Online prediction platform, Polymarket, is starting to block IP addresses from VPNs and asking some users to identify themselves, The Information first reported.

Due to regional regulations and international sanctions, Polymarket is blocked in 33 countries and several regions. But people in those places could, in theory, use a VPN, or Virtual Private Network, to mask their real location. According to The Information, Polymarket has now made it harder to use VPNs. It’s blocking certain IP addresses associated with VPNs and blocking accounts with suspicious connection patterns.

If it doesn’t start enforcing its official policy, Polymarket could risk regulatory action, The Information reported.

Polymarket is also apparently asking some customers for their identities to “access faster trading technology,” the report states. This marks a shift from the market’s previous model of anonymous trading, TechRadar reported.

The news comes during a broader crackdown on VPNs in the U.S. and elsewhere. Utah now bans using VPNs to visit porn sites, though the law doesn’t go into effect for Aylo websites like Pornhub until Sept. The UK is also considering a VPN ban for children following a spike in usage after the enactment of its age verification law, the Online Safety Act.

Age verification laws require proof of age, like a government ID or a facial scan, to see explicit content or content otherwise deemed “harmful to minors.” Two studies on the burgeoning laws state that they don’t work to keep minors off porn sites, and instead infringe on adults’ First Amendment rights in the case of U.S. laws.

Last year, First Amendment experts warned Mashable of VPN bans as “second-order censorship.” When people work around the initial law, in this case, age verification, then further regulations ensue.

TL;DR: ChatPlayground gives you access to 20+ AI tools like GPT and Claude, lets you send prompts to multiple tools, and has a lifetime subscription on sale for $60 through May 31.

Picking the right AI model for a task used to mean opening five different tabs and running the same prompt five different times. Most people end up paying for one subscription, defaulting to it out of habit, and wondering why the outputs feel inconsistent. ChatPlayground AI puts GPT, Claude Sonnet 4, Gemini 1.5 Flash, DeepSeek V3, Llama, Perplexity, and more AI models in one interface, lets you enter a single prompt, and shows you the results side by side so you can pick the best one. A lifetime Unlimited Plan is on sale for $59.97 right now (reg. $79).

The side-by-side comparison completely changes how you use AI for serious work. Instead of guessing which model handles a task best or burning through your daily limits trying to find out, you run the prompt once and choose the output that works. That matters most when you’re prompt engineering, drafting content, debugging code, or researching something where accuracy is non-negotiable.

Beyond comparisons, the platform includes prompt engineering tools to refine and optimize prompts for better results, image and PDF chat for context-aware responses, saved conversation history for ongoing projects, and AI image generation for creative work.

The Unlimited Plan removes message limits entirely, so it’s a great fit for teams running experiments or using AI heavily throughout the day. Priority access to new models and features is included, along with priority customer support. Available to both new and existing users, with unlimited devices supported and updates included. It runs on the latest versions of Chrome, Edge, and Firefox.

Instead of paying monthly for a single model and hoping it handles everything, why not get them all for life?

Until May 31 at 11:59 p.m. PT, you can get a ChatPlayground AI lifetime subscription on sale for $59.97.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

We all get the urge to find a fun fling at one time or another, but not everyone wants to dish out money to make it happen. If you’re strapped for cash or you just want to keep that credit card firmly in your wallet, know that there are a lot of great free hookup apps and sites that offer results without you having to pay a premium for membership. 

That said, not all free dating services work in the same way, and they don’t always offer the same level of freedom. They’re still businesses, after all, and still looking to turn a profit. They will entice you will free fun while hiding some of their very best features behind a subscription — which they hope will tempt you to go further and sign up for that paid membership. 

To help you navigate the world of hookup apps and sites as a non-paying user, here’s a handy guide on the top dating services — and all the best features you can get for free.

Tinder’s mega-popularity probably has a lot to do with how well it has balanced its free and premium features. As a non-paying user, you can create an account, fill your profile with up to nine photos and videos, and then swipe to match and chat with singles in your area.

