Is a website blocked in China, Russia or your own country? This tester opens any site from inside the two biggest internet providers in 24 countries, and yours, and shows where it’s blocked, how, and on which networks.
Your connection:
| Country and providers tested | Result |
|---|---|
| Asia | |
| China China Unicom, China Mobile | Not tested yet |
| India Jio, Airtel | Not tested yet |
| Indonesia Telkom Indonesia, XL Axiata | Not tested yet |
| Malaysia TM Unifi, Maxis | Not tested yet |
| Pakistan PTCL, Nayatel | Not tested yet |
| South Korea KT, SK Broadband | Not tested yet |
| Thailand AIS Fibre, TOT | Not tested yet |
| Vietnam Viettel, FPT Telecom | Not tested yet |
| Middle East & Africa | |
| Egypt Any two test machines online | Not tested yet |
| Iran Any two test machines online | Not tested yet |
| Saudi Arabia Any two test machines online | Not tested yet |
| Turkey Türk Telekom, Turkcell Superonline | Not tested yet |
| UAE Etisalat, du | Not tested yet |
| Europe | |
| Belarus Beltelecom, MTS Belarus | Not tested yet |
| France Orange, Free | Not tested yet |
| Germany Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone | Not tested yet |
| Italy TIM, Fastweb | Not tested yet |
| Netherlands KPN, Ziggo | Not tested yet |
| Russia Rostelecom, MTS | Not tested yet |
| Spain Movistar, Orange | Not tested yet |
| UK BT, Virgin Media | Not tested yet |
| Americas & Oceania | |
| Australia Telstra, Optus | Not tested yet |
| Brazil Claro, Vivo | Not tested yet |
| US Comcast Xfinity, AT&T | Not tested yet |
Each test opens the site’s homepage from a machine inside that provider’s network; your own connection isn’t used.
Want the bigger picture? Our Censorship Monitor tests the world’s biggest sites and apps in all 24 countries every day, and shows what’s blocked where and since when.
How the Test Works
Every test takes three steps:
- Test machines inside each country open the site’s homepage. They sit on the networks of real internet providers: in each country the tester picks the two biggest home-internet providers with a machine online, such as China Unicom and China Mobile in China or BT and Virgin Media in the UK. In Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia it takes any two machines, since most of them sit in data centers.
- Every failure gets a second try on the same provider. On a site that isn’t blocked anywhere, about one test in fifteen fails by accident. A failure only counts when it happens twice.
- A site that opens elsewhere but fails twice on a provider is blocked there. If it opens nowhere, the site is down, and the tester says so instead.
Blocks look different from country to country, and the result tells you which kind it saw:
- The name doesn’t resolve, or points to a private address. The provider’s DNS servers lie about the site. Iran points blocked names to private addresses.
- The connection is cut or refused. The provider resets it as soon as the site’s name shows up in the start of an encrypted connection, as Etisalat does in the UAE.
- The connection never completes. China’s Great Firewall and Russia’s filters often just drop the traffic, so the test times out.
- A certificate that isn’t the site’s. Türk Telekom shows its own block page, which can’t carry the site’s security certificate.
- HTTP 451, “Unavailable for Legal Reasons”. Some sites and networks answer this way where a court or law requires a block.
- Turned away by the site. When every test in a country gets an HTTP 403 while the site opens elsewhere, the site itself refuses visitors from there.
We store nothing. The tests run on machines in each country, not on your connection, and the results stay in your browser. The test network keeps its own public record of each test, the site and its results, so don’t test addresses you want to keep private. The address bar keeps the site you tested, so a link you share opens the tester with that site filled in.
What Your Result Means
- Blocked: every provider we tested there failed twice while the site opens elsewhere.
- Blocked on some networks: at least one provider blocks it on purpose (a false DNS answer, a cut connection or a wrong certificate) while another opens it.
- Blocked for legal reasons: every provider got an HTTP 451 answer.
- Turned away by the site: the site answers HTTP 403 to every test in that country but opens normally elsewhere.
- Unreliable: some providers only timed out, twice, while others opened it. That can be a quiet block or a poor connection, so it isn’t counted as blocked.
- Opens: every provider we tested there opened it.
- Couldn’t confirm: a test failed, but no machine was left for a second try.
- No test machines online: the test network had no machine in that country when you tested.
