List of websites blocked in mainland China

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Many domain names are blocked in mainland China under the country's Internet censorship policy, which prevents users from accessing certain websites from within the country.^[1]

A majority of apps and websites blocked are the result of the companies not willing to follow the Chinese government's internet regulations on data collection and privacy, user-safety, guidelines and the type of content being shared, posted or hosted.

This is a list of the most notable such blocked websites in the country. This page does not apply to Chinese territories that adhere to the policy of one country, two systems (Hong Kong and Macau).^[2]

Table of high-ranking websites blocked in mainland China

Website	Domain	URL	Category	Primary language	Duration of blockage	Current status
Google	google.com	www.google.com drive.google.com chat.google.com scholar.google.com	Search	Multilingual	2010–present^[2]	Blocked^[3]
YouTube	youtube.com	www.youtube.com	Video	Multilingual	2009–present^[4]	Blocked^[3]
Facebook	facebook.com	www.facebook.com	Social	Multilingual	July (or earlier) 2009–present^[5]^[6]	Blocked^[7]
Wikipedia	wikipedia.org	wikipedia.org	Encyclopedia	Multilingual	23 April 2019 – present^[8]^[9]	Blocked
Marxists Internet Archive	marxists.org	marxists.org	Encyclopedia	Multilingual	About 2005–no later than 2007^[10]	Unblocked
Reddit	reddit.com	www.reddit.com	Social	Multilingual	2018–present^[11]	Blocked
Fandom	fandom.com	community.fandom.com	Wikia	Multilingual	2022–present	Partially blocked, sometimes can be accessed normally, sometimes inaccessible
Netflix	netflix.com	www.netflix.com	Entertainment	Multilingual	2012–present	Unblocked (Service Not Available)^[12]
Zoom	zoom.us	zoom.us	Videotelephony	English	9 September to November 2019^[13]	Unblocked
Blogspot	blogspot.com	blogspot.com	Blog	English	May 2009–present^[14]^[15]^[16]	Blocked
Bing	bing.com	bing.com	Search	Multilingual	23 to 24 January 2019^[17]	Unblocked (Service Not Available, redirects to Chinese version)^[18]
Instagram	Instagram.com	www.Instagram.com	Image Sharing	Multilingual	September 2014–present^[19]	Blocked
WhatsApp	whatsapp.com	whatsapp.com	Messaging	Multilingual	September 2017–present^[20]	Blocked
Twitch	twitch.tv	twitch.tv	Streaming	English	17 September 2018–present	Blocked^[21]
Roblox	roblox.com	roblox.com	Gaming	Multilingual	December 2021-present	Blocked
Steam Store	store.steampowered.com	store.steampowered.com	Entertainment	Multilingual	25 December 2021^[22]^[23]–present	Partially blocked, sometimes could be accessed normally, sometimes inaccessible
Steam Community	steamcommunity.com	steamcommunity.com	Social	Multilingual	15 December 2017^[24]^[25]–present	Blocked
Spotify	spotify.com	spotify.com	Music streaming	Multilingual	7 October 2008–present	Unblocked (Service Not Available)^[26]
Messenger	messenger.com	messenger.com	Messaging	Multilingual	August 2011–present^[5]^[6]	Partially blocked (available for tourists in Hainan)^[3]^[needs update]
Twitter	twitter.com	twitter.com	Social	English	June 2009–present^[14]^[27]^[6]	Partially blocked (available for tourists in Hainan)^[3]^[needs update]
LinkedIn	linkedin.com	linkedin.com	Social	Multilingual	October 2021–present^[1]^[8]^[9]	Blocked (Separate Chinese version exists)
Skype	skype.com	skype.com	Social	Multilingual	November 2017–unknown^[28]	Unblocked
Tumblr	tumblr.com	tumblr.com	Social	English	25 May 2016–present^[29]	Blocked
Pinterest	pinterest.com	pinterest.com	Image sharing	Multilingual	March 2017–present^[30]	Blocked
SoundCloud	SoundCloud.com	SoundCloud.com	Music streaming	Multilingual	September 2013–present^[31]	Blocked
Signal Private Messenger	signal.org	signal.org	Instant messaging	Multilingual	March 16, 2021 – present^[32]	Blocked
Dropbox	dropbox.com	dropbox.com	File sharing	Multilingual	May 2010 – February 2014; June 2014 – present^[33]	Blocked
Pornhub	pornhub.com	www.pornhub.com	Pornography	English	2012, May to 2016, April, to present	Blocked^[34]
XVideos	xvideos.com	xvideos.com	Pornography videos	English	??? – present	Blocked
Medium	medium.com	medium.com	News	English	2016, 15 April to present^[35]	Blocked
Dailymotion	dailymotion.com	dailymotion.com	Sharing	English	2007, 11 April to present^[36]	Blocked
BBC	bbc.co.uk (or bbc.com)	bbc.co.uk (or bbc.com)	News and broadcasting	English	2014, 15 October to present^[37]	Blocked
The New York Times	nytimes.com	nytimes.com	Publication	English	2012 to present	Blocked^[38]
Vimeo	vimeo.com	www.vimeo.com	Sharing	English	2009, October^[39] to present^[40]	Blocked
