The Minister for Culture, Jakob Engel-Schmidt, has decided to cut part of a bill relating to the use of VPNs, the ministry said in a statement on Monday.
“I do not support making VPNs illegal and I have never proposed to do so,” Engel-Schmidt said in the statement.
The text of a recent government bill said it would ban the use of VPNs in Denmark “to access media content which would otherwise not be available in Denmark, or to circumvent blocks on illegal websites.”
A VPN, or virtual private network, is a tool that encrypts your internet connection and hides your IP address. It is used to improve privacy and security online and to access content that may be restricted by location.
That makes it possible for users in Denmark to view content on the US or UK versions of Netflix or a sports broadcast not shown in the Nordic country.
In addition to accessing content, VPNs are also highly useful for data security purposes, and are recommended for reasons related to this by consumer groups in Denmark.
Engel-Schmidt denied over the weekend that the government wanted to ban VPNs, saying the bill was “not formulated precisely enough.”
“I am therefore removing the section about VPNs from the proposal so there is no longer any doubt that I in no way wish to ban VPNs,” he said.
The bill is currently at the hearing stage, meaning it is yet to be finalised and debated in parliament.
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