Blocked Websites in the People's Republic of China
In September 2015, the cyberspace management authority blocked around 3,000 websites in the People's Republic of China due to internet censorship , which prevents internet users from accessing affected websites. As early as 2008, the Great Firewall of China employed an estimated 30,000 government employees who view, evaluate and possibly block websites on a daily basis. It is believed that the number of these censors has increased significantly to this day. The technology has also been improved. The Chinese government does not provide a list of blocked sites. If you want to know whether a certain website is blocked, you can do a URL check yourself using freely available web-based services such as greatfirewallofchina.org, WebSitePulse.com, GreatFire.org, blockedinchina.net and others. Such services are a thorn in the side of some, GreatFire.org, for example, was temporarily paralyzed on March 19, 2015 by a DDOS attack; they registered 2.6 billion requests per hour, which suggests a professional attack.
The list of the most reputable such blocked websites below does not apply to the Hong Kong SAR and Macau , where most Chinese laws do not apply. It should be noted that many of the websites listed may be available occasionally or even regularly, depending on the point of access or current events.
Anyone who travels in China with a German SIM card in a smartphone is not subject to any restrictions.
List of major websites that are blocked in the People's Republic of China
The list is incomplete; Feel free to help expand it.
Alexa ranking | Website | domain | Url | category | language | Duration of the block | Current status |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | google.com | google.com | Search engine | English | 2014, May (or earlier) to date | blocked | |
1 | Gmail | google.com | mail.google.com | Email provider | English | 2014, September (or earlier) to date | blocked |
1 | Google Maps | google.com | maps.google.com | Map service | English | 2014, May (or earlier) to date | blocked |
1 | Google Docs | google.com | docs.google.com | File hosting | English | 2011, May (or earlier) to date | blocked |
1 | Google Encrypted | google.com | encrypted.google.com | Search engine | English | 2011, March (or earlier) to date | blocked |
1 | Google Plus | google.com | plus.google.com | social network | English | 2011, July to date | blocked |
1 | Google Sites | google.com | sites.google.com | Web hosting | English | 2011, March (or earlier) to date | blocked |
2 | YouTube | youtube.com | www.youtube.com | Video portal | English | 2009, March to date | blocked |
3 | facebook.com | www.facebook.com | social network | English | 2008, July to date | blocked | |
5 | Mobile Wikipedia | wikipedia.org | mobile.wikipedia.org | encyclopedia | English | 2011, May (or earlier) to date | blocked |
5 | Chinese Wikipedia | wikipedia.org | zh.wikipedia.org | encyclopedia | Chinese | 2015, May 19th to date | blocked |
6th | Yahoo! Taiwan | yahoo.com | tw.yahoo.com | portal | Chinese | 2011, May (or earlier) to 2014, Jan | not blocked |
6th | Yahoo! Hong Kong | yahoo.com | hk.yahoo.com | portal | Chinese | 2011, March (or earlier) to 2014, Jan | not blocked |
13 | twitter.com | twitter.com | social network | English | 2009, June to date | blocked | |
16 | Google Japan | google.co.jp | google.co.jp | Search engine | Japanese | 2012, 15.-17. June | blocked |
17th | instagram.com | instagram.com | social network | English | Sept 19, 2014 to date | blocked | |
35 | Pornhub | pornhub.com | www.pornhub.com | pornography | English | 2012, May to 2016, April | blocked |
36 | t.co | t.co | t.co | Other | English | 2011, May (or earlier) through 2012 | blocked |
37 | Yahoo! Japan | yahoo.co.jp | yahoo.co.jp | portal | Japanese | 2012, 15.-17. June | not blocked |
43 | XVideos | xvideos.com | www.xvideos.com | pornography | English | 2011, March (or earlier) to date | blocked |
56 | Tumblr | tumblr.com | tumblr.com | Online community | English | May 25th, 2016 to date | blocked |
63 | Blog spot | blogspot.com | blogspot.com | Blog service | English | 2009, May to date | blocked |
64 | Amazon Japan | amazon.co.jp | amazon.co.jp | Online shop | Japanese | 2012, 15.-17. June | not blocked |
71 | GitHub | github.com | www.github.com | File hosting | English | 2016, Aug (or earlier) to 2016, November (or earlier) | not blocked |
76 | xHamster | xhamster.com | www.xhamster.com | pornography | English | 2011, March (or earlier) through 2012 | blocked |
