Blocked Websites in the People's Republic of China

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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 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 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 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 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 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 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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 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 .
  2. ↑ Fabian Reinbold: The Anthem of the Internet Censors. In: spiegel.de. SPIEGEL ONLINE, February 14, 2015, accessed on August 25, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Johannes Wendt: Internet in China only comes from China. In: zeit.de. ZEIT ONLINE, March 20, 2015, accessed on August 25, 2017 .
  4. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved June 21, 2014.
  5. ↑ a b GreatFire.org . Retrieved September 9, 2014.
  6. ↑ 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.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / en.greatfire.org  
  7. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
  8. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
  9. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
  10. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
  11. ↑ YouTube blocked in China , HerdictWeb. May 18, 2009. 
  12. ↑ 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. 
  13. ↑ a b Blocking of Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Blogger deprives Chinese of Web 2.0 , Reporters without Borders. June 2, 2009. 
  14. ↑ 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. 
  15. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  16. ↑ China Now Blocked From Accessing Wikipedia . The Epoch Times. June 8, 2015. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
  17. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
  18. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
  19. ↑ Reports: China blocks Web sites ahead of Tiananmen anniversary , CNN.com. June 2, 2009. Retrieved May 11, 2010. 
  20. ^ Robin Wauters: China Blocks Access To Twitter, Facebook After Riots . In: washingtonspost.com , July 7, 2009. Retrieved June 3, 2010. 
  21. ↑ Instagram appears blocked in China . Retrieved December 14, 2014.
  22. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
  23. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
  24. ↑ Goldkorn, Jeremy: Blogger.com blocked, but not the Washington Post . Danwei. May 15, 2009.
  25. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved August 16, 2016.
  26. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
  27. ↑ Sherisse Pham: Pinterest has been blocked in China . CNNMoney. March 17, 2017. Retrieved May 14, 2017.
  28. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved August 3, 2014.
  29. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
  30. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved November 26, 2013.
  31. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved November 26, 2013.
  32. ↑ shanghaiist.com , Shanghaiist
  33. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved February 26, 2016.
  34. ↑ Is vimeo.com blocked in China and how can you access it? . Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  35. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
  36. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
  37. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
  38. ^ Kate Conger: Backing up the history of the internet in Canada to save it from Trump . TechCrunch. Retrieved May 14, 2017.
  39. ↑ Where to find what's disappeared online, and a whole lot more: the Internet Archive . Public Radio International. Retrieved May 14, 2017.
  40. ^ A b China Blocks Economist and Time Websites, Apparently Over Xi Jinping Articles . Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  41. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
  42. ↑ Chinese Firewall Test .
  43. ↑ China Blocks Micro-Messaging Site Plurk. Is Twitter Next? . TechCrunch. Retrieved April 23, 2009.
  44. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 6, 2016.
  45. ↑ The Economist's website is now censored in China — and all it took was one satirical cover . Retrieved April 7, 2016.
  46. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved March 17, 2014.
  47. ↑ 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.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / en.greatfire.org  
  48. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
  49. ^ The Epoch Times . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
  50. ↑ "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.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.speedofcreativity.org  
  51. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
  52. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
  53. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
  54. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
  55. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved June 2, 2014.
  56. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
  57. ^ The Epoch Times . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
  58. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved November 26, 2013.
  59. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved May 16, 2012.
  60. ↑ a b GreatFire.org .
  61. ↑ 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.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / en.greatfire.org  
  62. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  63. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  64. ↑ GreatFire.org .
  65. ↑ 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.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / en.greatfire.org  
  66. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved November 26, 2013.
  67. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved September 8, 2014.
  68. ↑ GreatFire.org . Retrieved December 20, 2012.
  69. ↑ juh / Reuters / dpa: Bing: Microsoft's search engine blocked in China. In: Spiegel Online . January 24, 2019, accessed April 26, 2020 .