Have your favorite websites been blocked or censored? Read ahead to learn how to reopen your Internet connection.
You know the feeling: You’re looking to stream a movie while on vacation, access an underground news site or maybe even use Google while in a country like China. But you can’t – instead, you get an error message on your screen telling you you’re blocked out.
It can be completely maddening when you’re kept from your favorite sites – especially when there’s just no earthly reason why. Most people frankly give up at this point!
But you’re persistent – that’s why you’re reading this guide.
When pesky geo-restrictions or censorship regimes stand in the way of your free access to the Internet, you want to know how to get around them. Fortunately, this post will tell you everything you need to know about why your favorite websites become blocked and how to get past these restrictions with a VPN.
Why Websites Get Blocked
There are three main reasons why certain websites become blocked: government censorship, distribution rights and organization restrictions.
- Government Censorship: Some governments use censorship to block websites they think threaten their power, offend national values or provide people with unbiased information. This type of website-blocking can be seen in varying degrees all over the world. For example:
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- Google is completely blocked in China.
- The Saudi government blocks any web page it decides is “immoral,” including many Wikipedia articles.
- Pornographic websites and websites criticizing the King are blocked in Thailand.
- YouTube is completely blocked in China, Iran, Syria, Sudan and several other countries.
- Distribution Restrictions: Many sites are also geo-blocked abroad due to content distribution restrictions. For instance, you may have noticed that you can’t access your Pandora account while abroad. That’s because Pandora has to comply with content agreements that prevent it from doing business in other countries.
Other services that suffer from geo-blocking (or which offer completely different entertainment libraries to different countries) include Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, پراکسی iPlayer and Amazon Prime. Note that even if you have (and pay for!) an account with these platforms, you won’t have full access with an IP address based outside your home country. - Organization Restrictions: Many establishments offering Internet service choose to restrict access to certain content as well. You might also notice that many schools and workplaces block websites that they decide are unacceptable.
How a VPN Unblocks Websites
You’ll notice two common themes to how and why websites become blocked: Certain types of websites are blocked depending on your location in the world.
What’s happening is that someone – your ISP (Internet service provider), your government or your website of choice – is looking at the site you’re trying to access and deciding that because of your location, you’re not allowed.
A VPN solves both parts of this problem.
1. Changing Your Location
Anytime you connect to the Internet, you do so via a unique IP address that reveals almost exactly where you’re located. (Go ahead and test it out via a website like mylocation.org!)
This information allows websites that block certain countries to block you if your location is on their blacklist.
But when you use a VPN, you get a completely new and anonymous IP address based in a country of your choice. This will conceal your identity, location and browsing habits from outsiders — including content platforms that geo-restrict.
2. Encrypting Your Data
When your school, office or government blocks you, it’s because they’ve decided you shouldn’t be free to do what you want online.
But if they don’t know what you’re doing online, they can’t block you from it.
By running your connection through a VPN, every single thing you do on the web is encrypted. In simple terms, it means any third party – governments, corporations, ISPs – trying to spy on your connection will only see unusable gibberish. They’ll have no idea what to censor, since they won’t be able to tell what sites you’re visiting.
How to Open Blocked Sites with SaferVPN
With SaferVPN, you can choose from servers in 34 different countries – giving you full access to the Internet, no matter where you are!
Here’s a brief video on how it works:
Here’s how to get started with SaferVPN in three easy steps:
- Download and install SaferVPN.
- Run SaferVPN on your mobile or desktop (iOS, Android or Windows). You can even try our fast and seamless in-browser VPN Chrome Extension. No configuration needed!
- Connect to an international server of your choice.
And voila – you’re ready to open blocked sites and access restricted content.
Want to test it out yourself? Connect to any SaferVPN server through our app or extension, and then go back to mylocation.org. You’ll see the site believes you’re located in the country of your chosen server.
How to Get Started with SaferVPN
If you don’t have SaferVPN yet, get a trial or subscription today (with a 30-day money-back guarantee) and enjoy an unblocked Internet free from censorship.
Have any more questions about what can you access and how SaferVPN works? Connect with us on social media or shoot us an email at [email protected]. We’re here for you 24/7.
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