Why Countries Block Websites
Censorship. China’s Great Firewall blocks Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X, WhatsApp and Wikipedia, along with many foreign news sites. Russia has blocked LinkedIn since 2016 and blocked Facebook, Instagram and X in 2022. Iran blocks most Western social networks, although it unblocked WhatsApp and Google Play in December 2024. Turkey blocked Roblox in August 2024 and Discord in October 2024.
Court orders against piracy. Film, music and sports rights holders get courts to order providers to block piracy sites. UK providers have blocked The Pirate Bay since 2012, Italy’s Piracy Shield system makes providers block pirated live sports within 30 minutes of a report, and Spanish providers block IP addresses during LaLiga matches, which has taken unrelated sites behind the same Cloudflare addresses offline for hours. Our torrent site checker tests the biggest torrent sites from your own connection.
Gambling, adult content and calling apps. Many countries only allow licensed betting sites and block the rest. Turkey, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and South Korea block adult sites, and the UAE restricts internet calls on unlicensed apps.
Shutdowns. Some governments cut off social networks, or the whole internet, during protests, elections or exams. The tester shows a shutdown as blocked for as long as it lasts.
How to Get Past a Block
1. Use a VPN. A VPN connects you through one of its servers, so your provider only sees encrypted traffic to that server, and a server in a country without the block gets you to the site. In countries that block VPNs too, such as China, you need obfuscated servers, which disguise VPN traffic as ordinary encrypted traffic; our guide to using NordVPN in China shows how to turn them on. VPNs are restricted in China and Russia and banned in Belarus and Turkmenistan, so check where VPNs are legal before you rely on one. NordVPN comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
2. Change your DNS. A public DNS service such as 1.1.1.1 gets past blocks that only tamper with DNS, the first kind in the list above. It does nothing against the others, and it hides nothing from your provider.
3. Try Tor Browser. Tor gets past most blocks, but it is slow, many sites challenge its visitors, and some countries block it as well.
4. Skip “unblocker” proxy sites. Free web proxies see everything you send through them, and many inject ads or worse.
If you travel, set things up before you go: VPN websites and app store pages are often blocked in the countries that need them most. Our guides to the best VPNs for China, Turkey and Iran, and to unblocking websites in the UAE, go into each country.
What the Test Can’t See
- Blocks on single pages. The test opens the homepage over HTTPS, and providers can’t see which page of an encrypted site you open, so a country that blocks one article or video without blocking the site won’t show up.
- Every provider. Two providers per country cover most readers, but small providers, mobile networks and school or office filters can block differently. If a site won’t open for you but the result says it opens, the block is probably on your own network.
- Home connections in every country. In Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia most test machines sit in data centers, which are usually filtered too but not always the same way.
- Apps. A messaging app’s calls can be blocked while its website opens.
- Torrent and adult sites. The tester doesn’t check them. For torrent sites, our torrent site checker tests the biggest ones from your own connection.
FAQ
How Do I Check if a Website Is Blocked in China?
Type its address into the tester above and press the button. China Unicom and China Mobile, two of China’s three big providers, then try to open it from inside China. If both fail twice while the site opens elsewhere, the Great Firewall blocks it. Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X, WhatsApp and Wikipedia are all blocked there, along with many foreign news sites.
Why Does a Site Open on Some Networks but Not Others?
Because in many countries each provider carries out blocks on its own network. UK court orders name the biggest providers, not every one, and in Turkey one provider may block a site by DNS while another cuts the connection. So a site can be blocked on your home connection and open on your phone’s mobile data.
Does the Test Use My Internet Connection?
No. Test machines inside each country open the site; your browser only asks for the test and shows the answers. The test network sees your IP address when your browser asks, like any website you visit, and keeps a public record of each test: the site and its results. Our server reads your country to add it to the test and doesn’t store it.
What Does “Unreliable” Mean?
Some providers in that country timed out twice while others opened the site. That can be a quiet block, since some countries slow a site down rather than block it outright, as Russia has done to YouTube since 2024, or just a poor connection. The tester doesn’t call it a block.
Is It Legal to Use a VPN to Get Past a Block?
In most countries, yes. VPNs are restricted in China and Russia and banned in Belarus and Turkmenistan, and whatever you open through a VPN still has to be legal where you are. Our guide to where VPNs are legal has the details.
Why Does It Say “No Test Machines Online”?
The test network’s machines are hosted by volunteers and companies around the world, and some countries have few. When none of the providers we picked has a machine online, the tester tries any machine in that country before giving up.