In other words, you can use Tinder’s basic features without opening your wallet. But restricting yourself to a free account is exactly that — restricting. This includes an ad-laden UI and a limited number of swipes over 12 hours. OK, so it doesn’t sound too bad on paper — until you spend an hour left-swiping and finally find the profile of your dreams, a person seemingly created to pique your interest, only to realise that you’ve run out of likes.

To get the most out of a free Tinder account, we recommend splitting up your swiping time into morning and evening sessions, to minimize the impact of their 12-hour right-swipe restriction. If you score a decent match by using this strategy, you’re all set and probably won’t need to upgrade your account. But if you’re dissatisfied with how many matches you find, it could well be time to explore Tinder’s Gold and Platinum tiers, as these unlock some matchmaking cheat codes, including one monthly profile boost to increase your visibility, plus the ability to see who has liked your profile and message accounts you haven’t already matched with. 

AdultFriendFinder is one of the most restrictive dating services for free members. Not only will you not be able to speak to another person one-on-one with a free account, you won’t even be able to view other users’ profiles without stumping up some cash for monthly paid membership. 

Don’t be put off, though. If you’re looking for fast thrills online, a free AFF account still has its upside. For one thing, AdultFriendFinder is less a dating service than an entire sexy ecosystem, complete with live webcam shows, chat boards, adult-themed picture contests, and a whole lot of erotic storytelling. You can access and even take part for free, so whether you want to passively observe the live webcam feeds or test your writing skills out in the streamy fiction section, you have good options.

On the other hand, if you want to use AFF to actually find a potential partner in your local area, you really need to upgrade to their paid subscription, which not only unlocks expanded search features and the ability to communicate one-on-one with other members, but also upgrades the quality of the photos and videos you see, which is worth the expenditure alone.

Like Tinder, Grindr is very generous to non-paying users. With a free account, you can create a profile, search out and chat with other nearby people, and even create a private photo album and send a single photo. In one sense, Grindr is even more generous to its free users than Tinder: It allows you to match with one person outside of your immediate location per day, which gives you a little taste of the app’s reach and capabilities.  

Best of all, for those desperately eager to connect, Grindr allows free users two Right Now sessions per week, which functions as a kind of temporary (one hour, max) status update to nearby users also in Right Now mode. Don’t forget, Grindr is all about the fast hookup. 

It’s not all upside, though. Like Tinder, Grindr subsidizes its free user features by serving up relentless ads, which definitely impacts the user experience, while also limiting their profile’s reach to “local” Grindr users, which basically means accounts within your immediate vicinity. If you’re in LA or Manhattan that’s not necessarily a problem, but if you’re using the app in a small town or remote area — which likely means a smaller queer population — it can mean fewer hookups. 

If that’s a problem for you, you can opt for either the Grindr XTRA or Grindr Unlimited subscriptions to unlock quality-of-life features. These include the ability to send more expiring photos, a larger grid to explore, and even the ability to see who has viewed and liked your profile. 

In many ways, Pure is the most intriguing hookup app out there. It’s a true innovator of design and interface, which makes it no surprise that it’s the most popular app for Gen Z singles. Unfortunately, it’s extremely restrictive in the scope it gives to free users. Unless you’re a woman, that is.

On Pure, male and non-binary users have to pay to unlock the app’s most useful features, while women get unrestricted access to the app for free. Before you cry foul, though, remember that most dating apps skew heavily male (Tinder users may be 75 percent male, for example), so by enticing women with a free membership, Pure can keep a relatively even gender split among its users. That’s a good thing, right?

As a free user, you’ll be able to create a profile and fill out all the necessary information, as well as a list of your kinks. But you can’t respond or chat one-on-one with other users, which so you’re essentially locked out of the app’s most fun and interactive features. 

Unlike with Tinder, Grindr or AFF, Pure really does require a paid subscription to be at all useful — if you’re not a woman, that is.