77 | pinterest.com | pinterest.com | social network | 2017, March to date | blocked | ||
89 | Dropbox | dropbox.com | www.dropbox.com | File hosting | English | 2014, June (or earlier) to date | blocked |
95 | Nico video | nicovideo.jp | nicovideo.jp | Video portal | Japanese | Unknown to unknown | not blocked |
101 | BBC | bbc.co.uk | bbc.co.uk | news | English | October 2014 to date | blocked |
103 | The Pirate Bay | thepiratebay.org | thepiratebay.org | Download portal | English | 2012, February (or earlier) | blocked |
108 | SoundCloud | soundcloud.com | www.soundcloud.com | Music service | English | September 2013 to date | blocked |
109 | The New York Times | nytimes.com | nytimes.com | news | English | 2012 until today | blocked |
110 | Rakuten Market | rakuten.co.jp | rakuten.co.jp | Online shop | Japanese | 2012, 15.-17. June, September ?? til today | blocked |
127 | Vimeo | vimeo.com | www.vimeo.com | Video portal | English | 2009, October to 2015, Sept | blocked |
142 | Dailymotion | dailymotion.com | dailymotion.com | Video portal | English | Unknown until today | blocked |
143 | FC2 | fc2.com | www.fc2.com | Blog | Japanese | 2011, March (or earlier) through 2012 | blocked |
165 | SlideShare | slideshare.net | slideshare.net | File hosting | English | unknown until today, Nov. 2015 | blocked |
222 | Scribd | scribd.com | scribd.com | Exchange platform | English | 2011, February (or earlier) until unknown | blocked |
235 | Mega | mega.nz | mega.nz | File hosting | English | unknown until today | blocked |
299 | Internet Archive | archive.org | www.archive.org | Digital library | English | 2011, April (or earlier) through 2012 | blocked |
332 | DuckDuckGo | duckduckgo.com | duckduckgo.com | Search engine | English | September 2014 to date | blocked |
361 | Flickr | flickr.com | flickr.com | File hosting | English | unknown until today, October 2014 | blocked |
449 | Bloomberg | bloomberg.com | bloomberg.com | news | English | 2012 until today | blocked |
462 | The Independent | independent.co.uk | independent.co.uk | news | English | 2012 until today | not blocked |
467 | The Epoch Times | theepochtimes.com | www.theepochtimes.com | news | English | 2003 until today | blocked |
553 | Wall Street Journal | wsj.com | wsj.com | news | English | unknown until today | blocked |
595 | The Epoch Times (Chinese Edition) | epochtimes.com | www.epochtimes.com | news | Chinese | 1999 until today | blocked |
605 | Reuters | reuters.com | reuters.com | news | English | March 25th, 2015 to date | blocked |
691 | Le Monde | lemonde.fr | www.lemonde.fr | news | French | unknown until today | blocked |
729 | Disqus | disqus.com | disqus.com | Online community | English | unknown until today | blocked |
751 | TIME | time.com | time.com | news | English | Article about Xi Jinping | blocked |
786 | Badoo | badoo.com | badoo.com | Online community | International | unknown until today, February 2015 | not blocked |
952 | DrTuber | drtuber.com | www.drtuber.com | pornography | English | 2011, April to 2012 | blocked |
1,030 | NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) | jpl.nasa.gov | jpl.nasa.gov | Space facility | English | Unknown until October 2018 (?) | not blocked |
1,418 | xing.com | www.xing.com | social network | German | 2011, April (or earlier) through 2012 | not blocked | |
1,422 | Nikkei BP Japan | nikkeibp.co.jp | nikkeibp.co.jp | news | Japanese | 2012, 15.-17. June | not blocked |
1,627 | Plurk | plurk.com | www.plurk.com | social network | English | 2009, April to 2012 | not blocked |
1,708 | Norsk rikskringkasting | nrk.no | www.nrk.no | news | Norwegian | 2011, May (or earlier) | blocked |
1,811 | Excite (Japan) | excite.co.jp | excite.co.jp | portal | Japanese | 2012, June 15 to June 17, September ?? - 18th | not blocked |
1,949 | Yomiuri News | yomiuri.co.jp | yomiuri.co.jp | news | Japanese | 2012, 15.-17. June | not blocked |
2,228 | The Economist | economist.com | economist.com | news | English | Article about Xi Jinping | blocked |
3.233 | New Tang Dynasty Television | ntdtv.com | www.ntdtv.com | news | Chinese | 1999, June (or earlier) until unknown | not blocked |
3,742 | Radio Free Asia | rfa.org | rfa.org | Radio station | English | unknown until today | blocked |
4,698 | Bigcommerce | bigcommerce.com | * .bigcommerce.com | E-commerce | English | unknown until today | blocked |
