VPN sees massive surge in signups after Pornhub exits France

A popular VPN service reported a 1,000% increase in registrations just 30 minutes after Pornhub blocked access in France this week. The adult site reportedly exited its second-biggest market on June 4 because of a new French age-verification law, per Mashable's Anna Iovine.

"5PM - PornHub blocks France from accessing its website," Proton VPN tweeted Wednesday. "5.30PM - @ProtonVPN registrations increase by 1,000%[.] For context, this is more than when TikTok blocked Americans."

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Mashable has reached out to Proton VPN for comment.

A VPN, or virtual private network, is a service that routes your internet traffic through an encrypted tunnel to a remote server before sending it out onto the web. The main purpose of a VPN is to reclaim some online privacy from one's ISP and other prying eyes. But they're also commonly used to spoof one's location: A VPN can make it appear as though its user is visiting websites from a country they're not physically in.

The Swiss-based Proton VPN was launched in 2017 and currently maintains a massive network of more than 13,000 servers in 117 countries worldwide. To date, it's the only VPN service we've tested that's won a Mashable Choice Award. Read our full review.