About 10 days ago Turkmenistan started experiencing failures in the operation of VPN applications, correspondents of “Chronicles of Turkmenistan”, Radio “Azatlyk” and Turkmen News report.
According to Turkmen News, the conference room solution Zoom and the payment system PayPal are also currently inaccessible.
VPN applications allow Turkmen residents to bypass Internet censorship to access social media blocked in Turkmenistan, websites and various resources as well as to use messengers.
It is unclear whether disrupted connections are caused by targeted censorship or technical problems of the Internet provider.
On 15 March, without explaining the reasons Bayramgeldi Ovezov, Deputy Prime Minister overseeing transportation, communications and industry was severely reprimanded.
Let us recall that subscribers of the only Internet provider “Turkmentelecom” experienced interrupted Internet connections in late February after Internet plans had been reduced by 20-50% pursuant to the President’s order.
It should be mentioned that there is no public register listing banned resources whereas the official authorities claim that there is no Internet censorship in the country. Web resources are blocked arbitrarily, without court orders, warnings or explanations provided to website owners.
More about the Internet in Turkmenistan, arbitrary censorship and showcase products are available in the article published by “Chronicles of Turkmenistan”.The post VPN applications are currently inaccessible in Turkmenistan first appeared on Chronicles of Turkmenistan.