The world’s biggest search engine · www.google.com
China has blocked Google Search since the early 2010s, after Google stopped censoring its Chinese results. Iran blocked it for a week in 2012, and Russia blocked Google News in 2022.
Every day we open Google Search from inside 24 countries, mostly over home broadband, and record
where it’s blocked, since when and how.
1 of 24tested countries with a confirmed block of Google Search
Blocked in China. 24 of 24 results confirmed in the last 48 hours.
Blocked means the networks we test there failed to open www.google.com, twice, while it opened elsewhere.
“Turned away by the site” means Google Search 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 Google Search is restricted, and why
Google launched google.cn in January 2006, agreeing to censor some results. In January 2010 it said a cyberattack from China had targeted the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists and that it would stop censoring, and on 22 March 2010 it began redirecting google.cn to uncensored search served from Hong Kong. Beijing had told Google that self-censorship was a non-negotiable legal requirement.
Freedom House dates China’s block on Google’s search engine to 2012. In June 2014, ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown, censors cut off almost every Google service, and in 2024 Maps, Docs, Drive and Scholar were still blocked. Google itself closed its Translate service in China in October 2022, and in July 2019 it told US senators it had terminated Dragonfly, a censored search engine it had been building for China.
Iran blocked Google Search and Gmail for about a week in September 2012. Officials first presented it as a response to public demands over an anti-Islam film on YouTube, then said Google had been caught up by mistake in a block on YouTube’s secure version. Russia blocked Google News in March 2022, at the prosecutor general’s request, over reporting on the war in Ukraine; access was later restored.
Internet shutdowns take Google offline with everything else, as in Iran’s nationwide blackout from 8 January 2026, during protests over the economy. On 14 July 2026 Google’s sites stopped loading for many users in Russia, and Roskomnadzor said it does not restrict access to Google. Hong Kong, which the mainland’s censorship regime doesn’t yet cover, kept uncensored Google search when google.cn moved there in 2010.
Key dates
Google’s sites stop loading for many users in Russia; Roskomnadzor says it does not restrict access to Google.
Iran goes into a nationwide internet blackout during protests, taking Google offline with the rest of the web.
Russia blocks Google News at the prosecutor general’s request over reporting on the war in Ukraine; access is later restored.
China cuts off almost all Google services, search included, ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown.
Iran blocks Google Search and Gmail for about a week.
Google stops censoring google.cn and redirects mainland users to uncensored search served from Hong Kong.
Get past a block
Google Search blocked where you are?
A VPN connects you through a server in another country, so a local block on Google Search no longer applies. Where VPNs themselves are blocked, you need one that can disguise its traffic.
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History
Changes for Google Search
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.
Google said in January 2010 that a cyberattack from China had targeted the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists, and that it would no longer censor results on google.cn. Beijing insisted that self-censorship was a legal requirement, so in March 2010 Google moved its Chinese search to Hong Kong.
Is Google Blocked in Iran?
Iran blocked Google Search and Gmail for about a week in September 2012, and nationwide internet blackouts, such as the one that began on 8 January 2026, cut Google off along with everything else. In December 2024 Iran also voted to lift its restrictions on Google Play.
Is Google Blocked in Russia?
Russia hasn’t announced a block on Google Search. It blocked Google News in March 2022, though access was later restored, and when Google’s sites stopped loading for many Russians on 14 July 2026, Roskomnadzor said it does not restrict access to Google.
