The US has no national website blocking, and the First Amendment limits what the government can censor online. The main restrictions are state age-check laws for adult sites and social media, and the 2024 TikTok law.
Every day we open 67 of the world’s biggest sites and apps from home internet connections in the US, and record what’s blocked, since when and how.
0 of 67 testedsites and apps with a confirmed block in the US
67 of 67 results confirmed in the last 48 hours.
Tests are requested on Comcast Xfinity and AT&T home connections.
Freedom House rated the US internet “Free” in 2025, at 73 out of 100, and found no websites blocked: the First Amendment limits the government’s power to restrict content online. Authorities can instead seize a site’s domain with a court warrant, as the FBI did with the e-book piracy site Z-Library in November 2022. Bills to let courts order internet providers to block foreign piracy sites were introduced in 2025, and at a July 2026 House hearing witnesses were still urging Congress to act.
The biggest federal restriction targeted one app. A 2024 law required ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, to sell its US business or see the app banned. The Supreme Court upheld it on 17 January 2025, and TikTok went dark late on 18 January, returning the next day, though Apple and Google kept it out of their app stores for a while. After executive orders paused enforcement, the sale to a new US joint venture closed on 22 January 2026.
Most restrictions now come from the states. By June 2025 at least 22 states, Texas among them, had passed laws requiring adult sites to verify visitors’ ages, and on 27 June 2025 the Supreme Court upheld the Texas law. Some sites pull out rather than check ages: Pornhub’s owner, Aylo, had blocked visitors from 17 states by January 2025, arguing that age checks belong on users’ devices.
States have passed age-check laws for social media too. Federal judges had blocked similar laws in seven other states by August 2025, but on 14 August the Supreme Court let Mississippi’s law stay in force while the challenge continues, although Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that it was likely unconstitutional. Bluesky then blocked Mississippi rather than verify every user, until December 2025, when it began letting adults in after an age check.
Are VPNs legal in the US?
Using a VPN is legal in the US. A Wisconsin bill would have made adult sites block VPN users, but lawmakers struck that clause in February 2026, and the governor vetoed the bill in April 2026.
Key dates
Wisconsin’s governor vetoes an age-verification bill for adult sites, after lawmakers had dropped its demand that sites block VPN users.
The sale of TikTok’s US business to a new joint venture closes: Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX hold 15% each, and ByteDance keeps 19.9%.
Bluesky blocks Mississippi rather than verify every user’s age under the state’s social media law; from December, adults get in after an age check.
The Supreme Court upholds Texas’s law requiring adult sites to verify visitors’ ages, in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton.
TikTok goes dark in the US the day after the Supreme Court upholds the divest-or-ban law, and comes back the next day.
The FBI seizes the main domains of Z-Library, an e-book piracy site, under a warrant from a federal court in New York.
Get past a block
Blocked in the US?
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History
Changes in the US
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 Comcast Xfinity and AT&T 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 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.
Not the way many countries do. Freedom House found no websites blocked in the US in 2025, because the First Amendment limits the government’s power to restrict content online. Authorities can still seize a site’s domain with a court warrant, as the FBI did with Z-Library in November 2022.
Why Is Pornhub Blocked in Some US States?
Because its owner, Aylo, blocks states that require adult sites to verify visitors’ ages, rather than run the checks. By January 2025 it had blocked 17 states, Florida among them, and it argues that age checks should happen on users’ devices instead. The laws require age checks, not blocks.
Is Bluesky Blocked in Mississippi?
Not since December 2025. Bluesky blocked Mississippi in August 2025 rather than verify the age of every user, as the state’s social media law requires, and then began letting adults there back in once they complete an age check.
