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Censorship Monitor · Messaging & calls Last test

Where is Zoom blocked?

Video meetings · zoom.us

Governments rarely block Zoom; China cut it off from September to November 2019. Most limits are Zoom’s own: it bars places under US sanctions, like Iran and Cuba, and since 2020 has sold in mainland China only via local partners.

Every day we open Zoom from home internet connections in 24 countries, and record where it’s blocked, since when and how.

0 of 24tested countries with a confirmed block of Zoom

No confirmed blocks in the 24 countries with current results. 24 of 24 results confirmed in the last 48 hours.

China: OpensIndia: OpensIndonesia: OpensMalaysia: OpensPakistan: OpensSouth Korea: OpensThailand: OpensVietnam: OpensEgypt: OpensIran: OpensSaudi Arabia: OpensTurkey: OpensUAE: OpensBelarus: OpensFrance: OpensGermany: OpensItaly: OpensNetherlands: OpensRussia: OpensSpain: OpensUK: OpensAustralia: OpensBrazil: OpensUS: Opens
  • Blocked
  • Blocked on some networks
  • Turned away by the site
  • Opens
  • Not monitored

Country by country

Zoom in each country we test

Blocked means every network we test there failed to open zoom.us, twice, while it opened elsewhere. “Turned away by the site” means Zoom itself refused visitors from that country.

Zoom in each country we test
CountryResultSinceHow it fails
AustraliaTelstra and OptusOpens
BelarusBeltelecom and MTS BelarusOpens
BrazilClaro and VivoOpens
ChinaChina Unicom and China MobileOpens
EgyptTwo connectionsOpens
FranceOrange and FreeOpens
GermanyDeutsche Telekom and VodafoneOpens
IndiaJio and AirtelOpens
IndonesiaTelkom Indonesia and XL AxiataOpens
IranTwo connectionsOpens
ItalyTIM and FastwebOpens
MalaysiaTM Unifi and MaxisOpens
NetherlandsKPN and ZiggoOpens
PakistanPTCL and NayatelOpens
RussiaRostelecom and MTSOpens
Saudi ArabiaTwo connectionsOpens
South KoreaKT and SK BroadbandOpens
SpainMovistar and OrangeOpens
ThailandAIS Fibre and TOTOpens
TurkeyTürk Telekom and Turkcell SuperonlineOpens
UAEEtisalat and duOpens
UKBT and Virgin MediaOpens
USComcast Xfinity and AT&TOpens
VietnamViettel and FPT TelecomOpens

* First observed on this date: the block may be older. Older results are excluded from current totals.

Background

Where Zoom is restricted, and why

China is the one government known to have blocked Zoom outright. Zoom says Beijing turned its service off without warning in September 2019 and asked it to comply with Chinese law, including naming an in-house contact for law enforcement requests and moving China-based user data to China. After Zoom met officials and presented a plan, the service was unblocked on 17 November 2019. Since 23 August 2020 Zoom has sold in mainland China only through local partners.

Zoom’s pandemic boom in 2020 brought security scrutiny rather than blocks. In April 2020 Citizen Lab found that meeting encryption keys could pass through servers in China even when no participant was there, and Zoom admitted that some calls had been routed through Chinese data centres by mistake. Taiwan’s Executive Yuan barred government agencies from using Zoom on 7 April 2020, and India’s Home Ministry said it was not for official use, calling it “not a safe platform”.

Zoom’s own rules shut some places out. Its terms forbid using it from countries or territories under US trade sanctions, naming Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria and the Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine; that is Zoom’s decision under US export rules, not a block by those governments. In April 2021 Zoom was reported to have barred its distributors from selling to Russian government agencies and state-owned companies, and a Russian senator suggested blocking Zoom in return.

China’s pressure on Zoom also reached users abroad. Around the June 2020 anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, Zoom ended three commemoration meetings and suspended five host accounts, four in the US and one in Hong Kong, after the Chinese government called the events illegal and demanded action. Zoom reinstated the accounts and said requests from the Chinese government would no longer affect anyone outside mainland China.

Key dates

  1. Zoom reportedly bars its distributors from selling to Russian government agencies and state-owned companies; a Russian senator suggests blocking it.
  2. Zoom stops selling to and directly serving users in mainland China, leaving the market to local partners.
  3. At the Chinese government’s demand, Zoom ends Tiananmen anniversary meetings and suspends five host accounts, then reinstates them.
  4. Taiwan bars government agencies from using Zoom, citing security and privacy concerns.
  5. Citizen Lab finds Zoom sending meeting encryption keys through servers in China, even for meetings with no one there.
  6. China cuts off Zoom without warning; it is unblocked on 17 November 2019 after Zoom presents a plan to meet Chinese legal requirements.

Get past a block

Zoom blocked where you are?

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History

Changes for Zoom

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 two big home-internet providers in each country 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 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

Zoom blocks: questions

Which Countries Can’t Use Zoom?

Zoom’s terms forbid using it from countries or territories under US trade sanctions, naming Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria and the Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine. That restriction is Zoom’s own, under US export rules; it isn’t a block by those countries.

Can You Use Zoom in the UAE?

Yes. In September 2024 Gulf News listed Zoom among 15 calling and meeting apps allowed in the UAE because they are licensed by TDRA, the regulator that treats internet calling as a regulated activity there.

Which Governments Banned Zoom for Official Use?

In April 2020 Taiwan’s Executive Yuan barred government agencies from using Zoom over security and privacy concerns, and India’s Home Ministry advised that it was not for official use by government officers, calling it “not a safe platform”. Neither applied to the general public.

Answers

Questions about Zoom