By 2024, people in the US will have to use a VPN because of ISP-level internet filtering and censorship.

TRUE: by 31 December 2024, internet service providers in the US block or filter content at the network level, whether by law, regulation or industry-wide practice, so that ordinary users must use a VPN to reach blocked mainstream content or services, and this is widespread rather than isolated. MOSTLY TRUE: ISP-level blocking of this kind is in force by the deadline in a substantial part of the US (e.g. several states) or for a major category of content, so that VPN use is effectively needed there. MOSTLY FALSE: users in some places used VPNs to get around restrictions that were not ISP-level filtering, such as websites geo-blocking states over age-verification laws or the app-store/TikTok restrictions, or ISP-level filtering arrived only after 2024. FALSE: as of end-2024 there was no ISP-level content filtering or censorship in the US that required ordinary users to use VPNs.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Pornhub pulls out of seventh state Reason · 18 March 2024

   “States where Pornhub (and sister sites, such as Redtube and YouPorn) are now blocked include Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.”

2. E2 Pornhub pulls out of seventh state Reason · 18 March 2024

   “Pornhub has begun blocking visitors from Texas, where the authorities are attempting to enforce a new law requiring web porn platforms to check viewer ages.”

3. E3 Florida porn ban sees searches for free VPNs skyrocket Newsweek · 2 January 2025

   “Searches for "VPN" (virtual private proxy) surged in Florida on January 1 after a number of leading pornographic websites blocked access to the Sunshine State in response to a new law requiring age verification.”

4. E4 Appeals court blocks return of US net neutrality rules for ISPs Computerworld · 3 January 2025

   “The net neutrality rules require that providers of telecommunications services treat all traffic equally, but give providers of information services more freedom to filter or prioritize what they transmit.”

E1 and E2 show that by March 2024 Pornhub and its sister sites had blocked visitors from seven states, including Texas. E2 describes the Texas block as Pornhub itself blocking visitors in response to a state age-verification law, not as filtering by internet providers [E2]. E3 reports that Florida searches for VPNs surged on 1 January 2025 after adult sites blocked the state, which is again a website geo-block, and it came after the deadline. E4 describes the federal rules on how providers may handle traffic but does not report any ISP-level content blocking. The evidence matches the MOSTLY FALSE criterion: some people used VPNs to get around website geo-blocks, but no evidence shows widespread ISP-level filtering that forced ordinary users onto VPNs.