In a statement to Reuters, a State Department spokesperson said the U.S. government does not have a censorship-circumvention program specific to Europe but added: “Digital freedom is a priority for the State Department, however, and that includes the proliferation of privacy and censorship-circumvention technologies like VPNs."

So what’s the advantage of using this portal over one of the many reputable vpn providers that already exist?

The big catch I see here is that the US is hardly an impartial player. Whatever form this “portal” takes will almost certainly bend toward the current administration’s world view. The bigger catch is going to be the inevitable data harvesting. I guaran-fucking-tee that there’ll be fuck-all in the way of privacy and security.