Sandvine Nearly Imploded After US Cracked Down on Its Censorship Tech
The network management firm that sold tools to repressive regimes was forced into new ownership after US restrictions hit.
Sandvine, the company that built network management tools quietly weaponized by authoritarian governments for internet censorship, nearly went under before US government intervention forced a dramatic course correction.
The firm had cultivated a business selling deep packet inspection and traffic management technology. Useful stuff for ISPs. Also useful for regimes like Egypt that wanted to monitor and block what citizens could see online.
When the US government imposed restrictions on Sandvine, the fallout was swift. The company's business model cratered. New ownership stepped in, and a pivot followed — an attempt to distance the firm from its role as a toolmaker for digital repression.
It's a case study in what happens when surveillance-adjacent tech companies finally face consequences. Sandvine didn't collapse because the tech failed. It collapsed because the politics caught up.