A newly introduced bill in the US House of Representatives would, for the first time, place VPN providers alongside internet service providers and DNS resolvers on the list of companies that can be ordered to block access to piracy websites.
The American Copyright Protection Act, or ACPA, was introduced by Representative Darrell Issa on 16th September 2026, with the VPN provision reported in detail by Gizmodo two days later.
Under the bill, formally numbered H.R. 10364, copyright holders would be able to petition a designated federal judge to declare a website a “foreign piracy site” based on a preponderance of the evidence, a lower bar than is typically required in US civil litigation.
Once a judge agrees, the court can order broadband providers, DNS providers and VPN services to take what the bill calls reasonable steps to stop US users reaching the site. Covered providers get 14 days to object before an order takes effect, except for live sport and other time sensitive material, where blocking can happen faster.
The VPN provision is the detail attracting most attention. According to reporting on the bill, the blocking obligation would apply to VPN services with at least 100,000 monthly US subscribers, catching most of the well known consumer providers while leaving smaller operators untouched.
A company wrongly blocked as a result of a mistaken petition could claim up to $250,000 in damages under the bill’s error provisions. Digital rights groups have criticised the proposal since it was introduced.
Meredith Rose of Public Knowledge said site blocking orders “force any service provider…to disrupt traffic from targeted websites simply accused of copyright infringement,” while Brandon Butler of Re:Create argued the bill “codifies a one-sided legal process modeled on European site-blocking laws” and violates “American due process, First Amendment rights, and American ingenuity.”
The Motion Picture Association has backed similar measures in the past.
ACPA is not the only VPN related legislation moving through the US at the moment. It follows Utah’s SB73, the first US law to explicitly target VPN use, which addressed age verification requirements, took effect on 3rd September 2026 and was paused days later by an enforcement freeze.
It also sits alongside a separate site blocking bill from Representative Zoe Lofgren and a bipartisan Senate effort known as the Block BEARD Act. VPNCompare’s prior news on US legislators targeting VPNs has more background on the wider pattern.
None of this changes anything immediately for VPN users in the UK, since ACPA would only bind US based providers and their American subscriber base.
It is, however, part of a recognisable pattern that includes court ordered VPN blocking already seen in Spain and France, and shows site blocking regimes originally built for ISPs increasingly being extended to cover VPN providers directly.
ACPA has not yet been scheduled for a committee vote, and its full text had still not appeared on Congress’s official tracking website as of 21st September 2026, even as it continued to circulate among lawmakers and draw criticism from digital rights organisations.
Issa has previously framed his goal in blunt terms, telling a hearing in June that he wanted piracy enforcement to move “at the speed of light.” Whether the bill advances at anything close to that pace remains to be seen.
