Easier to make money off them if you don't lobby for an exemption.

You make it sound like our lawmakers are wise and would make an informed decision and not just write an exception for companies that -lobby- pay their greedy asses for said exemption.

There, FTFY.

Can't say anything about China, but why do you think vpn's are illegal in Russia? Sure, the big vpn companies inside the country might be influenced by the government to limit your access to some banned websites. However, you can freely use a vpn if you wish.

Again, I remind you that you could always set up your own vpn server for personal use.

A lot of people aren't aware that VPNs are used to connect to internal networks, just "it's this thing that I see commercials about that says it protects my privacy and allows me to access content not available in my country". Hell, if you asked them what VPN stood for 90% of them would be like 🤷‍♂️

I work in IT and can tell you that most people have zero clue about technology, even the things they use every day.

I don't have to assume they're wise. The uproar would be enough to kill the bill before it gets out of committee.

I don't think it's even possible to for anyone to stop someone from using a VPN. Sure, in theory, they could affect VPN providers' businesses, but you're always going to be able to connect to a VPN if you want to. They'd have to block or heavily limit internet access in order to stop users from connecting to some remote server.

Also yes, I do think lawmakers are aware that vpn's are not a threat to anything, thus there is absolutely no reason to ban them.

Edit: Someone else mentioned a good point. Even if we consider them blocking vpn as a possibility "The uproar would be enough to kill the bill before it gets out of committee."