The Guardian	theguardian.com	theguardian.com	News	English	June 2019 to present^[41]	Blocked
SlideShare	slideshare.net	slideshare.net		English	June 2012 to present	Blocked^[42]
Discord	discord.com	discord.com	Messaging	Multilingual	2018, 13 July to present^[43]	Blocked
DeviantArt	deviantart.com	www.deviantart.com	Art display	English	2008, 15 December to present^[44]	Blocked
The Washington Post	washingtonpost.com	washingtonpost.com	News	English	June 2019 to present^[41]	Blocked
Nico Video	nicovideo.jp	nicovideo.jp	Sharing	Japanese	Unknown to present^[45]	Blocked
Archive.org (Internet Archive)	archive.org	www.archive.org	Web archiving	English	2011, April (or earlier) to Present^[46]	Blocked^[47]^[48]
Bloomberg	bloomberg.com	bloomberg.com	Publication	English	2012, July to present^[49]	Blocked
Flickr	flickr.com	flickr.com	Sharing	English	2007, 7 June to present^[50]^[51]	Blocked
Wretch	wretch.cc	www.wretch.cc	Blog	Chinese	2007, August to 2012^[52]	Blocked (discontinued)
HuffPost	huffpost.com	huffpost.com	News	English	June 2019 to present^[41]	Blocked
The Wall Street Journal	wsj.com	wsj.com	News	English	No later than 22 September 2015 to present^[53]^[54]	Blocked
DuckDuckGo	duckduckgo.com	duckduckgo.com	Search	English	2014, September to present^[55]	Blocked
Scratch	scratch.mit.edu	scratch.mit.edu	Programming, Sharing	Multilingual	2020, 14 August to present	Blocked^[56]^[citation needed]^[57]
Reuters	reuters.com	reuters.com	News	English	2015, 25 March, to present^[58]	Blocked
NBC News	nbcnews.com	www.nbcnews.com	News	English	June 2019 to present^[41]	Blocked
TIME	time.com	time.com	News	English	2016. 9 April to present^[59]	Blocked
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)	cbc.ca	www.cbc.ca	News and broadcasting	English	2014 to present^[60]	Blocked
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)	www.abc.net.au	www.abc.net.au	News and broadcasting	English	2018, 22 August to present^[61]	Blocked
Bandcamp	bandcamp.com	www.bandcamp.com	Music	English	2021, February to present^[62]	Blocked
Technorati	technorati.com	www.technorati.com	Search	English	2008, July to Present^[63]	Blocked
Archive of Our Own	archiveofourown.org	archiveofourown.org	Fanfiction	Multilingual	2020, March, to present^[64]	Blocked
Viber	viber.com	viber.com	Messaging	Multilingual	2014, October to present^[65]	Blocked
South China Morning Post	scmp.com	scmp.com	News	Chinese	2016 to present^[66]	Blocked
Plurk	plurk.com	www.plurk.com	Social	Multilingual	2009, April to Present^[67]	Blocked
The Economist	economist.com	economist.com	News	English	April 2016 – present^[68]^[69]	Blocked
Heise Online	heise.de	www.heise.de	News	German	November 2019 – present^[70]	Blocked
ABC	abc.es	www.abc.es	News	Spanish	29 November 2021 – present^[71]	Blocked
Voice of America	voanews.com	www.voanews.com	News	English	Unknown – present^[72]	Blocked
Radio Free Asia	rfa.org	rfa.org	News, broadcasting	Multilingual	Unknown – present^[73]^[74]	Blocked
NBC	nbc.com	nbc.com	Broadcasting	English	June 2019 – present^[41]	Blocked
PBworks	pbworks.com	pbworks.com	Sharing	English	January 2011 – present^[75]	Blocked
The Epoch Times	theepochtimes.com	www.theepochtimes.com	News	English	2003–present^[76]	Blocked
The Epoch Times (Chinese edition)	epochtimes.com	www.epochtimes.com	News	Chinese	1999–present^[76]	Blocked
HBO	hbo.com	www.hbo.com	Entertainment	English	June 2018 – present^[77]	Blocked
WION	wionews.com	www.wionews.com	News	English	July 2020 – present^[78]	Blocked^[79]
Hong Kong Free Press	hongkongfp.com	hongkongfp.com	News	English	November 2015 – present^[80]	Blocked
Apple Daily	hk.appledaily.com	hk.appledaily.com	News	Traditional Chinese (Cantonese)	Unknown – 2021 (closed)	Blocked,^[81] closed in 2021
TikTok	tiktok.com	www.tiktok.com	Social	Multilingual	June 2020 – present	Blocked^[82]
ChatGPT	openai.com	chat.openai.com api.openai.com	Artificial Intelligence	Multilingual	2023–present	Blocked^[83]
Rockstar Games	rockstargames.com	www.rockstargames.com	Gaming	Multilingual	Unknown–present	Blocked
GitHub	github.com	www.github.com	Web tools	Multilingual	June 2020 – present	Partially blocked, sometimes could be accessed normally, sometimes inaccessible
Hugging Face	huggingface.co	huggingface.co	Artificial Intelligence	Multilingual	2023–present	Blocked^[84]
Flipkart	flipkart.com	www.flipkart.com	Online Shopping	Multilingual	Unknown–present	Blocked
Zomato	zomato.com	www.zomato.com	Food Service	English	Unknown–present	Blocked
Swiggy	swiggy.com	www.swiggy.com	Food Service	English	Unknown–present	Blocked

