Internet censorship. Just the phrase feels like a locked door in a hallway filled with information. Whether you are scrolling through social media, researching for school, or simply trying to stream a show your friend recommended from another country, chances are you have hit a wall. Maybe the site did not load. Maybe you got a strange error. Maybe it just vanished.
So what is really going on here, and more importantly—how can you deal with it?
Let us break it down. No tech jargon, no complicated nonsense. Just what you need to know.
First Line of Defense: VPNs
Ever wish you could teleport to another country just to see the internet from their side of the fence? That is basically what a Virtual Private Network, or VPN, does.
When you use a VPN, you are building a secure, private tunnel between your device and another country’s internet environment. You get to browse like you are sitting in a café in Paris or a library in Toronto, even if you are on your couch in Jakarta.
Some VPNs cost a few bucks a month. Others run on ads. All of them aim to help you dodge local blocks. But do not be fooled—while they can be powerful, they are not a magic fix. Some sites catch on and block VPN traffic too. Still, for many, it is a solid tool in the censorship-avoidance toolkit.
How the Internet Gets Choked
Censorship does not always look like a giant red “ACCESS DENIED” screen. Sometimes, it is sneaky. Subtle. Surgical.
One method is IP address blocking. Basically, certain digital destinations—entire websites or services—are made unreachable by cutting off access to their numerical internet address.
Another trick? DNS filtering and redirection. Think of DNS as the internet’s phonebook. You type in a name like “example.com”, and DNS tells your browser the number to call. But with censorship, that phonebook gets tampered with. You might be sent to the wrong place or get no number at all.
In more technical terms, this might be DNS hijacking or total denial. But from your side of the screen, it just looks like…nothing.
Why It Happens
Two big forces drive internet censorship.
First—governments that fear information. Totalitarian regimes especially rely on controlling what people can see, say, and share. When knowledge becomes power, they slam the brakes on open access.
Second—local internet providers. These companies often have no choice but to follow government orders. They build the roads of the internet in your region, and they can throw up roadblocks whenever they’re told to.
These two—politics and providers—form the backbone of online censorship.
DNS: Helpful, But Not Private
Now, you might have heard about using alternative DNS servers to get around blocks. It can work. Kind of like switching phonebooks when one has a bunch of pages ripped out.
But here is the catch: DNS is not private. Not even close.
Everything you do on DNS is visible. Governments, hackers, curious tech workers—they can all peek into your activity. So yes, it might let you access a blocked site fast, but it will not protect your identity. If privacy matters, look elsewhere.
What If VPNs Are Blocked Too?
Then it is time to bring out Tor.
Tor is not just a browser. It is an entire system designed for anonymity. You download it from the official Tor Project site, fire it up, and access the web in a way that is hard to trace, track, or block.
A quick heads-up, though: do not mess with plugins or browser extensions. Those can ruin the privacy Tor is built on.
It is not the fastest. It is not always smooth. But it is powerful.
Who Decides What Gets Blocked?
There is no one-size-fits-all answer. In some countries, the federal government makes the big decisions. In others, it is handed off to local authorities who decide what is acceptable within their jurisdiction.
That makes internet freedom a bit of a postcode lottery. You could be in one region where everything is open and, one town over, find yourself locked out of half the web.
So Where Is the Internet Still Free?
Surprisingly, there are a handful of countries with virtually no internet censorship. According to studies, Egypt, France, Germany, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States do not actively filter or block access in a widespread way.
China? Complete opposite. The most extensive filters on the planet. Some others fall somewhere in the middle—blocking specific content or topics.
The Best VPN Protocols for Beating the Block
If you are getting serious about your connection, you will want to pay attention to protocols. These are like the inner wiring of your VPN.
The one to watch? SSTP. It is tough to block because it rides along the same channels as secure websites. Since it uses the HTTPS port, most filters let it slip through unnoticed. If everything else fails, SSTP usually does not.
Under the Hood: How the Internet Actually Moves
The internet runs on a system called the Internet protocol suite, often known as TCP/IP.
The most common version in the world is IPv4, but we are slowly moving toward IPv6, which is like giving the internet a bigger address book. That switch has been rolling out since around 2006, but IPv4 still rules the game in most places.
These protocols are what move your data from point A to point B. Without them, nothing loads. No cat videos. No news. No emails.
Censorship’s Most Common Disguise
Want to know what censorship often looks like?
Silence.
Not loud announcements or flashing warnings. Just missing information. Withholding. Stories that never make it to the page. Videos that disappear before they go viral. It is quiet, but it is everywhere.
It is easy to miss if you do not know what to look for. And that is why knowing how it works—how to spot it, how to get around it—is more important now than ever.
Freedom online is not guaranteed. But with the right knowledge, a few tools, and a little curiosity, you can take back some control.