Reasons for Blocked Sites and How to Access Them

Sponsored content

It’s past school or work hours, and you are surfing the internet, as usual, jumping from one site to another. Suddenly, you are unable to access your most frequented site. You wonder if the internet is down; you even proceed to refresh it but to no avail. It still appears you are barred from accessing the site. What you may not realize at that time is that you are experiencing an internet block or restriction.

Blocked Sites Explained

Blocked sites result from a measure to restrict access to information or resources. Sometimes, governments implement blocks to certain news content. At other times, companies prevent their employees from loading particular websites. Websites can also ban users if they flout the rules or according to their location. 

Common Reasons for a Blocked Website

A number of factors can result in restricted access to various sites, as discussed below: 

• Geo-Blocking 

Multiple internet service providers integrate blocking tools to their sites to block specific countries from accessing all or a part of their content. This phenomenon is visible on sites like Netflix. 

• Government-Induced Restrictions 

Sometimes, a country or state’s governing administration can choose to block access to particular sites to drive a specific agenda. This typically happens during social unrest, as witnessed in Turkey during the 2016 protests. Other countries have laws to ban and bar access to controversial content like porn sites. 

• Web Filtering 

Employers also tend to block sites in their internal work network that may result in unproductivity amongst their workforce. Some don’t allow social media sites like Facebook, for example.  

• Slow Activity 

You could be experiencing a block due to heightened site activity or overcrowding. This mostly happens in online stores that hold limited-edition sales.

How to Bypass a Restriction  

Here are some viable options you can apply to go around a site restriction: 

• VPN 

A virtual private network (VPN) is arguably the most popular service to access blocked sites. While the role of VPNs may be broad and complex, its role in bypassing internet restrictions comes from the technology’s ability to “assign” a user a different IP address. If your country has restricted access to a particular site, you can use a VPN to appear from a different location without triggering geo-blocks.