Hulu Starts Blocking VPN Users to Slow down Piracy Rates

TV and movie streaming services provider Hulu has started to block VPN users on its site as an attempt to prevent pirates from accessing contents. However, this move also affected thousands of legitimate U.S-based Hulu users.

The blockade started this week and affects all IP-ranges of VPN service providers. Those who attempt to access the site using the blocked IP address will see a message displayed on their screens.

"Based on your IP-address, we noticed that you are trying to access Hulu through an anonymous proxy tool. Hulu is not currently available outside the U.S. If you're in the U.S. you'll need to disable your anonymizer to access videos on Hulu," the notice says, as quoted by Torrentfreak.

Hulu did not make any announcement regarding the blockade but the company maintains that this is to protect their content from foreign users. Recently, similar service providers from Australia have voiced out their complaints regarding VPN pirates who access their content illegally.

Although its intention is noble, millions of Hulu users from the United States are outraged by the sudden blockade because it affected them too. Hulu's ban on VPN users will also require their current subscribers to let go of their privacy just to use Hulu's services. Companies such as VikingVPN, TorGuard, and Private Internet Access have been dealing with complaints regarding this matter.

"Private Internet Access exists to protect the privacy of netizens everywhere. Many of our customers leave their Private Internet Access accounts enabled 24/7/365. It is unfortunate that Hulu is blocking VPN service IPs," CEO of Private Internet Access,Andrew Lee, told Torrentfreak.

On the other hand, VikingVPN expressed their disappointment and commented that they could have just implemented SSL filters to keep the privacy of their users.

TorGuard told Torrentfreak that not all IP addressed were blocked and they are likely to assign more IPs which could not be detected by Hulu. This proves that there can be some ways to go around Hulu's blockade and U.S-based users can still hold on to their VPN connection while watching content from Hulu.