Signal’s end-to-end encryption leaves governments almost nothing to read or request, so those that want control block it instead: Egypt and the UAE did in 2016, Iran and China in 2021, and Russia in 2024.
Every day we open Signal from inside 24 countries, mostly over home broadband, and record
where it’s blocked, since when and how.
2 of 24tested countries with a confirmed block of Signal
Blocked in China and Iran. 24 of 24 results confirmed in the last 48 hours.
Blocked means the networks we test there failed to open signal.org, twice, while it opened elsewhere.
“Turned away by the site” means Signal 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 Signal is restricted, and why
Signal encrypts messages end to end and keeps almost no data about its users: answering US subpoenas, it says it could produce only the date an account was registered and when it last connected. As Signal put it in 2016, “when some states can’t snoop, they censor.” That December it found internet providers in Egypt and the UAE blocking it, and by 2018 it said it was also censored in Oman and Qatar.
Iran blocked Signal in January 2021, as Iranians flocked to it from WhatsApp, and China in March 2021. In April 2024 Apple pulled WhatsApp and Threads from its China App Store on the orders of China’s internet regulator, and Signal and Telegram disappeared from it at the same time. Russia followed on 9 August 2024, when Roskomnadzor said Signal broke rules meant to stop messengers being used for terrorism and extremism. Most of these blocks hit the app’s connections: signal.org, the website our daily test opens, is blocked in China and Iran but still opens in Russia, Egypt and the UAE.
Signal builds its own ways around blocks into the app. Days after the 2016 blocks it added domain fronting, which hid its traffic inside connections to big services such as Google, until Google and Amazon shut that route in 2018. In February 2021, after Iran’s block, it added support for proxy servers run by volunteers, and on the day Russia blocked it, Signal pointed users to the app’s censorship circumvention setting and asked for more proxies.
Democracies have tested its encryption too. In February 2023 Signal’s president, Meredith Whittaker, said it would “absolutely, 100% walk” from the UK rather than weaken encryption under the Online Safety Bill, which became law that October with a power for Ofcom to order apps to scan even private messages for child abuse images. In 2025 France passed a law against drug trafficking without a proposed measure that would have forced encrypted messaging apps to give the authorities backdoor access to chats.
Key dates
Roskomnadzor blocks Signal in Russia, saying it breaks rules meant to stop messengers being used for terrorism and extremism.
Signal disappears from Apple’s China App Store as Apple pulls WhatsApp and Threads on the orders of China’s internet regulator.
Signal’s president says it would “absolutely, 100% walk” from the UK rather than weaken encryption under the Online Safety Bill.
Signal stops working in mainland China without a VPN; China’s foreign ministry says it is “not aware” of the situation.
Iran blocks Signal as Iranians flock to it from WhatsApp, which had just announced a new privacy policy.
Internet providers in Egypt and the UAE block Signal; within days it answers with domain fronting to hide its traffic.
Get past a block
Signal blocked where you are?
A VPN connects you through a server in another country, so a local block on Signal no longer applies. Where VPNs themselves are blocked, you need one that can disguise its traffic.
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History
Changes for Signal
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.
Iran has blocked it since January 2021, China since March 2021 and Russia since August 2024. Before that, internet providers in Egypt and the UAE blocked it in December 2016, and by 2018 Signal said it was also censored in Oman and Qatar. It also disappeared from Apple’s China App Store in April 2024. Our daily test opens signal.org, the website, which those blocks don’t always reach: it is blocked in China and Iran, but opens in Russia, Egypt and the UAE.
Is Signal Blocked in Russia?
Roskomnadzor blocked Signal on 9 August 2024, saying it broke Russian rules meant to stop messengers being used for terrorism and extremism. The same day Signal published advice for people in countries that had blocked it, pointing them to the app’s built-in censorship circumvention setting and to proxy servers run by volunteers. The block targets the app: signal.org, the website our daily test opens, still loads on Rostelecom and MTS.
How Does Signal Get Around Censorship?
With tools built into the app. It has a censorship circumvention setting, and since 2021 it can connect through proxy servers that volunteers run, a feature first offered to people in Iran. Signal says its proxy connections look just like ordinary encrypted web traffic, which makes them harder for censors to spot.
