Best VPNs for Nicaragua

Using a Nicaraguan IP

The political climate in Nicaragua has been unstable during the last decade, as the government makes great efforts to silence critics. Citizens and media alike have reported being censored because they opposed the government. This censorship has led to several internet blackouts amid protests. For that reason, citizens and visitors have to protect themselves online. They can do that by using a VPN service as it will safely protect the users’ privacy by changing their IP address to another location. That also means that they will have the possibility to access content from other countries.

Regardless, the country’s content is interesting enough to justify using a Nicaraguan IP address. Nicaragua already benefits from the presence of streaming services such as Netflix, Spotify, and Apple Music, meaning these platforms already have exclusive content for the country. Though that region has its own channels, they are still small in number, and can therefore be easily accessed by using an IPTV application on Apple and Google Play Stores.

Nicaraguan online privacy laws

Given that the country’s level of internet penetration is still significantly low (42.6%), Nicaragua hasn’t developed a law that focuses specifically on online privacy. However, data protection in general is considered by the law.

Nicaragua’s 2012 national data protection law concerns the rights of individuals that are stored in private and public databases. Like most countries, this law provides individuals the right to access and request correction of the their information. In addition, citizens have the right to information self-determination. This means that every person is entitled to have information concerning who is processing their personal data, for what purpose, and how long it will last. However, unlike others, this legislation provides the right to be forgotten, meaning that citizens have the right to request that search engines and social media websites remove their personal data from databases.

Internet censorship in Nicaragua

Although prominent figures may self-censor out of fear of retribution, individuals are able to voice their opinions freely on social media networks. So far, there have been no reports of censorship or harassment against individuals. However, Vice President Rosario Murillo has already claimed that the government will review the use of social networks, even though that is the last of netizens’ worries as internet blackouts have already occurred in the past. In 2018, while protests against the government were occurring and protesters were facing military consequences, a series of regional outages and disruptions were detected.

While it hasn’t been proven that the President or his associates had anything to do with the internet shutdown, the time overlap between the protests and the outages is clearly suspicious. As the protests continued, Telcor – the Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications and Postal Service – ordered television and mobile phone service providers to cease the transmission of independent news channels through their systems.

Streaming services in Nicaragua

Despite the negative climate Nicaraguans experience when it comes to freedom of speech, several popular streaming services have made their way into the country. Netflix, Spotify, and Apple Music are available in the country for anyone who wants to subscribe to them. Netflix, as a benchmark when it comes to films and series, includes Nicaraguan movies, such as Karla’s Arrival and La Yuma. The latter is one of the country’s most recent films.

However, with censorship and internet blackouts showing no signs of stopping, enjoying streaming services can turn into a frustrating experience. In order to avoid being throttled by the government, users will need to use a VPN service. Not only will a VPN protect them from the regime’s preying eyes by switching the real IP address with one at another location, but it will also unblock geographically-restricted content from other countries. This way, Nicaraguans will be able to have online privacy while being able to access U.S. versions of their favorite streaming services, for example.

Free Nicaraguan VPN trials

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