Psiphon threatens to leave Canada over lawful access Bill C-22

Psiphon, the censorship-circumvention tool with roughly 20 million monthly users, has begun planning to move operations out of Canada over Bill C-22. The Toronto-based company says the lawful access bill would force it to build a secret backdoor into its fully open-source system. The bill passed the House of Commons and now faces Senate scrutiny.

• Psiphon has about 20 million monthly users and began as a Citizen Lab project in 2006
• Bill C-22 was introduced on March 12, 2026, and passed the House on June 18
• Psiphon received about $600,000 in National Research Council funding this year
• Signal, NordVPN and Windscribe have also warned they could leave Canada