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Psiphon, a censorship-circumvention service with roots in Toronto, may move its operations out of Canada if Bill C-22 passes in its current form, according to a report by Citizen Lab on October 6, 2026. The move has not happened, and the available information does not establish that the bill would automatically require Psiphon to leave. The concern is that proposed lawful-access rules could conflict with privacy protections the service says its users rely on.

What Bill C-22 would do

Bill C-22 is called the Lawful Access Act, 2026. Its stated purpose is to let law-enforcement agencies and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) obtain information and assistance from service providers through legally authorized processes. The bill is not, on the evidence available, a blanket order for every provider to install a backdoor.

Two parts, with different functions

The first-reading text describes Part 1 as amendments intended to facilitate the timely gathering and production of information during investigations. Part 2 would enact the Supporting Authorized Access to Information Act. That act would establish a framework intended to ensure that electronic service providers can facilitate access authorized under the Criminal Code or the CSIS Act. It also gives the Governor in Council authority to make regulations concerning core providers and their obligations.

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The bill’s definitions include access to information and interception of communications. The first-reading text describes the framework and regulation-making authority, but it does not by itself settle exactly what requirements would apply to Psiphon under a later version or regulations.

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The government’s case and the privacy debate

Public Safety Canada has presented the measures as tools to investigate serious threats, disrupt crime and protect communities. That is the government’s rationale for the bill, not an independent finding that the measures will achieve those results.

Privacy Commissioner Philippe Dufresne offered a qualified assessment to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security on May 26, 2026. He said, “Bill C-22 improves on its predecessor Bill C-2 in several respects,” and welcomed a narrower confirmation-of-service demand and the addition of potential privacy and cybersecurity impacts as factors in regulations and orders. His comments recognize changes he viewed positively; they are not an endorsement of every provision.

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Why Psiphon says it may leave Canada

Citizen Lab reported on October 6, 2026 that Psiphon plans to move its operations outside Canada if Bill C-22 passes in its current form. The report links the concern to the possibility that the service could be required to compromise privacy protections relied on by people using it in censored environments. This is Psiphon’s reported position, not a settled legal determination that a particular obligation applies to the company or that relocation is legally required.

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Psiphon began as a Citizen Lab project in 2006. Citizen Lab says it is used to bypass censorship in countries including Iran, Myanmar, Russia and China. Citizen Lab director and founder Ron Deibert argued that Bill C-22 “will make it impossible for a large number of invaluable privacy-preserving tools and applications from operating in Canada.” That is Deibert’s view, as quoted by Citizen Lab, rather than a court finding or a conclusion established by the bill’s status record.

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What Psiphon does—and what it does not promise

Psiphon is designed to help people get around blocking on the network they are using and reach restricted online content. The company describes it as “a circumvention tool, not an anonymity network.” It says traffic carried through the Psiphon tunnel is encrypted, but that description should not be read as a promise that users are anonymous or protected from surveillance.

For readers choosing a tool to reach blocked sites, the distinction matters: access circumvention and anonymity are different functions. Psiphon’s stated purpose is the former. The available product description does not support treating it as a guarantee of identity protection.

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What the “20 million users” figure means

Citizen Lab’s October 6, 2026 report describes Psiphon as having around 20 million monthly users worldwide. That is a rounded estimate. Psiphon’s own live network page showed different, changing aggregate figures when retrieved on October 7, 2026:

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Provider-published metric Snapshot How to read it
Monthly users 18,497,771 Psiphon live counter, retrieved October 7, 2026
Average daily users 4,344,379 Psiphon live counter, retrieved October 7, 2026
Data delivered monthly 64,349 TB Psiphon live counter, retrieved October 7, 2026

Psiphon says these figures are updated. They are provider-published snapshots, not audited annual statistics, and should not be treated as fixed user counts. The rounded 20-million description and the live monthly counter are different reported measures, not evidence of a single precise, independently verified total.

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Where the bill stands

Parliament’s LEGISinfo record names the short title as the Lawful Access Act, 2026. It records first reading on March 12, 2026, and second reading and referral to committee on April 20. A separate Government of Canada Publications catalogue entry describes a version passed by the House on June 18, 2026. Together, those records show legislative progress and a House-passed version; the information available here does not establish Royal Assent or that the bill has become law.

The House-passed catalogue entry also does not resolve how particular proposed provider obligations would apply to Psiphon. The exact latest obligations applicable to the service are not established by these records, so it would be premature to describe relocation as an automatic legal consequence.

What this could mean for users

For people who rely on Psiphon to reach blocked content, the report signals a possible change to where the service operates—not confirmation that it has already moved or that the service is about to disappear. The reported plan depends on the bill passing in its current form, and the precise legal effect on Psiphon remains unresolved. Users should also distinguish Psiphon’s circumvention function from anonymity: the service itself says it does not provide an anonymity network.

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