investigation into X (formerly Twitter) over its role in the January 2023 riots following the contentious presidential election between Jair Bolsanaro and Lula da Silva. As part of his investigation, Justice Moraes ordered X to shut down dozens of accounts(nieuw venster) that were allegedly used to spread misinformation and intimidate federal officers. This led to a spike in signups for Proton VPN that was 600% higher than our previous day-to-day average.
X’s owner, Elon Musk, refused to comply with these orders(nieuw venster), leading to an escalation of legal hostilities, with Justice Moraes threatening to arrest X’s legal representative in Brazil and Musk shutting down X’s operations in the country(nieuw venster). Brazilian ISPs began blocking X(nieuw venster) on August 31. Justice Moraes also controversially froze Starlink’s bank accounts(nieuw venster) after it said it wouldn’t block X (Starlink is a satellite-based internet service provider also owned by Musk), a position it swiftly reversed.
Despite Justice Moraes imposing a fine on individuals and companies that use a VPN to bypass the block and access X, Proton VPN saw a 1,840% increase in signups over the new August baseline, leading us to the be the second most popular app on Google Play under the Tools section. The block on X remained in place (with some hiccups(nieuw venster)) until October 8(nieuw venster), when X complied with the government orders by naming an in-country representative, closing the accounts in question, and paying a fine of roughly $5.2 million (that allegedly ended up in the wrong bank account(nieuw venster)).
Bangladesh
On July 5, tens of thousands of students took to the streets of Dhaka to protest government job quotas that they claim are used to reward supporters of the ruling Awami party. These protests began after Bangladesh’s High Court reinstated the quota system that had been struck down in 2018. While the quota system guarantees well-paying government jobs for several groups, protesters were demanding a reduction to the number of jobs reserved for the children and grandchildren of people who fought in the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan (30% after the court’s ruling).
The protests remained peaceful for roughly 10 days. Then on July 15, pro-government demonstrators reportedly met the students with petrol bombs and machetes. the government responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.
The violence quickly escalated. On July 16, the Bangladesh government sent in riot police and another paramilitary forces to separate the pro-government demonstrators and anti-quota protesters using tear gas and batons. On July 17, anti-quote demonstrators broke into the state broadcaster BTV(nieuw venster) and set parts of the building on fire. The government responded by shutting off internet access(nieuw venster) and the phone lines, imposing a curfew(nieuw venster), and deploying the army. On July 21, the High Court defused the situation by agreeing to reduce the quota system(nieuw venster) so that 93% of jobs would be assigned according to merit.
This blackout lasted for 11 days, until mobile internet was restored on July 28(nieuw venster). Unfortunately, by this point, independent observers estimate that roughly 200 people had been killed. Even after internet access was restored, the government continued to censor social media and messaging platforms, like Facebook, TikTok, WhatsApp, and YouTube.
It was at this point that many Bangladeshis turned to Proton VPN to access the uncensored internet. On July 30, Proton VPN saw a 40,000% spike in signups, to the point where we had more users in Bangladesh than in the USA.
Unfortunately, new shutdowns are emerging all the time. We’ve already had two January. You can always keep with the state of the internet and global censorship by visiting our Internet Observatory.
Signup spikes by region
We observed the most signup spikes in Latin America, mainly driven by Venezuela and Brazil. (For the purpose of these measurements, a spike is a sudden increase in signups that’s more than 100% over the previous baseline.) The second region with the most spikes is Southern Asia, mainly driven by Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Advanced anti-censorship features
The fight to protect free speech is an ongoing, ever-evolving battle against internet service providers and, occasionally, national governments. This past year, we’ve focused on making Proton VPN more accessible and easier to use so that everyone everywhere can turn to a free, reliable, trustworthy VPN in times of need. These features include:
Guest mode on Android
Anyone with an Android can download our Proton VPN app and log in for free without creating an account or needing any credentials. Simply tap Continue as guest, and we’ll automatically connect you
to one of the servers available on our Free plan.
Discreet icons
Authoritarian governments know that VPNs are effective ways of getting around their censorship attempts, so law enforcement has begun physically searching phones for VPN apps(nieuw venster) in places like Myanmar. To help keep our community safe, we’ve added innocuous-looking app icons that allow you to disguise Proton VPN.
Stealth protocol on Windows
We added support for the Stealth VPN protocol, one of the most effective VPN protocols at avoiding government attempts to block VPNs, to our Windows app, meaning this advanced anti-censorship tool is available to anyone with an Android, iPhone, Mac, or Windows device.
Free browser extensions
We made our browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox available to everyone for free, allowing anyone to get VPN protection without needing to download or install the VPN app on their device. This also allows us to provide access to our services in countries where the government removed our app from the App Store and Play Store.
We’ve already seen the community put these new features to work, especially Guest mode. We released Guest mode in late June and saw that it had a clear impact. After its release, the number of people using Proton VPN on Android devices began a dramatic climb, especially in countries where censorship is an issue, such as Venezuela.
Compared to our 30-day rolling average from earlier in the year, we saw a steady increase in signups begin on July 1 (just a couple days after the Guest mode’s release) that initially peaked at 66%. By October 1, another steady increase in signups peaked at 180% over the 30-day rolling average from the first half of the year.
To see the new features we have planned, read our 2024-2025 winter roadmap.
Proton VPN – the anti-censorship tool for everyone
The cause of freedom knows no borders, and no one should be denied access to accurate information or freedom of expression. These principles guide our work at Proton VPN. Thanks to the support of the Proton community, we were able to help millions of people worldwide access the news they need and get in touch with friends and family when the internet went dark.
David Peterson, Proton VPN’s General Manager, added the following, “VPNs have become essential tools as governments around the globe increasingly rely on online censorship to stifle dissent and exert control. Social media blocks and internet blackouts have sadly become normalized and are now viewed as simply another tool governments can turn to. VPNs give everyday citizens the ability to fight back against this encroaching censorship.”
“While our work sometimes makes headlines(nieuw venster), it’s often the projects we can’t talk about (as it would put members of the Proton community in danger) that we’re the most proud of. Just know that, be it China, Venezuela, Russia, or Pakistan, wherever there’s persistent internet censorship, we’re at work providing a solution.”
Read our 2024 report(nieuw venster) that contains more examples of Proton VPN’s work.