See also

•  China portal
•  Internet portal

• Censorship in China
• Censorship of Wikipedia
• Golden Shield Project
• Internet censorship in China

References

1. "The great firewall of China: Xi Jinping's internet shutdown". the Guardian. 29 June 2018. from the original on 29 July 2020. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
2. Leskin, Paige (10 October 2019). "Here are all the major US tech companies blocked behind China's 'Great Firewall'". Business Insider. from the original on 2 May 2020. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
3. Jun Mai (22 June 2018). "Chinese holiday island to unlock Facebook, Twitter for foreigners". South China Morning Post. Hong Kong. from the original on 25 June 2018. Retrieved 24 June 2018.
4. "Google services blocked in China". the Guardian. 9 November 2012. from the original on 11 January 2021. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
5. "China's Facebook Status: Blocked". ABC News. from the original on 11 July 2009. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
6. Wauters, Robin (7 July 2009). "China Blocks Access To Twitter, Facebook After Riots". washingtonspost.com. from the original on 19 September 2010. Retrieved 3 June 2010.
7. Barry, Eloise (18 January 2022). "China Blocks Access To Twitter, Facebook After Riots". time.com.
8. iyouport.org; Foundation, Open Culture; Singh, Sukhbir; Filastò, Arturo; Xynou2019-05-04, Maria (4 May 2019). "China is now blocking all language editions of Wikipedia". ooni.org. from the original on 9 April 2021. Retrieved 21 May 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
9. "Search result not found: China bans Wikipedia in all languages". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. from the original on 7 June 2019. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
10. Cohen, Noam (5 February 2007). "Who's Attacking an Online Marxist Archive? China Is Suspected of Trying to Block Access to Texts". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 November 2022. But he noted that the archive has been temporarily banned by the Chinese government before, about two years ago. 'There is a motive,' he said. 'They have done it to us in the past. What they are doing is targeting just the Chinese files.'
11. Truong, Alice (13 August 2018). "Users in China found Reddit blocked over the weekend". Quartz. from the original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
12. "Where is Netflix available?". Netflix Help Center. from the original on 7 July 2017. Retrieved 5 September 2020.
13. "China blocks US video-conferencing tool Zoom". TechNode. 9 September 2019. from the original on 16 May 2020. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
14. Branigan, Tania (2 June 2009). "China blocks Twitter, Flickr and Hotmail ahead of Tiananmen anniversary". The Guardian. London. from the original on 6 September 2013. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
15. "Blocking of Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Blogger deprives Chinese of Web 2.0". Reporters without Borders. 2 June 2009. from the original on 3 March 2016.
16. Goldkorn, Jeremy (15 May 2009). "Blogger.com blocked, but not the Washington Post". Danwei. from the original on 22 May 2009.
17. Statt, Nick (23 January 2019). "Microsoft's Bing search engine is back online in China". The Verge. from the original on 25 January 2019. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
18. . The Nanfang. 17 May 2016. Archived from the original on 7 January 2018. Retrieved 17 May 2016.
19. "Instagram appears blocked in China". 29 September 2014. from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
20. Bradsher, Keith (25 September 2017). "China Blocks WhatsApp, Broadening Online Censorship". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. from the original on 17 May 2018. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
21. Liao, Shannon (20 September 2018). "Twitch is now blocked in China". The Verge. from the original on 13 August 2020. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
22. Carless, Simon (27 December 2021). "Holiday special: did Steam really just get banned in China?". Game Developer. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
23. Gordon, Nicolas (28 December 2021). "Steam can't be easily accessed in China, and no one knows why". Fortune. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
24. "Steam Community access has been blocked in China". PC Gamer. 19 December 2017. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
25. "Steam won't let Chinese users see adult-only games". South China Morning Post. 1 October 2018. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
