The Top 3 Apps in my Country (Venezuela) are all VPNs...

Well, at least the No. 1 spot is a trustworthy VPN.

Yeah, but the other two... (And fucking TikTok there twice! TWICE!)
- None of those apps are the official Ticktok app.
  
  Honestly I would try to get most of your apps from F-droid. F-droid only has free and open source software which means it is typically much less sketchy.
That only increased proton's load and now it would be worse for other free users
- Maybe pay for the service?

I wonder if people know why they are downloading and using a VPN. Especially when you're talking about the more sketchy ones.

To avoid region locking. Anything else regarding security is just bogus talk they trying sell you.
- Security as in cybersecurity, yes. Security as in not getting caught violating government bans, not so much - if you're in a country where getting repressed by your government is a real possibility, it helps a lot for it to not be possible to see exactly what sites you visit. Reminder: even over HTTPS, the domain name (like lemmy.world) is normally not encrypted. Encrypted Client Hello can solve this, but it has only started being commonly used a year ago or so, and more importantly requires the host to support it.
Superficially, maybe. But not in depth, like knowing what a VPN actually does and such.
- I wonder how much of that 'education' is from ads and influencers constantly pushing VPNs. LOL
Considering that there is a ton of censorship there I think they definitely know why.
- Source?
  
  It’s my understanding the issue isn’t Venezuelan officials censoring, so much as other countries blocking access from Venezuelan users.

at least its proton vpn instead of the scammy ones.

Apparently the CEO of proton is a big trumper now :(
- And?
Should I still be using Surfshark? I only use it because it’s fast.
Careful who you trust, proton is trump scum
- Just found out today. this is why we cant have nice things.
- What did they do?
- You fell for a sensationalising post.

Venezuela is one of those countries that just constantly seems to be in a bad state. I can't imagine living under a government that disrespects its people.

As it turns out unalienable rights are totally alienable

It’s in a bad state now because of the sanctions placed upon it. It was in a bad state before because of capitalist rule.
For a colonial power, Spain was a real douchebag. The effects of that douchebaggery seem to have real staying power.
- There are plenty of other former Spanish colonies that are doing much better than Venezuela
- A colonial powers in the Americas were real douchebags. They genocided the natives, then went to another continent to enslave people and bring them over. All this was for sugar and tobacco. Millions of deaths and enslaved so some people in Europe could smoke cigarettes while they have sweets. It couldn't get much worse than that.
And I wonder whose fault it is for turning and keeping it in a state of perpetual decay 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
that's because the us and the cia spent years destabilising it
I can’t imagine living under a government that disrespects its people.

lol you in antarctica?
Self-centered USAmericans thinking Venezuela is the way it is because of them, ha. The USA has just followed in Venezuela's footsteps, electing a dictator

Same as Florida... but for different reasons.

Oh yeah, I know why lol

Isn’t tiktok free? Why would you need a lite version. Is it for old phones that can’t run much?

Yes, is for old phones and such. A mutual told me the main app is bad optimized, and a lot of smartphone here are very VERY old. Mine have like 5 years or so, I think that's like 5 decades in more "develop" countries.

Third-world shenanigans, you know.
If it's anything like Facebook lite, it's literally a wrapper for the website. Not even a proper app. Usually a worse experience than using a real browser, but the main apps are usually so bad that people with older phones put up with the lite "apps".

Is that because of the political situation? Like repression, internet censorship... Or an unrelated trend?

Yeah, is political. We can enter twitter (not that I care) and other sites.
- Just read the government is currently also on a VPN banning spree. I guess that list is going to change frequently now, if people continue with watching Youtube, Instagram and Twitter.
  
  My top apps are all shopping apps, discount apps, WhatsApp, ChatGPT, TEMU, video streaming and TikTok is there, too. VPN comes further down along with dating apps and then it gets quite random. Guess in Germany our biggest worry is to save some money when grocery shopping...
- Me and many others all run the Snowflake browser extension so that you can still bypass censorship with Tor. With Snowflakes it is impossible to block Tor without blocking the public internet.
  
  Also Briar messager can be used for communication in the event of internet black outs.

Proton VPN is one of the few great ones, along with Mullvad and Windscribe

They just came out in support of the Republicans today, sadly.
- They as Proton did not.
  
  Their current CEO did.
  
  Massive difference, this may be their personal opinion but surely it does not speak for the whole company.

Its a shame so many people are trying to go for Proton since they expressed support for a Trump pick

I for one, while being as anti-trump as it gets, do not judge a company and their service based on the political view of an individual that works there. Yes there are some principle decisions that one can make but the software itself is good and the service they offer.
- i mean andy doesnt just work there hes the literal ceo and 1/5th of the board
because of their incredible no logs policy. Its the best vpn according to piracy communities.
Wasn't it just the CEO?
- Nope. They shared this from the company account on Bluesky and Mastodon.
While I am deeply disappointed by the message, their actions in the industry have still been generally positive over the years and their services remain one of the only reasonable alternatives to google, apple, and microsoft's cloud services. Outside of the VPN, Their UX still needs work before I can say its ready for the average person - but It's still good enough for most people here who have some base level of technological literacy.

Though I am now looking for and hoping for an alternative to crop up somewhere.
- cozying up to a five eyes country isn't a good look for a privacy company

How good is adguard VPN? Got a good deal on 5 years of it.

May i ask how is the censorship in venezuela?

Is not north Korea nor China, I can assure you that.
- So it's not too bad? with how corrupt venezuela is, you'd think they would censor a lot of things. That's how it works in most corrupt countries including mine at least.
- Have you been to any of those places? It feels weird to use North Korea as a comparison.
  
  https://rsf.org/en/index
  
  https://freedomhouse.org/explore-the-map
It looks like TikTok is still available so it's better than USA.
- Tiktok isn't banned in Saudi either. Does that make us better than the USA, too?
  
  Tiktok being banned in the US is pretty authoritarian, but using it as the only metric is BS.

I wish USA was as free as Venezuela to allow TikTok. It sucks living under a fascist terror empire.

"as free as Venezuela"

My brother in Christ, I have news for you.
Of course! we welcome you into the third world! I hope you can deal with literal fascism, state sponsored oppression/murder, bad economies, police states, and theocracy!

It sucks living under a fascist terror empire.

Dude, almost every single developing country is like this, and when it is fascist, it is actual literal fascism. I, and i'm sure the OP would too and many others, would give anything just to be in your place.

I'm not saying you can't complain about the US, but comparing your life to ours is incredibly privileged.