If you live in a country where you have general unrestricted access to the internet, it can be easy to take such a thing for granted. That being said, there are many parts of the world where this is not the case. Internet censorship varies widely by country, as well as specific regions of countries, but there are ways around such restrictions.
The organization Turkey Blocks, for example, makes an effort to map internet censorship and shutdowns in real time. In their words:
Turkey Blocks is an independent, non-partisan digital transparency project that seeks to identify and validate reports of internet mass-censorship in Turkey. We measure wide-scale internet slowdown and shutdown incidents using a combination of digital forensic techniques.1
Turkey Blocks monitors access to such things as social media networks and messaging services that are frequently censored by governments (not just Turkey’s). They also bolster groups of people that are often oppressed or silenced: “We support at-risk groups and individuals including women and LGBTI communities most impacted by digital threats, online harassment and extrajudicial censorship.”
Outside of Turkey, the organization NetBlocks does similar monitoring and reporting of internet censorship and restriction. For instance, some of their most recent reports describe internet disruption in countries such as the Republic of the Congo, Russia, Senegal, and Chad.
To bypass such censorship, one available tool, as mentioned in a previous article, is Tor. The Tor network, in general, can allow access to blocked sites and services through its onion routing technology. As an example, if a site such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which also reports on internet censorship, is blocked in a country, through Tor, you may be able to access it.
Beyond just accessing .onion sites, the Tor Browser enables access to the clearnet (non-anonymous internet), albeit through a Tor circuit. A Tor circuit is defined as such:
A path through the Tor network built by clients consisting of randomly selected nodes. The circuit begins with either a bridge or a guard. Most circuits consist of three nodes - a guard or bridge, a middle relay, and an exit. Most onion services use six hops in a circuit (with the exception of single onion services), and never an exit node. You can view your current Tor circuit by clicking on the [i] on the URL bar.2
Because Tor allows access to these sites, some countries also block or restrict access to Tor itself. For these cases, Tor has what are called bridges or pluggable transports. These are volunteer-operated nodes in the Tor network that transform traffic flow, so that censors will have a harder time recognizing it. When you first install the Tor Browser, it asks whether or not Tor is censored in your area. If the answer is yes, then Tor will use a pluggable transport to attempt to sidestep the restrictions.
As the Tor Project explains:
Sometimes the Tor network is censored, and you can’t connect to it. An increasing number of censoring countries are using Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) to classify Internet traffic flows by protocol. While Tor uses bridge relays to get around a censor that blocks by IP address, the censor can use DPI to recognize and filter Tor traffic flows even when they connect to unexpected IP addresses.3
On Tor’s official site is a list of different relays from around the world. While you don’t need to choose any particular one, if a specific one is blocked, you can look for another in the list.
VPN Services
In addition to Tor, some VPN providers also enable access to blocked services and sites. For example, certain Netflix movies are region-locked, even in countries not known for heavy censorship. Using a VPN provider, you may have access to these movies. There are numerous VPN providers, however, and some countries attempt to block these as well.
Riseup is not only a VPN provider, but also offers email, XMPP, chat, and mailing lists. A service dedicated to freedom of speech and online communication tools, they work to allow access to content that may be censored.
While their VPN service is free, the organization requires an invite code from an existing member. The purpose of this is to keep out unethical individuals who may go against Riseup’s mission. They are funded by donations.
Mullvad is another VPN provider who emphasizes privacy, anonymity, and freedom of speech. While their VPN service isn’t free, it’s cheaper than many other such services. At present, it has 754 servers available in 36 countries and 60 cities.
There are quite a few other VPN providers as well, and if one doesn’t work well in your area, you can certainly research others that are available.
Snowflake, also operated by Tor, is another method to help internet users in restricted areas. Snowflake works as a proxy that volunteers use to assist people in reaching censored sites and services. It can be installed as a plugin on browsers like Chrome and Firefox, and may be available for other browsers in the future.
When Tor users in censored areas install Tor for the first time, they can select Snowflake as a Tor bridge to use in order to access the censored sites. The volunteer users operating Snowflake are helping these users to evade the restrictions.
There are other methods of breaking through censorship efforts as well, but these are some of the best and easiest to use. In the future, hopefully citizens will have even more technology available to enable freedom of speech and expression.
How to Bypass Internet Censorship
How to Bypass Internet Censorship
How to Bypass Internet Censorship
If you live in a country where you have general unrestricted access to the internet, it can be easy to take such a thing for granted. That being said, there are many parts of the world where this is not the case. Internet censorship varies widely by country, as well as specific regions of countries, but there are ways around such restrictions.
