The internet in Finland is almost as pure and all-natural as its crystal clear waters. The country’s on and offline press is one of the least restricted in the world, and Finland was the first in history to make internet access a legal right. Indeed a very positive foresight, but there are some limitations to the online situation in this case. Copyright is regulated quite specifically, and the case of lapsiporno.info (which is not a pornographic site, do not be fooled by the name) raises questions about the transparency and effectiveness of Finnish internet. Still, the situation is generally good. Accessing Finnish websites both from in and outside the country is met with second to no resistance.
The most important property of Finnish websites is language. Since the availability of them is good outside the country’s borders, the only real problem remaining to experience them fully is the language barrier. The usage of IPv6 protocols is on the rise in the country. On the 9th of June, 2015, the National IPv6 Launch Seminar declared that “IPv6 must be brought into use so that all users can communicate with each other on the internet also in the future”. Indeed the filling up of IPv4 type addresses is a problem, and Finland is not hesitant to implement this new type of protocol. Currently, the availability of these safer addresses varies from 50 to 60%. If you are looking to use Finnish IP addresses from foreign lands with the help of a VPN service, make sure to check which protocols are used by your provider. Not all of them are optimized for IPv6, so double-check if there are extra security measures employed by the company to prevent this, like DNS leak protection.
To give you another indicator of the attitude of Finland towards internet freedom, we have to emphasize that access to internet is a legal right to Finnish citizens. They were the first in the world to set an example in this matter and have since been followed by similar sanctions or ones that strongly point to internet access as a fundamental right in other countries like Costa Rica, Estonia and Greece. Such a universal notion is strongly linked to the freedom of speech and press. What is important to note in the case of Finland is that both on and offline press is virtually unaffected; they are free to write, except some very specific opinions (like hate speech). To sum up, Finland’s legal attitude towards internet freedom is very favorable; whether you are in or outside of the country, you will find few restricted content blocking your access.
The Lex Karpela is an amendment concerning copyright issues in Finland. In effect since 2006, it puts emphasis on categorizing unauthorized file sharing a crime, and downloading copies of artistic works move within strict borders, even if the purpose is personal use. Thus, if you are interested in accessing file sharing networks from Finland, we recommend using VPN providers that are adept at helping you out in this matter.
There are some curious cases of selective censorship in Finland. The curiousness of the country’s internet policy lies in individual cases. Perhaps the most prominent example of online censorship in Finland is lapsiporno.info, a website dedicated against child pornography and internet censorship. Its content is also critical of the Finnish government to some degree and thus was also blocked, next to the child pornography domains lapsiporno listed. The case was taken to court, and today the website is blocked on a voluntary basis. This means that certain ISPs restrict access to the website, and some do not. What is curious about this blocking procedure is that not all of the blocked Finnish domains posted on the website contain child pornography, still they remain restricted. Apart from this case, online gambling is filtered in Finland, and some ISPs block The Pirate Bay inside the country’s borders.
As a member of the EU, Finland’s streaming service availability corresponds to those of the other member states’ opportunities. In terms of music streaming, Beatport, SoundCloud and 8tracks are available. You can also find Spotify in Finland, and Google Play Music, along with Apple Music (the latter for Android and iOS only) is similarly within reach. You cannot access Amazon Prime, however and you will not be able to find Pandora or Napster either. For moving pictures, Netflix is available for Finnish, but Hulu and BBC iPlayer are not. If you do wish to connect to these sites nevertheless, we recommend using a VPN service. Whether it is unblocking, or by connecting to one of the desired country’s IP addresses, they offer a safe solution to view restricted content from Finland.
In today’s trend of growing internet restrictions on a country to country basis, VPN services are a gateway to unblock your internet globally. Therefore we would like to recommend you three of the most suitable ones for Finland. Sadly, no providers offer DNS leak protection and access to Finland; a firewall, or utilizing Tor is the next best option. If you are a prominent user of IPv6 addresses, we advise you to take a look at VyprVPN. Their services include a built-in NAT firewall, protecting you from online identity theft. You are also welcomed with secured online storage and access to 40+ countries if you become a customer. If you are interested in unblocking foreign content, we recommend ibVPN. Their own development, ibDNS, is a SmartDNS service that is designed to eliminate DNS filters that show up on your screen. And for general usage, we recommend HideMyAss. Do not be offended by the company’s name; there is a humorous aspect to this service. This is easy to overlook, but you cannot go past not noticing the all around first class service they offer in every aspect of VPN.
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