In the past, Argentina has enjoyed some of the best Internet freedoms in the world. Reporters Without Borders even ranked them 55th out of 180 countries in terms of citizens abilities to express themselves freely online, and they also took Internet censorship into consideration when they created the list. But the future for Argentina’s Internet may be darker than we expected. Last year, their House of Representatives started to propose and debate a multitude of reforms to a bill created in 1988 called the National Anti-Discrimination Act. But what does that bill have to do with the Internet? Well, it could very well open the door for tighter Internet controls and regulations by forcing ISPs, governmental agencies, and other bodies to police the Internet in an effort to remove any content that has been deemed offensive or discriminatory.
The wording used in the legislation is quite vague, so this could easily spill over and affect content that isn’t considered discriminatory. Furthermore, the proposed changes would make any discriminatory content that is posted online a criminal act that merits sever punishments – which could include time in prison lasting as long as three years. The largest fear is that these new proposals would infringe upon people’s freedom of expression and would cause the majority of the population to self-censor their own ideas. After all, who would want to speak their mind on the Internet when every word the type could be under strict scrutiny by the government – regardless of whether or not that content is discriminatory?
Unblocking Content
Though I did already mention that there aren’t pervasive censorship programs in Argentina, you’ll still find that you won’t be able to access a lot of popular content, whether you are outside the country or inside its borders. Content gets blocked for a variety of reasons from both directions, and we need to take a minute to discuss each scenario.
First of all, Argentina has a lot of content that they produce and host domestically. There are many television shows and movies created by Argentinians for Argentinians. But the problem is that these shows and movies are hosted on television and Internet channels that can only be accessed within Argentina. If you’re a native Argentinian on business or travel, you’re going to find that you can’t access this content unless you have a VPN tunnel. You see, these types of content block incoming connections based on their IP address. This is called geo-restriction, and it can be a real pain when you just want to catch up on your favorite shows in Argentina.
The same restrictions hold true if you are trying to access content hosted outside of Argentina, as well. Many streaming content services such as Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, Pandora, and many, many others are only available in the country they are hosted in – such as the US. You won’t be able to connect to these services unless you use a US-based IP address, and to do that you’ll need a VPN tunnel.
Online Protection and Data Monitoring
You might also think that because Argentina doesn’t employ invasive data monitoring programs that you are safe online. But that just isn’t the case, because there are many foreign governments that have been caught red handed with wiretapping scandals. Not to mention the amount of hackers and thieves that regularly try to steal people’s personal information. Your emails, web browsing history, and even payment card data can easily be stolen unless your data is encrypted.
You see, when you make a connection to a server, you have no idea what country it is hosted in. Our world has been a global economy for decades now, and your data regularly crosses many national borders as it is in transit to a server. Because your data flows through many different nations, it is still possible for a government to wiretap your communications and steal your data. Do you really want to run the risk of having a foreign government store your personal data in one of their databases? The good news is that with a VPN tunnel, foreign governments and hackers won’t be able to decipher and read your data – even if it is intercepted. With that said, let’s take a look at the best VPNs for Argentina.
VPN for Argentina – Top Picks:
ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN is our first pick for Argentinian users owing to their reputation for providing extremely high quality service and support. Their VPN connections are very fast and they don’t impose data or bandwidth restrictions. Furthermore, they offer connections in 78 countries and have a reasonably strong presence in South American locations. Though they have a 30-day free trial, their largest drawback is that they cost more than most other VPN providers. However, most people feel that their cost is justified since they are one of the best services on the market.
IPVanish
IPVanish is our second pick for users in Argentina, and they offer a fantastic service that will help you browse the web securely and anonymously. They don’t have VPN servers is as many different countries as Express VPN. Currently, they have servers located in 60 global locations – but they do cost less than Express VPN. IPVanish uses industry standard security algorithms with their VPN tunnels to ensure that your data is completely safe, and they have 24/7 ‘round the clock customer service should you run into technical difficulties.
IronSocket
IronSocket is another great alternative for users in Argentina. To date they operate 50+ servers in 36 countries, and they allow you to secure up to 3 devices with a single VPN account. For the majority of users, this is enough to secure most, if not all, of their computers and mobile devices. They are also very reasonable priced, and an annual subscription will drop the price to $4.16 per month, making them cheaper than ExpressVPN. While they don’t have a free trial of their service, they do provide a 7-day money back guarantee that will give you plenty of time to test out their service before you make a commitment.
VyprVPN
VyprVPN has 700+ servers in over 50 countries, and they are another notable alternative for users based in Argentina. They are actually owned and operated by their parent company, Golden Frog, which is based out of Switzerland. Because of governmental surveillance scandals, some people are hesitant to use a service based in the US. For that reason, a lot of people turn to VyprVPN to secure their data since they have a zero-logging policy. They only allow 2 simultaneous connections per account, but they do something most other providers don’t do. You can use a free trial of their service to fully test it out before you make a purchase. You can even use it indefinitely, but it has some restrictions such as a monthly data limit that doesn’t make it feasible in the long term. To unlock these types of restrictions, you will need to purchase their service, but they aren’t too expensive. You can get the pro version of their service for only $6.25 per month.
AirVPN
AirVPN is our last choice for users in Argentina, and they do a great job of creating a fast and reliable service that is competitively priced. They offer a 3-day plan for 1 Euro that can be used as a trial, and their service can be purchased at a monthly cost ranging from 5 to 4.50 euros per month depending on the plan. All plans will let you connect up to 3 devices with a single account, and they have plenty of global connection options. AirVPN prides itself in only expanding their network using secure servers, which makes for a slow expansion, but their hundreds of connection points have the utmost integrity regarding your encryption and privacy.