4,816 | SBS radio | sbs.com.au | www.sbs.com.au | Radio station | Chinese | Unknown to date, November 2013 | blocked |
4,952 | Mendeley | mendeley.com | mendeley.com | Online community | English | Unknown to date, Dec. 2014 | blocked |
5,180 | Ustream.tv | ustream.tv | www.ustream.tv | Internet television | English | 2011, April (or earlier) through 2012 | not blocked |
5,245 | Sponichi News | sponichi.co.jp | sponichi.co.jp | news | Japanese | 2012, 15.-17. June | not blocked |
5,682 | Minghui | minghui.org | www.minghui.org | mentally | Chinese | 1999, June (or earlier) through 2017 | blocked |
7,236 | Northern German Radio | ndr.de | www.ndr.de | State broadcaster | German | unknown until today | blocked |
8,248 | PBworks | pbworks.com | pbworks.com | Collaborative writing | English | 2011, January to 2012 | not blocked |
11,681 | Sony Japan | sony.co.jp | Sony.co.jp | Companies | Japanese | 2012, 15.-17. June | not blocked |
13,068 | hardsextube | hardsextube.com | www.hardsextube.com | pornography | English | 2011, April to 2012 | blocked |
14,568 | Periscope | periscope.tv | periscope.tv | Video portal | English | May 2017 to date | blocked |
16,180 | Gab.ai | gab.ai | www.gab.ai | social network | English | unknown until today | not blocked |
18,318 | WikiLeaks | wikileaks.org | wikileaks.org | NGO | English | 2011, May (or earlier) through 2012 | blocked |
18,819 | OpenVPN | openvpn.net | www.openvpn.net | VPN | English | 2011, June (or earlier) through 2012 | not blocked |
19,975 | Boxun | boxun.com | boxun.com | news | Chinese | 2011, May (or earlier) to date | blocked |
24,589 | Purevpn | purevpn.com | www.purevpn.com | VPN | English | 2007, December to date | blocked |
25,917 | Amnesty International | amnesty.org | amnesty.org | NGO | English | 2011, May (or earlier) through 2012 | not blocked |
26,108 | LazyGirls | lazygirls.info | lazygirls.info | entertainment | English | 2011 or 2013 until today | blocked |
35,725 | Falun Dafa | falundafa.org | www.falundafa.org | mentally | Multilingual | 1999, June (or earlier) through 2017 | blocked |
41,750 | Sony Music Entertainment Japan | sonymusic.co.jp | sonymusic.co.jp | Music label | Japanese | 2012, 15.-17. June | not blocked |
50,580 | AllMovie | omovie.com | www.allmovie.com | Online database | English | Unknown to date, November 2013 | blocked |
55,512 | Instafreebie | instafreebie.com | instafreebie.com | publication | English | unknown until today | blocked |
89,675 | GreatFire | greatfire.org | greatfire.org | Great Firewall test page | English | unknown until today | blocked |
101,674 | Strong VPN | strongvpn.com | www.strongvpn.com | VPN | English | 2011, June to today (partially blocked) | blocked |
122,725 | Reporters Without Borders | rsf.org | www.rsf.org | NGO | English | 2011, April (or earlier) through 2012 | blocked |
166,512 | Radio Australia | radioaustralia.net.au | www.radioaustralia.net.au | Radio station | Chinese | December 2012 to present, November 2013 | blocked |
349,541 | Twister | twister.net.co | twister.net.co | social network | English | 2014, August to date | blocked |
352.614 | UrbanSurvival Blog | urbansurvival.com | www.urbansurvival.com | Blog | English | 2013, April 2nd (or earlier) | blocked |
358.220 | Tibet Post | thetibetpost.com | thetibetpost.com | news | English, Chinese, Tibetan | 2010, March (or earlier) through 2012 | not blocked |
397.196 | Culture Unplugged Film Festival | cultureunplugged.com | festival.cultureunplugged.com |
Event |
English | 2013, January (or earlier) to date | blocked |
1,200,079 | Australia Tibet Council | waselpro.com | waselpro.com | NGO | English | Unknown to this day, September 2014 | blocked |
3,527,766 | VPN coupons | vpncoupons.com | www.vpncoupons.com | VPN | English | 2012, December (or earlier) through 2012 | blocked |
15.273.239 | Viet Nam California Radio (KALI-FM) | radiovncr.com | www.radiovncr.com | Radio station | Vietnamese / English | Unknown to date, November 2013 | blocked |
unknown | Google APIs | google.com | * .googleapis.com | Other | English | 2014, September (or earlier) to date | blocked |
unknown | Google Appspot | appspot.com | appspot.com | Cloud computing | English | Unknown to unknown | blocked |
unknown | ElephantVPN | elephantvpn.com | www.elephantvpn.com | VPN | English | 2013, December (or earlier) to date | blocked |
The last major non-Chinese search engine, Microsoft Bing, has also been blocked since January 2019 , although Microsoft has cooperated with China's authorities on censoring critical search terms.
