Sources: the US increased its funding into VPN companies nthLink, Psiphon, and Lantern by about 50% since February to support the surge in their Russian users
Reuters
Context & Ripple Effects
Russia's war in Ukraine triggered a collapse in open access at home and a scramble abroad: daily downloads of the top ten VPN apps jumped from roughly 15K before the invasion to 475K in March per Apptopia as Russians rushed to evade restrictions, while Moscow itself quietly bought censorship-circumvention tech — 236 procurement contracts worth $9.8M since February documented by Top10VPN.
Today's report closes the loop on the state side of that equation: US funders have raised support for nthLink, Psiphon, and Lantern by about 50% since February specifically to absorb the surge in Russian users — turning consumer anti-censorship tools into a line item of information policy.
First-order effects
nthLink, Psiphon, and Lantern get roughly half again their prior funding to scale capacity for a user base that grew thirtyfold in March alone, easing the server-load and bandwidth constraints that surge demand creates.
Second-order effects
Russian authorities face a moving target: they are simultaneously blocking foreign VPNs and buying circumvention tools themselves per the procurement documents, which pushes them toward deeper technical controls rather than simple app-store takedowns.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, anti-censorship tooling becomes standing geopolitical infrastructure — governments funding VPN capacity as routinely as broadcast services, and censorship escalating from blocking apps to attacking the protocols underneath.
The trend: State-funded circumvention is becoming a core instrument of information conflict, with US-backed VPN capacity scaling in direct response to each round of Russian internet control.
Since Putin introduced his draconian law that censors social media, I've been writing and advocating for 🇺🇸 support for VPN in Russia to bypass 🇷🇺 censorship. God bless America. Next step: provide more info on Tor (many ppl still don't know about it there) https://www.reuters.com…
U.S. targets #Russia with tech to evade #censorship of #Ukraine news “The financing effort is focused on three firms that build #VirtualPrivateNetworks (#VPN) -#nthLink,#Psiphon & #Lantern -and is designed to support a recent surge in their Russian users.” https://www.reuters.com…
New from @Bing_Chris and I: The U.S. government has pushed new, increased funding into three VPNs since the start of the Ukraine conflict to help Russians sidestep censors and access Western media: https://www.reuters.com/...
U.S. targets Russia with tech to evade censorship of Ukraine news...I recall the vital role “Radio Free Europe” played in the latter half of the 20 century. Misinformation & propaganda now require an upgrade in service to reach those populations w/no access https://www.reuters.co…
I support my government financing access to the open web for people who live under censorship regimes around the world. Financing access to open money would be good too. https://twitter.com/...
I love it. The U.S. government has pushed new, increased funding into three technology companies since the start of the Ukraine conflict to help Russians sidestep censors and access Western media, according to five people familiar with the situation. https://www.reuters.com/...
Great scoop from @pearswick and @bing_chris on how the U.S. is funding three VPN companies, nthLink, Psiphon, and Lantern, to help Russians get around censorship. EXCLUSIVE U.S. targets Russia with tech to evade censorship of Ukraine news https://www.reuters.com/...