The United Kingdom is escalating its censorship and mass surveillance.

Mullvad VPN

The United Kingdom is escalating its censorship and mass surveillance. When Mullvad tried to criticise this with the TV ad “And Then?”, it was banned on British television.

https://media.mullvad.net/andthen/30s/Mullvad_AND_THEN_30s_US_ProRes422_Webmix_4K.mov

shadowwwind

@mullvadnet whut

Ret

@mullvadnet do you have some more information about the "ban" here? I'd like to write to the ASA to complain about that decision if possible. I can't see a ruling entry for it on the ASA site.

Charlie O’Hara

@mullvadnet say what? Tell us more of this more please!

leah & flutters & nose, oh my!

@mullvadnet hold up! Mullvad wasn't censored. that word has a particular, specific meaning, and unlike most private organisations that might deny someone a platform, Clearcast has a judicial review ruling saying that it's a private, non-governmental body:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clearcast

had Mullvad's ad been banned by the ASA, that would have been censorship - and indeed, since the ASA also monitors billboard ads, that might still happen... but what happened here was that nobody who broadcast the ads would broadcast Mullvad's, which is probably not terribly surprising given that they're all owned by companies with a vested interest in not letting VPNs get a foothold.

moreover, it was just that ad that was rejected. not Mullvad as a whole.

https://mullvad.net/en/and-then/uk

leah & flutters & nose, oh my!

@ret @mullvadnet Mullvad's own account is here.

https://mullvad.net/en/and-then/uk

there's nothing to complain to the ASA about - the ad was rejected by the TV companies' own (private, joint-owned) pre-vetting body, and mainly on grounds of quality and clarity.

Ret

@mewsleah thanks, I hadn't seen that. Disappointing.

Eugen Rochko

@mullvadnet It's a great ad.