Content Blocking

Governments around the world block access to online content for a variety of reasons: to shield children from obscene content, to prevent access to copyright-infringing material or confusingly named domains, or to protect national security. From democratic nations such as India, Turkey, and South Korea to states with authoritarian regimes, governments are implementing extensive filtering regimes with varying degrees of transparency and consistency.

How Countries Block Content




Why Countries Block Content

Countries block online content for a variety of reasons, often based on national cultural norms or political considerations. India for example, uses the pretext of public safety to enact laws allowing certain websites to be blocked, while other countries, such as Qatar, primarily block websites for containing pornography or other content that they claim offends the sensibilities of their citizens. Still others block websites or domains under the pretence of preventing copyright or trademark infringement, as documented in our Global Chokepoints project. An increasing number of governments also block websites belonging to their political opposition, human rights organizations, and independent media.

What EFF is Doing

Whenever possible, EFF engages with policymakers to ensure that the Internet remains an open platform for free expression. We also support the efforts of organizations like Tor to empower Internet users residing in censored countries to circumvent firewalls and access blocked content.

EFF seeks to amplify the voices of local grassroots organizations opposing censorship all over the world, and educate our members about those groups’  concerns. To that end, we provide regular updates on content blocking and other forms of censorship in every corner of the globe through our weekly This Week In Internet Censorship blogpost series.

Content blocking occurs in both autocratic and democratic countries. EFF regularly tracks and reports on new cases of filtering, often relying upon information from organizations such as the OpenNet Initiative, which documents content filtering in more than fifty countries.

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