Services to determine if a website in China is blocked by the Great Firewall
Surname | Real time | comment |
---|---|---|
Blocked in China | ✓ | Checks whether a domain is DNS-poisoned. DNS poisoning is one of the ways that websites can be blocked. Others are IP blocking and keyword filtering. |
Chinese firewall test | ✓ | Checks across a number of servers in various locations across mainland China. |
GreatFire | ✓ | Organization to monitor the status of websites. |
greatfirewallofchina.org | ✓ | Has a server location in China through which the check is carried out. Additional servers are available as a reserve. |
WebSitePulse | ✓ | Checks through servers in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong. |
ProPublica | Daily test whether websites of international news organizations are accessible to browsers in China. |
See also
- Golden Shield project
- Censorship in the People's Republic of China
- Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China
Individual evidence
- ↑ Christoph Ebert: The great Chinese firewall - this is how you test whether pages are blocked. In : entwickler.de. entwickler.de, November 9, 2013, accessed August 25, 2017 .
- ↑ Fabian Reinbold: The Anthem of the Internet Censors. In: spiegel.de. SPIEGEL ONLINE, February 14, 2015, accessed on August 25, 2017 .
- ↑ Johannes Wendt: Internet in China only comes from China. In: zeit.de. ZEIT ONLINE, March 20, 2015, accessed on August 25, 2017 .
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved June 21, 2014.
- ↑ a b GreatFire.org . Retrieved September 9, 2014.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved on June 21, 2014. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
- ↑ YouTube blocked in China , HerdictWeb. May 18, 2009.
- ↑ a b c Tania Branigan: China blocks Twitter, Flickr and Hotmail ahead of Tiananmen anniversary , guardian.co.uk. June 2, 2009. Retrieved May 11, 2010.
- ↑ a b Blocking of Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Blogger deprives Chinese of Web 2.0 , Reporters without Borders. June 2, 2009.
- ↑ Steven Schwankert: YouTube blocked in China; Flickr, Blogspot restored , IDG News. October 18, 2007. Archived from the original on January 24, 2008. Retrieved on January 26, 2008.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved June 14, 2018.
- ↑ China Now Blocked From Accessing Wikipedia . The Epoch Times. June 8, 2015. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
- ↑ Reports: China blocks Web sites ahead of Tiananmen anniversary , CNN.com. June 2, 2009. Retrieved May 11, 2010.
- ^ Robin Wauters: China Blocks Access To Twitter, Facebook After Riots . In: washingtonspost.com , July 7, 2009. Retrieved June 3, 2010.
- ↑ Instagram appears blocked in China . Retrieved December 14, 2014.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
- ↑ Goldkorn, Jeremy: Blogger.com blocked, but not the Washington Post . Danwei. May 15, 2009.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved August 16, 2016.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
- ↑ Sherisse Pham: Pinterest has been blocked in China . CNNMoney. March 17, 2017. Retrieved May 14, 2017.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved August 3, 2014.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved November 26, 2013.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved November 26, 2013.
- ↑ shanghaiist.com , Shanghaiist
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved February 26, 2016.
- ↑ Is vimeo.com blocked in China and how can you access it? . Retrieved March 10, 2016.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
- ^ Kate Conger: Backing up the history of the internet in Canada to save it from Trump . TechCrunch. Retrieved May 14, 2017.
- ↑ Where to find what's disappeared online, and a whole lot more: the Internet Archive . Public Radio International. Retrieved May 14, 2017.
- ^ A b China Blocks Economist and Time Websites, Apparently Over Xi Jinping Articles . Retrieved April 8, 2016.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
- ↑ Chinese Firewall Test .
- ↑ China Blocks Micro-Messaging Site Plurk. Is Twitter Next? . TechCrunch. Retrieved April 23, 2009.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 6, 2016.
- ↑ The Economist's website is now censored in China — and all it took was one satirical cover . Retrieved April 7, 2016.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved March 17, 2014.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved on November 26, 2013. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
- ^ The Epoch Times . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
- ↑ "The dilemma today due to China's content filtering of my current handouts website" ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , retrieved 2010-07-13.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved June 2, 2014.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
- ^ The Epoch Times . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved November 26, 2013.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
- ↑ a b GreatFire.org .
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved on November 26, 2013. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved February 8, 2015.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved January 22, 2014.
- ↑ GreatFire.org .
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved on December 20, 2012. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved November 26, 2013.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved September 8, 2014.
- ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved December 20, 2012.
- ↑ juh / Reuters / dpa: Bing: Microsoft's search engine blocked in China. In: Spiegel Online . January 24, 2019, accessed April 26, 2020 .