26. "Where is Spotify available?". Spotify Help Center. from the original on 12 January 2023. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
27. "Reports: China blocks Web sites ahead of Tiananmen anniversary". CNN.com. 2 June 2009. from the original on 23 April 2010. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
28. "China: Skype blocked as of Nov. 22". China: Skype blocked as of Nov. 22 | Crisis24. Retrieved 25 March 2023.
29. "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
30. Pham, Sherisse (17 March 2017). "Pinterest has been blocked in China". CNNMoney. from the original on 8 May 2017. Retrieved 14 May 2017.
31. "Soundcloud blocked in China, but there's a workaround UPDATED: it's back!". Tech in Asia. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
32. "Encrypted messaging app Signal blocked in China". NBC News. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
33. "Dropbox is blocked again in China, both apps and web-based service appear affected". TNW.
34. "9 incredibly popular websites that are still blocked in China". Business Insider. 23 July 2015. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
35. "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
36. "Access to websites Dailymotion and Canalblog blocked". IFEX. 11 April 2007. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
37. "BBC website blocked in China". BBC News. 15 October 2014. from the original on 11 August 2020. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
38. Bradsher, Keith (26 October 2012). "China Blocks Web Access to Times After Article". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
39. "Vimeo now blocked in China: The Great Firewall strikes again!". 15 October 2009. from the original on 28 March 2012. Retrieved 3 July 2011., Shanghaiist
40. "Is vimeo.com blocked in China and how can you access it?". from the original on 16 May 2015. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
41. "Chinese government blocks Guardian website". The Guardian. 7 June 2019. from the original on 13 October 2019. Retrieved 12 June 2019.
42. Kan, Michael (13 July 2012). "LinkedIn's SlideShare site blocked in China". Computerworld. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
43. [Discord Services Blocked]. Solidot (in Chinese). 15 July 2018. Archived from the original on 15 July 2018. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
44. "Chinese Government Bans deviantART". Alex Leonard. 19 December 2008. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
45. "日本最大弹幕网站NicoNico疑似解禁 国内可以直连" [Japan's Largest danmaku website semmingly unblocked, directly accessible from China] (in Chinese). Retrieved 18 June 2021.
46. Kahle, Brewster (28 May 2012). "Archive.org and Openlibrary.org Available in China Again". Internet Archive Blogs. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
47. Conger, Kate (8 December 2016). "Backing up the history of the internet in Canada to save it from Trump". TechCrunch. from the original on 27 December 2016. Retrieved 14 May 2017.
48. "Where to find what's disappeared online, and a whole lot more: the Internet Archive". Public Radio International. from the original on 28 March 2017. Retrieved 14 May 2017.
49. "Bloomberg sites blocked in China days after Xi family wealth story". Reuters. 4 July 2012. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
50. Carson, Biz (24 July 2015). "9 incredibly popular websites that are still blocked in China". Business Insider. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
51. Manjoo, Farhad (9 June 2007). "Flickr is blocked in China". Salon. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
52. China blocks public access to Taiwan’s blog portal sites 12 July 2009 at the Wayback Machine, China Post, 5 January 2008.
53. Shih, Gerry. "China adds Washington Post, Guardian to 'Great Firewall' blacklist". Washington Post. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
54. Riley, Charles (22 September 2015). "China filters Xi Jinping's big interview". CNN. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
55. "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
56. "China bans Scratch, MIT's programming language for kids". TechCrunch. 7 September 2020. from the original on 24 May 2021. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
57. "China blocks MIT's kid-friendly programming language Scratch". Developer Tech News. 8 September 2020. from the original on 26 November 2020. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
58. "Reuters News Websites Inaccessible in China". VOA. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
59. "China Blocks 'Time', 'Economist' Websites". VOA. Retrieved 25 March 2023.
60. "China blocks CBC website after story about offshore accounts". CBC News. No. 24 January 2014. from the original on 12 December 2018. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
