In the EU, the
With a few exceptions, the free speech provisions of the First Amendment bar federal, state, and local governments from directly censoring the Internet. The primary exception has to do with obscenity, including child pornography, which does not enjoy First Amendment protection.
Hundreds of US news websites are not globally accessible as they have blocked visitors from the EU due to the GDPR. Some workarounds are listed here to allow those who are affected by this to access those sites anyway.
The Geo-blocking Regulation protects consumers who hold citizenship of or have their place of residence in an EU country, Norway, Iceland, or Liechtenstein.
EU rules enshrine the principle of open Internet access: internet traffic shall be treated without discrimination, blocking, throttling or prioritisation.
The general rule is that as long as you spend more time at home than abroad, or you use your mobile phone more at home than abroad, you can pay your standard domestic prices for your calls, texts and data services when you travel in the EU. This is considered a fair use of roaming services.
The EU Blocking Statute prohibits EU operators from complying with certain sanctions imposed by the U.S. against Cuba and Iran, often forcing operators to choose to comply with either the U.S. sanctions or the EU Blocking Statute.
No, geoblocking isn't illegal. On the contrary, it is the result of legally-binding contracts agreed to by the streaming companies (Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, etc.). That said, it's understandable to be angry when you can't watch a show or listen to music on a service that you paid for!
Is Geo Blocking Legal? Yes, geo blocking is legal. The main justification for geo blocking when it comes to online content is that the ownership of content differs between regions, meaning the providers of the content must prevent users from accessing content outside their designated region.
Geo-blocking is the process of restricting access to online content based on location. Websites use visitor IP addresses to determine their location. Once they detect your IP address belongs to a restricted location, the geo-block activates, preventing you from accessing the site or specific content.
Although Internet censorship in Germany has traditionally been rated as low, it is practised directly and indirectly through various laws and court decisions.
Websites can be blocked for obtaining child pornography, materials advocating drug abuse and drug production, items on the Federal List of Extremist Materials, or for violations of data retention and surveillance laws.
Internet customers in the UK are prohibited from accessing a range of web sites by default, because they have their Internet access filtered by their ISPs. The filtering program has applied to new ISP customers since the end of 2013, and has been extended to existing users on a rolling basis.
Internet censorship and surveillance has been tightly implemented in China that block social websites like Gmail, Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and others. The excessive censorship practices of the Great Firewall of China have now engulfed the VPN service providers as well.
Most countries ban sites by forcing ISP's to block them from their DNS. In most cases, they'll even redirect to a message with more info about the ban.
While content providers often have in place international commercial arrangements to protect copyright in different countries or regions, which can result in 'geo-blocking', circumventing this is not illegal under the Copyright Act.” This meant that internet could stream their favourite content using VPNs.
There are several possible explanations for why you may be receiving a geoblock message suggesting you are outside of Australia: You're using a VPN, placing your IP address overseas. Please turn off your VPN.
Yes, a VPN can be used to bypass geo-blocking.
It works by routing your internet connection through a server located in a different country, making it appear as if you are connecting from that country.
A 'block exemption' regulation automatically exempts agreements of a certain category from the Chapter I prohibition if the agreement satisfies the conditions set out in the block exemption regulation. In this way, a 'block exemption' regulation provides legal certainty for businesses.
Article 5 of the EU Blocking Regulation (“Article 5”) prohibits EU persons from, among others, complying, directly or through a subsidiary or other intermediary, actively or by deliberate omission, with Listed Laws, unless authorised by the European Commission (“Commission”).
It is a dynamic list, reviewed twice a year with frequent changes. On 14 February 2023, the European Commission updated the EU Blacklist to include the British Virgin Islands, Costa Rica, the Marshall Islands and Russia (the New Blacklisted Countries). The full EU Blacklist is now: American Samoa.
When collecting data, Google Analytics 4 does not log or store IP addresses. Analytics drops any IP addresses that it collects from EU users before logging that data via EU domains and servers.
Can I use my mobile in the EU? Yes, you can use your mobile for calls, texts and to access the internet in the EU, it's just that you might have to pay additional charges for roaming. Always check what your phone operator is likely to charge you before you set off.
Storage of data outside the EU is forbidden by the GDPR, however - no rules without exceptions e.g.: Personal data about air passengers are shared more liberally, e.g. shared with the US and Australia.