New whitelist/security issue?

I seem to have been lucky, but a decent amount of the more recent players I've meet have encountered the issue of being banned for not being white listed, and if the ban appeals sub-forum is any indication its seems to have become pretty rampant in the last few weeks. Does anyone know why this is happening? Its made a noticeable dent on server pop from what I've seen.

I know the PR population always goes through slumps and doesn't exactly have time on its side but even at times that were almost guaranteed 100 players at the start of the year, are now invariably struggling to get past 80 players and often hitting below 60. I can't help feel like its related to the whitelisting issues, and the increasing lack of new faces or recent players not returning worries me for a game that already cuts off a lot of potential players with its lack of accessibility. Whats going on?