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Opens 67
- Al Jazeera
- Amnesty International
- BBC
- Bluesky
- Change.org
- ChatGPT
- Claude
- CNN
- Copilot
- DeepSeek
- Discord
- Dropbox
- DuckDuckGo
- DW
- Epic Games
- ExpressVPN
- Gemini
- GitHub
- Gmail
- Google Search
- Grindr
- Grok
- Human Rights Watch
- Imgur
- Internet Archive
- LINE
- Mada Masr
- Medium
- Meduza
- Messenger
- Mullvad
- Netflix
- NordVPN
- Perplexity
- Proton Mail
- Proton VPN
- Psiphon
- Radio Free Europe
- Roblox
- RT
- Signal
- Snapchat
- SoundCloud
- Spotify
- Steam
- Surfshark
- Telegram
- The Guardian
- The New York Times
- Threads
- TikTok
- Tor Project
- Tumblr
- Twitch
- Viber
- Vimeo
- Wikipedia
- X (Twitter)
- YouTube
- Zoom
Background
Internet censorship in France
Arcom, the audiovisual and digital regulator, works with internet providers to block piracy sites, especially illegal sports streams: it reported 1,544 blocked domain names by 2023, up from 772 in 2022. Article L333-10 of the Sports Code, in force since January 2022, also lets broadcasters such as Canal+ ask Paris courts to make other intermediaries block. In 2024 Google, Cloudflare and Cisco were ordered to block more than 100 pirate domains in their public DNS services; in May 2025 five VPN providers were ordered to block 203.
A 2015 decree lets the authorities have sites that promote terrorism or show child sexual abuse blocked without going through a court. The SREN law of May 2024 added porn sites that fail to verify ages: once Arcom gives notice, a site has 15 days to comply before providers must block it within 48 hours. Since April 2025 Arcom has required porn sites to offer “double anonymity” checks, in which the age checker never learns which site the user wants to visit.
Political blocks are rare. RT and Sputnik have been barred under EU sanctions since March 2022, which Arcom said it was applying; RT France lost its challenge in the EU courts that July, and the video platform Rumble chose to close its service in France rather than drop Russian state media. In May 2024 the government blocked TikTok in New Caledonia for about two weeks during deadly riots, which Freedom House called the first block of a social network during civil unrest in France.
Age checks dominated 2025 and 2026. Aylo pulled Pornhub, YouPorn and RedTube from France in June 2025 in protest, restored them after a Paris court suspended the rules, and blocked them again when the Conseil d’État reinstated the rules in July 2025. On 21 July 2026 Parliament passed a ban on social media for under-15s, but the Conseil constitutionnel struck it down on 14 August 2026 as a disproportionate limit on free expression that left age checks without privacy safeguards.
Are VPNs legal in France?
VPNs are legal in France, but they aren’t beyond the reach of blocking orders: in May 2025 a Paris court, acting on Canal+’s request, ordered five VPN providers to block 203 pirate sports-streaming domains.
Key dates
- The Conseil constitutionnel strikes down Parliament’s new ban on social media for under-15s, citing free expression and privacy.
- The Conseil d’État reinstates age checks for porn sites based elsewhere in the EU, and Aylo blocks Pornhub, YouPorn and RedTube in France again.
- Canal+ wins a Paris court order making five VPN providers block 203 domains used to stream sport illegally.
- The government blocks TikTok in New Caledonia during deadly riots; the Conseil d’État refuses to suspend the block, which ends on 29 May.
- EU sanctions bar RT and Sputnik across the EU, and Arcom says it is applying the ban in France.
- A decree lets the authorities have terrorist and child sexual abuse sites blocked without a court order.
Get past a block
Blocked in France?
A VPN connects you through a server in another country, so the blocks in France no longer apply. Where VPNs themselves are blocked, you need one that can disguise its traffic.
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History
Changes in France
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 Orange and Free home connections open each site’s 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 a re-check a few hours later, on several machines per provider, confirms 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 over home broadband. Apps, calls and mobile networks can behave differently.
Questions
Censorship in France: questions
Is TikTok Banned in France?
No. France blocked TikTok in New Caledonia, its Pacific territory, for about two weeks in May 2024, during deadly riots and a state of emergency. The Conseil d’État refused to suspend the block, saying it was limited and temporary, and it was lifted on 29 May 2024. Mainland France wasn’t affected.
Why Did Pornhub Stop Working in France?
Its owner, Aylo, withdrew it. Aylo suspended Pornhub, YouPorn and RedTube in France in early June 2025 in protest at the age checks Arcom requires, restored them on 20 June after a Paris court suspended the rules, and blocked them again in July 2025 when the Conseil d’État reinstated the rules.
Are Under-15s Banned From Social Media in France?
No. Parliament passed a ban on 21 July 2026, due to apply to new accounts from 1 September 2026 and to existing ones from 1 January 2027, but the Conseil constitutionnel struck it down on 14 August 2026. President Macron then asked the prime minister for a legally robust rewrite.