this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2025
67 points (97.2% liked)

Privacy

33009 readers
1167 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Related communities

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

That's it, I get an error message whenever I try to post or comment if I'm connected to my VPN, butnot trouble if I just get disconnected. Does not fit the idea of decentralized social media I had, but overall I'm mainly curious as to the reason why it is so.

all 45 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 47 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Lemmy has nothing in its code that blocks VPNs. Unfortunately a lot of instances use cloudflare and other man-in-the-middle services that do block VPNs.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 9 points 1 day ago

man-in-the-middle services

*Threat actors

[–] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Its because you're on lemmy.world

Join us lemmy.dbzer0.com

We do not discriminate, I use Tor just fine.

Alternatively you can try my recommended instances:

sh.itjust.works

lemmy.ca

sopuli.xyz

(I have not tried these over Tor yet, so test it for yourself)

[–] Moshpotatoes91@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I left lemmy.world for these reasons. Haven't had any issues with lemmy.ml yet though 👍

[–] shaserlark@sh.itjust.works -2 points 18 hours ago

Don’t ever mention Winnie the Pooh

[–] ObsidianZed@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I tried to switch, but I had an issue with dbzer0 not marking posts as read which didn't work out for me.

[–] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Hmmm

Are you sure its not an app issue? (I use web UI btw, its flawless, zero bugs)

You can also try the other ones I've mentioned, they look great (even if the sh.itjust.works name is a bit goofy)

[–] ObsidianZed@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

It's likely a bug with the app as I use Sync, though it only occurs with dbzer0, 1 of 3 of my accounts.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 10 points 1 day ago

Don't use Lemmy.world server it is the regime front on fedi.

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 45 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I believe Lemmy.world blocks VPNs. You could try a different instance which doesn't have that policy

[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I comment on Lemmy.World all the time via a VPN though. Maybe they don't allow it for accounts on their instance?

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You are commenting on a lemmy.world community, but your connecting to sh.itjust.works, who then talks to lemmy.world. Your VPN isn't connecting directly to lemmy.world

[–] TheCoralReefsAreDying69@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I use a VPN and have never had issues connecting to lemmy.world despite regularly having issues with YouTube and Reddit. I wonder if its specific VPN networks or blacklisted IPs that lemmy.world doesn't like.

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 1 points 19 hours ago

Maybe .world only blocks the big VPNs. World pages also load very slow at least comparing to .ml. When someone links a .world link directly to a post there it takes ages to load.

[–] Tiger@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Aye good to know some instances block VPNs , didn’t know that. As a user from China who has to use a VPN always that would be problematic. Guys I got lucky with my instance.

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 25 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Because so many bad actors use VPNs for ban evasion or span sources, blocking the VPN endpoints from posting or commenting is a low hanging fruit way of dealing with some spam. This is Lemmy.World stance.

There are many others instances that work over VPNs so in the spirit of decentralization you can use another instance to access lemmy.world content.

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It also prevents normal people from using Lemmy at all...

[–] MachineFab812@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

lemmy.world is NOT "Lemmy"

Hell, during the great reddit migration, if I recall correctly, lemmy.world had to cap sign-ups.

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org -4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

It is a massive portion of Lemmy. And it doesn't just stop people from signing up, it stops people from participating in any way.

[–] MachineFab812@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

You yourself aren't even using a lemmy.world account. Your take on the matter is backwards and bizarre.

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 1 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

...please re-read the comment you just replied to.

[–] HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Does .World think it’s their content?

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 3 points 1 day ago

They host it, so they can do as they please.

Vote with your feet.

[–] 0x0@programming.dev 6 points 2 days ago

It's hosted in their servers. Dunno about the content licenses, if any.

[–] HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

One of many reasons to change instances

[–] Blaze@lemmy.zip 18 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Lemmy.dbzer0.com for the win

[–] 7U5K3N@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's where I went when I left .world. :)

[–] zdhzm2pgp@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Why did you leave .world, if you don't mind my asking, and just out of curiosity?

[–] 7U5K3N@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 day ago

Dbzer0 was a better fit for me. I like the way it's ran.. just all around a better experience for me.

[–] irotsoma@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 day ago

Not OP but I left because of the proposed change in moderation policy to allow "free speech" that basically would negate the anti-hate-speech policy.

[–] unlawfulbooger@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

It might depend on the lemmy instance you are posting to (lemmy.ml) and/or where you have your account (lemmy.world), because I don’t think that this is built into the AP protocol.

I suspect at least one of these uses some kind of filtering mechanism that blocks VPN users, like cloudflare’s CDN.

[–] SqueakyBeaver@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

btw, I think you may have mixed up the instances. The user is on .world and the post is on .ml

Other than that, you're probably correct

Oh yeah, hahaha.

Thanks, I’ll fix it.

[–] ToadOfHypnosis@lemmy.ml 17 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I used to have the same issue with lemmy.world - it’s the instance

[–] NOT_RICK_SANCHEZ@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

This is it! Instance blocks it.

[–] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 2 days ago

.world is a fickle bitch in general. It would be good if more users and communities balanced out amongst other instances.

[–] UnfortunateShort@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

I just reconnect and hope for an unflagged IP lol

[–] krnl386@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Get a free VPS from Oracle cloud in whatever region you want, run Wireguard on it. There, now you have a VPN that you control, and since it’s hosted by Oracle, and not a VPN company, there’s no way to “detect” it.

[–] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 day ago

I assure you that's detectable. The VPN detector I know, classifies all cloud providers as VPN as a matter of course, because no normal user would be coming from a cloud network.

[–] evujumenuk@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago

Like basically all cloud providers, Oracle publish their public-facing IP address ranges.

https://docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/General/Concepts/addressranges.htm

Many services block these because, as you are pointing out, standing up VPN tunnel routing on a cloud instance is sort of trivial. Cloud providers publish these ranges specifically so anyone can block them easily. If lemmy.world is not blocking Oracle Cloud already, it's only because they just haven't come around to it.

[–] umami_wasbi@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Or better, run your own instance, rather than a VPN.

[–] krnl386@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago

Yup, good point. One can run a private instance for “selfish” reasons.