News Summary
- Oppressive regimes are restricting or outright preventing the free flow of information into and out of regions under their control.
- Reporters, journalists, bloggers, activists, and citizens are not being allowed to post or read sources of information that the country prohibits them from accessing.
- Reporters, journalists, bloggers, activists, and citizens, as well as their families, are being targeted and potentially face separation, beatings, prison, and even death sentences for posting and reading information the government deems unsavory.
- Global internet freedom has declined for the 11th year in a row.
- Russia has one of the highest censorship levels in the world.
- Russia has a history of detaining, torturing, and murdering journalists and activists.
- Journalists, Activists and Dissidents Under Threat in the Wake of Russian Invasion (vice.com).
- 2,130 Journalists and Media Workers Killed between 1992 and 2022.
- Internet Censorship 2022: A Global Map of Internet Restrictions.
Pleasanton, CA, March 7, 2022 — OpenVPN, Inc., a leading global private networking security and cybersecurity company, announced today that it is providing free, secure access to the internet as part of its “Operation Information Freedom'' initiative. This initiative is especially intended for journalists, reporters, activists, and citizens located within the borders of oppressive nations that either want to report on, or read about, the state of events without being discovered, identified, restricted, or outright prevented from connecting to sources of information outside of their location. Information on the ongoing actions of the Russian military and oligarchs in Ukraine is being restricted from the general Russian population — that’s where the Operation Information Freedom initiative comes into play.
OpenVPN CEO Speaks Out About Freedom of Information
“This initiative is very personal to me,” says OpenVPN CEO and Co-Founder Francis Dinha. “I grew up under the regime of Saddam Hussein. I had family members who were executed. I watched hangings in the street for those who criticized the government. We cannot allow these oppressive governments to censor the work of journalists and activists; we cannot allow them to block the rights of their citizens to access information on the internet. That cannot stand. This is why we’ve launched Operation Information Freedom — to help those in Russia and other oppressive countries who need this access, now.
We cannot allow these oppressive governments to censor the work of journalists and activists.
- Francis Dinha, CEO & Co-Founder, OpenVPN Inc.
"These oppressive regimes will do whatever they can to keep their actions — war, human rights violations, genocide — secret from their citizens,” Dinha continues. “We hope they fail, as the courageous protests in Russia have shown, but at OpenVPN, we are going to do more than hope. The people have a right to know what their government officials are doing in their name. They have a right to access the same information any other global citizen can access. They have a right to free and secure internet."
OpenVPN Contributes to Freedom of Information
OpenVPN stands for freedom of information and is against internet censorship for all reporters, journalists, bloggers, activists, and citizens that are located in oppressive, totalitarian regimes such as Russia. If you live or work in a country that is controlling your right to access information, please send an email requesting the use of OpenVPN security technology to retain or regain freedom of information.
To access Operation Information Freedom, contact OpenVPN at informationfreedom@openvpn.net and provide background information about your situation.
About OpenVPN, Inc.
OpenVPN® Cloud takes the complexity and high cost out of building and managing a secure network for your entire organization with a cloud-based solution that is easy to deploy. OpenVPN’s unique virtualized network-as-a-service (NaaS) solution ensures secure networking, remote access, and effective content filtering, so your distributed workforce, servers, network devices, IoT/IIoT devices, and applications across your business have instant access to the services they need, quickly and easily, while protecting them from cyberattacks.
Built on the market-proven OpenVPN protocol, the solution consolidates secure remote access, full encryption, advanced IP and domain routing, intrusion detection/prevention (IDS/IPS), DNS-based content filtering, and firewall capabilities into a virtualized, mesh-connected, high-speed network platform with worldwide points of presence. OpenVPN Cloud is a full-featured NaaS platform that was designed from the ground up to provide the best of VPN, SASE, ZTNA, and SD-WAN security.
With more than 60 million downloads of our core open source software and over 20,000 commercial customers, OpenVPN is recognized as a global leader in secure networking. Learn more about OpenVPN, Inc. at https://openvpn.net.
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