61. "China officially bans ABC website, claims internet is 'fully open'". ABC News. 2 September 2018. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
62. Staff, EDM com. "Bandcamp Has Been Blocked in China". EDM.com. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
63. Hertz, Adam (26 April 2006). . Technorati. Archived from the original on 15 January 2008.
64. Romano, Aja (1 March 2020). "China has censored the Archive of Our Own, one of the internet's largest fanfiction websites". Vox Media. from the original on 1 March 2020. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
65. "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
66. Timmons, Heather; Huang, Zheping (10 March 2016). "Hong Kong's SCMP is being blocked in China for cheering on Xi Jinping". Quartz. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
67. "China Blocks Micro-Messaging Site Plurk. Is Twitter Next?". TechCrunch. 23 April 2009. from the original on 26 April 2009. Retrieved 23 April 2009.
68. Feng, Emily (8 April 2016). "China Blocks Economist and Time Websites, Apparently Over Xi Jinping Articles". The New York Times. from the original on 11 April 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
69. "The Economist's website is now censored in China—and all it took was one satirical cover". 7 April 2016. from the original on 7 April 2016. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
70. "Internetzensur-Check: China blockiert heise online und 12 andere deutsche Medienseiten". heise online (in German). Retrieved 26 December 2021.
71. "ABC, censurado en China tras un perfil del presidente Xi Jinping y un reportaje sobre sus desaparecidos". abc (in Spanish). 29 November 2021. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
72. Fung, Brian. "How Voice of America gets around the Great Firewall of China". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
73. "Google says China's "great firewall" blocked search". Reuters. 30 March 2010. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
74. "Radio Free Asia hosts secure mirror websites for Asian, Chinese audiences". U.S. Agency for Global Media. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
75. "The dilemma presented by China’s content filtering of my current handouts website" 19 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved 13 July 2010.
76. Commission, U. S.-China Economic and Security Review (2005). China's State Control Mechanisms and Methods: Hearing Before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, One Hundred Ninth Congress, First Session, April 14, 2005. U.S. Government Printing Office.
77. "HBO Website Is Down in China After John Oliver Skewers Xi". Bloomberg News. 25 June 2018.
78. "As China blocks access to WION, support pours in from readers across the world". DNA. 3 July 2020. from the original on 19 September 2020. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
79. "China blocks access to WION website after India bans 59 Chinese apps". WION. 2 July 2020. from the original on 13 August 2020. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
80. "Hong Kong Free Press falls foul of Great Firewall, blocked in China". Hong Kong Free Press. 6 November 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
81. Yueh, Hsin-I. Sydney (7 December 2016). Identity Politics and Popular Culture in Taiwan: A Sajiao Generation. Lexington Books. p. 14. ISBN 978-1-4985-1033-2. Retrieved 24 November 2022.
82. "Popular websites blocked in China". ChinaFirewallTest.co. 27 March 2023. Retrieved 27 July 2023.
83. "ChatGPT Reportedly Blocked On Chinese Social Media Apps—As Beijing Claims AI Is Used To Spread Propaganda". Forbes. 22 February 2023. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
84. "Can't open Huggingface web in China". discuss.huggingface.co. May 2023.

External links

• Chinese Firewall Test - Instantly test if a URL is blocked by the Great Firewall of China in real time. Tests for both symptoms of DNS poisoning and HTTP blocking from a number of locations within mainland China.
• China Firewall Test - Test if any domain is DNS poisoned in China in real-time. DNS poisoning is one way in which websites can be blocked. Others are IP blocking and keyword filtering.
• China Firewall Test - Test your website from real browsers in China. You can review performance reports and waterfall charts for further analysis and element-by-element performance detail from multiple locations.
• China Firewall and Compliance Test - Test if the Great Firewall of China blocks your site in real-time. Also, check if your domain has the ICP license required by the Ministry of China to host web content inside the Firewall