The organization Turkey Blocks, for example, makes an effort to map internet censorship and shutdowns in real time. In their words:
Turkey Blocks is an independent, non-partisan digital transparency project that seeks to identify and validate reports of internet mass-censorship in Turkey. We measure wide-scale internet slowdown and shutdown incidents using a combination of digital forensic techniques.1
Turkey Blocks monitors access to such things as social media networks and messaging services that are frequently censored by governments (not just Turkey’s). They also bolster groups of people that are often oppressed or silenced: “We support at-risk groups and individuals including women and LGBTI communities most impacted by digital threats, online harassment and extrajudicial censorship.”
Outside of Turkey, the organization NetBlocks does similar monitoring and reporting of internet censorship and restriction. For instance, some of their most recent reports describe internet disruption in countries such as the Republic of the Congo, Russia, Senegal, and Chad.
To bypass such censorship, one available tool, as mentioned in a previous article, is Tor. The Tor network, in general, can allow access to blocked sites and services through its onion routing technology. As an example, if a site such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which also reports on internet censorship, is blocked in a country, through Tor, you may be able to access it.
Beyond just accessing .onion sites, the Tor Browser enables access to the clearnet (non-anonymous internet), albeit through a Tor circuit. A Tor circuit is defined as such:
A path through the Tor network built by clients consisting of randomly selected nodes. The circuit begins with either a bridge or a guard. Most circuits consist of three nodes - a guard or bridge, a middle relay, and an exit. Most onion services use six hops in a circuit (with the exception of single onion services), and never an exit node. You can view your current Tor circuit by clicking on the [i] on the URL bar.2
Because Tor allows access to these sites, some countries also block or restrict access to Tor itself. For these cases, Tor has what are called bridges or pluggable transports. These are volunteer-operated nodes in the Tor network that transform traffic flow, so that censors will have a harder time recognizing it. When you first install the Tor Browser, it asks whether or not Tor is censored in your area. If the answer is yes, then Tor will use a pluggable transport to attempt to sidestep the restrictions.
As the Tor Project explains:
Sometimes the Tor network is censored, and you can’t connect to it. An increasing number of censoring countries are using Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) to classify Internet traffic flows by protocol. While Tor uses bridge relays to get around a censor that blocks by IP address, the censor can use DPI to recognize and filter Tor traffic flows even when they connect to unexpected IP addresses.3
On Tor’s official site is a list of different relays from around the world. While you don’t need to choose any particular one, if a specific one is blocked, you can look for another in the list.
VPN Services
In addition to Tor, some VPN providers also enable access to blocked services and sites. For example, certain Netflix movies are region-locked, even in countries not known for heavy censorship. Using a VPN provider, you may have access to these movies. There are numerous VPN providers, however, and some countries attempt to block these as well.
Riseup4
Riseup is not only a VPN provider, but also offers email, XMPP, chat, and mailing lists. A service dedicated to freedom of speech and online communication tools, they work to allow access to content that may be censored.
While their VPN service is free, the organization requires an invite code from an existing member. The purpose of this is to keep out unethical individuals who may go against Riseup’s mission. They are funded by donations.
Mullvad VPN5
Mullvad is another VPN provider who emphasizes privacy, anonymity, and freedom of speech. While their VPN service isn’t free, it’s cheaper than many other such services. At present, it has 754 servers available in 36 countries and 60 cities.
There are quite a few other VPN providers as well, and if one doesn’t work well in your area, you can certainly research others that are available.
Note: These are not paid endorsements.
Snowflake6
Snowflake, also operated by Tor, is another method to help internet users in restricted areas. Snowflake works as a proxy that volunteers use to assist people in reaching censored sites and services. It can be installed as a plugin on browsers like Chrome and Firefox, and may be available for other browsers in the future.
When Tor users in censored areas install Tor for the first time, they can select Snowflake as a Tor bridge to use in order to access the censored sites. The volunteer users operating Snowflake are helping these users to evade the restrictions.
There are other methods of breaking through censorship efforts as well, but these are some of the best and easiest to use. In the future, hopefully citizens will have even more technology available to enable freedom of speech and expression.
About Turkey Blocks https://turkeyblocks.org/about/
Tor Project: Circuit https://support.torproject.org/glossary/circuit/
Tor Project: Pluggable Transports https://2019.www.torproject.org/docs/pluggable-transports.html.en
Riseup https://riseup.net
Mullvad VPN https://mullvad.net
Snowflake https://snowflake.torproject.org/