China has blocked the BBC’s website since 2014 and Russia since March 2022, Iran has filtered BBC Persian since at least 2006, and Vietnam has tried to block it. BBC iPlayer’s UK-only rule is the BBC’s own.
Every day we open BBC from inside 24 countries, mostly over home broadband, and record
where it’s blocked, since when and how.
5 of 24tested countries with a confirmed block of BBC
Blocked in China, Vietnam, Iran and Russia, and on some networks in Belarus. 24 of 24 results confirmed in the last 48 hours.
Blocked means the networks we test there failed to open www.bbc.com, twice, while it opened elsewhere.
“Turned away by the site” means BBC itself refused visitors from that country.
* First observed on this date: the block may be older. Older results are excluded from current totals.
Background
Where BBC is restricted, and why
The BBC said in October 2014 that its English-language website had been blocked across China, after being generally available there since the 2008 Beijing Olympics; its Chinese-language site had been blocked for most of its existence. In February 2021 China’s broadcasting regulator also banned BBC World News TV, saying its China reporting broke rules that news be “truthful and fair”, after Britain’s regulator Ofcom revoked the UK licence of China’s state broadcaster CGTN.
Iran has filtered the BBC’s Persian-language service since at least December 2006, and the BBC says Iran began targeting BBC Persian after the disputed 2009 presidential election, when its satellite TV broadcasts were jammed. Since then relatives of its staff in Iran have been called in for questioning, the judiciary froze BBC Persian staff’s assets in 2017, and the BBC took the harassment to the UN in 2018 and again in 2021.
Russia restricted access to BBC websites on 4 March 2022, days after invading Ukraine, adding the BBC’s Russian-language site to a register of media accused of calling for “mass disorder” and extremism; BBC World News was taken off the air there the same month. In March 2026 a court in Mogilev added the BBC Russian service’s website to Belarus’s list of extremist materials, giving its address as www.bbc.com, and sharing listed material there can bring fines or arrest.
Vietnam is among the countries the BBC says have tried to block its news website or programmes; in October 2019 the BBC put a copy of its international site on the Tor network for readers in such places. In India the government used emergency powers in January 2023 to have clips of a BBC documentary about Prime Minister Narendra Modi taken down from YouTube and Twitter. BBC iPlayer working only in the UK is the BBC’s own rule, tied to rights deals and the licence fee.
Key dates
A court in Mogilev adds the BBC Russian service’s website to Belarus’s list of extremist materials, listing its address as www.bbc.com.
Russia restricts access to BBC websites, including the BBC’s Russian-language site, days after invading Ukraine.
China bans BBC World News TV, after Britain’s regulator revokes the UK licence of China’s state broadcaster CGTN.
The BBC puts a copy of its news site on the Tor network for readers in countries such as China, Iran and Vietnam that try to block it.
The BBC says its English-language website is blocked across China, after being generally available there since the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
BBC Persian TV’s satellite broadcasts are jammed after Iran’s disputed presidential election.
Get past a block
BBC blocked where you are?
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History
Changes for BBC
No confirmed changes since monitoring began on 29 Sep 2026. When a block appears or lifts, and a re-check on several machines agrees, it shows up here.
Method
How we test
Test machines on the two biggest home-internet providers in most countries open the homepage every day.
A failure counts only when it happens twice on the same network, while the site opens from other countries.
A change is published only after re-checks a few hours later and again the next day, on several machines per provider, confirm it. It’s dated from the first sighting.
Test machines caught getting around blocks, through a VPN or a filter-dodging tool, are set aside.
We test websites, mostly over home broadband. Apps, calls and mobile networks can behave differently.
The BBC said in October 2014 that its English-language website was blocked across China, and its Chinese-language site has been blocked for most of its existence. In February 2021 China also took BBC World News TV off the air, and GreatFire’s tests from inside China still found bbc.com blocked in September 2026.
Is the BBC Blocked in Russia?
Russia restricted access to BBC websites on 4 March 2022, including bbcrussian.com, after adding the BBC’s Russian site to a register of media accused of spreading calls for mass disorder and extremism. BBC World News was taken off the air in Russia the same month.
Why Can’t I Watch BBC iPlayer Outside the UK?
Because of rights agreements, BBC iPlayer streams programmes only to viewers in the UK, and the BBC says it is funded by the UK TV licence and restricted to UK residents. That’s the BBC’s own rule, not a government block, and the BBC lists its news and sport sites among the services you can still use abroad.
