Federal court blocks Utah's anti-VPN law for demanding the impossible

You can't pass a state law that rewrites how the internet works everywhere else.

A federal judge blocked Utah's SB 73, a law forcing adult websites to detect and block VPN users. Judge Barlow ruled that the state was demanding a technical impossibility: expecting sites to pinpoint every visitor's physical location with zero errors or face legal liability. Adult media company Aylo filed the lawsuit, with the EFF submitting formal comments explaining why the law breaks basic networking logic.

Why it matters: VPNs hide locations by routing traffic through intermediary servers. Because websites only see the VPN server's IP address, platforms faced an impossible choice: verify the age of every user on Earth just in case they were in Utah, or ban all VPN traffic nationwide. The court ruled that forcing global sites into that corner places an unconstitutional burden on people outside the state.

Know this: Utah's proposed rules suggested sites monitor connection latency and device time zones to spot VPN users. The EFF warned that these checks are unreliable and force an invasive tracking system onto internet users everywhere.

Code doesn't rewrite itself just because lawmakers ask nicely.