Online censorship is about more than just blocking websites. It’s an attempt to shape what you read on the internet, who you vote for, and even how you feel. Whether you’re looking to protect yourself from digital censorship or just learn how it works, this post can help. I’ll explain everything you should know, including who censors the internet and why.
What is digital censorship?
In short, digital censorship is a deliberate attempt to prevent the free exchange of information on the internet. This could be by blocking websites, censoring search results, or shutting off access to the internet entirely. Wherever you find censorship, you’ll also find attempts to limit personal privacy. That’s why authoritarian countries often ban VPNs and discourage discussion of sensitive topics by requiring internet users to provide photo ID.
What types of content are most commonly censored online?
Every country has different laws regarding what is and is not accessible on the internet. That said, in places with strict digital censorship, some types of content are more likely to be blocked than not. These include:
- Pornography
- Online casinos or betting platforms
- Privacy tools including VPNs and encrypted messaging services
- Unbiased sources of information (eg. Wikipedia, independent news outlets)
- Social media sites
- Websites covering LGBTQIA+ topics
- Pro-democracy or anti-censorship viewpoints
Who censors the internet?
Generally, when we discuss online censorship, we’re talking about governments imposing laws that restrict access to certain types of content. China is the most famous example – its internet-censoring system, the Great Firewall, blocks messaging apps, social media, and even Comparitech. It’s not alone, though: internet censorship is on the rise around the world.
Censorship can also be carried out by corporations. Twitter previously suspended accounts discussing the publicly-available location of owner Elon Musk’s private jet. Meanwhile, euphemisms like “unalived” are rife on platforms like TikTok and YouTube. This is due to other forms of censorship: automated moderation and the intentional deprioritization of content deemed unappealing to advertisers.
Finally, individuals can censor the internet by restricting what’s accessible on their home network or blocking specific social media accounts.
What can I do to avoid online censorship?
No country has yet created a foolproof censorship system. Follow the steps below and you’ll be able communicate privately and evade digital censorship from virtually anywhere:
- Use a VPN to hide your online activities and real location.
- If anonymity is your top priority, consider using Tor.
- Switch to an encrypted messaging app like Signal or Telegram.
- Get information from multiple sources to account for biases.
- Encrypt your hard drive and anything uploaded to the cloud.
- Use public DNS servers instead of your ISP’s default DNS servers.
- Set up encrypted email.
- Take advantage of all the free privacy and security tools at your disposal.
The most-important way to fight digital censorship is to be vocal in your opposition. Americans have a constitutional right to free speech but that’s not the case everywhere. If it’s safe to do so, let your representatives know that you don’t support unnecessary, expensive, and ineffective internet censorship. If you can, support free speech/anti-censorship organizations such as Amnesty International and Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Reject data-collection. Avoid platforms that exist to harvest your personal information, especially if they also engage in newsfeed manipulation or hateful rhetoric. Decline tracking cookies, refuse to provide feedback, and if age-verification is required, choose the option that reveals as little about you as possible.
Internet censorship: why it happens and how it works
Digital censorship distorts your perception of reality and undermines the spirit of free speech that the internet was built on. Worse still, it’s becoming the norm. According to Freedom House, digital freedom rankings have fallen for fifteen consecutive years, even in countries previously categorized as “free”.
What are the goals of digital censorship?
On paper, online censorship is almost always framed as a necessary measure to protect children or catch criminals. In practise, however, it’s usually to achieve one of five objectives:
- Suppressing information that threatens those in power. Example: The Chinese Communist Party blocks pro-democracy websites to maintain a one-party system.
- Suppressing dissent. Example: Russia canceling the visas of independent journalists covering anti-war sentiment.
- Preventing activists from organizing. Example: Iran shutting off internet access during periods of significant protest and government-backed violence.
- Shaping public opinion. Example: Facebook tweaking its algorithm to prioritize far-right content, making users believe these viewpoints are more popular than they are.
- Encouraging self-censorship. Example: The UK’s Online Safety Act requires age-verification before accessing adult content. This forces citizens to decide whether they’d rather visit adult sites or show their government ID to a third-party processor.
There are cases where online censorship is necessary, for instance, blocking access to illegal content, hate speech, or anything that incites violence. However, each time a government makes an exception, the next one becomes easier to justify. That’s why it should be a last resort saved for the most extreme circumstances, not something routine.
How do governments censor the internet?
The internet is an immensely complex network spanning the entire planet. As such, you might imagine censoring it to be far more difficult than it actually is. While it’s true that there are various workarounds, it’s surprisingly easy for governments to restrict what information you can access.Here are some of the most common ways authorities censor the internet:
IP address blocking
Governments often ask Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block specific IP addresses. Normally, your ISP takes a URL and uses a DNS system to find the site’s IP address before delivering the requested page. In places with extreme censorship, though, they might return an error, display a warning message, or log information about the user’s device. This type of IP blocking is easily implemented, but won’t catch censored sites that switch to a new URL.
Keyword filtering
Instead of taking a “whack-a-mole” approach and manually blocking each offending website, some censors instead specify keywords to block. WeChat, for instance, has been caught censoring sensitive terms, and the whole reason Google is no longer available in China is because it refused to stop censoring search results.
DNS poisoning
The Domain Name System is responsible for translating website URLS into IP addresses. Once you’ve visited a given site, the relevant information is cached so you can access that site quicker in future. DNS poisoning –also known as DNS spoofing, hijacking, or tampering– is when an attacker intentionally saves incorrect data, causing your request to be diverted or dropped. You may find that the site never loads or you’re sent to an entirely different website.
Conclusion
Digital censorship isn’t just a problem in China and Russia; it’s present to some degree in almost every country. Used sparingly, censorship can prevent harmful content from spreading. However, heavy-handed censorship can have the opposite effect, pushing regular people towards unregulated, less safe spaces. In the worst cases, website-blocking stops being a mechanism for public safety and becomes a tool of oppression.
Things don’t have to be this way. With a few readily-available tools and a privacy-first approach to data-collection, it’s absolutely possible to evade digital censorship. This will let you speak freely and access unbiased information wherever you go.
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