According to the latest release of Atlas VPN’s Global VPN Adoption Index, downloads of virtual private networks (VPN) reached 215 million in the first half of 2022. Russia recorded the most significant shift, with nearly 35 million downloads of VPN services in said period.
While Russians had only made only 12.5 million downloads during the previous year, VPN demand was boosted in March 2022, by a new wave of online censorship. The authority blocked access to Facebook and Instagram, accusing their parent company Meta of allowing hate speech against Russians, including the military, on its platforms.
In the last week of that month, the traffic of VPN services was 69 times higher than in the first week of January, according to a separate report.
The authorities responded by blocking access to a number of VPN services.
Meanwhile, during the first six months of 2022, Ukraine made it to the tenth position for VPN adoption, with 4.2 million downloads. “Online warfare causes citizens to think about their online safety, which is why they turn to VPNs,” says Atlas VPN.
Five out of ten spots were occupied by Arab countries, notes Atlas VPN, attributing this fact to strict online restrictions in many Arbaic countries.
“Governments in Arab countries tend to ban content that goes against Islam’s moral values, the primary target being pornography websites. On top of that, ISPs censor politically sensitive topics, mainly criticism of the government.”
Top 10 countries by VPN adoption in H1 2022
Atlas VPN extracted the data for this analysis from Google Play Store and Apple App store using Sensor Tower and App Tweak services.
35 million Russians downloaded VPN applications in H1 2022Read More
