What Countries Block Our Sites?
Many companies are looking to expand their online business globally however, many companies do not realize that online globalization of their website may not always be in their best interests. That said, for 90% or more of businesses internet globalization can in fact be a beneficial tool to their business.
So just how does a company, regardless of its size, decide on what foreign cultures to target and, more importantly, which to avoid well that is what this article is going to explain to you, the countries who block access to certain types of website.
The following list contains some of the larger countries in the world which block access to specific sites and, also tells you what type of sites access is restricted too.
Bahrain.
Bahrain blocks websites of political opposition groups. For example, Voice of Bahrain, (http://www.vob.org) which is a news website published by the Bahrain Freedom Movement.
China.
The People's Republic of China has implemented a national firewall to block access to Internet content deemed undesirable or subversive.
Cuba.
Cuba restricts the Internet access of its citizens and attempts to blocks websites that are critical of the government.
Jordan.
It is widely reported that Jordan does not censor citizens’ access to the Internet, however at least one website, The Arab Times Newspaper (www.arabtimes.com) is blocked.
Myanmar (Burma).
The military authorities in Myanmar (Burma) exercise strict control over the Internet. Websites that oppose the government are blocked.
Saudi Arabia.
While the majority of the blocked websites are pornographic there is politically motivated censoring such as certain parts of the http://www.amnesty.org site.
Singapore.
Singapore has reportedly blocked some pornographic websites (e.g. playboy.com).
Syria.
In Syria access to websites critical of the Syrian government (e.g. www.shrc.org) are blocked and it appears that the entire .il (Israel) domain is blocked.
Tunisia.
Websites that are critical of the government and the websites of human rights organizations (www.hrw.org) are blocked in Tunisia.
United Arab Emirates.
The United Arab Emirates blocks access to pornographic websites as well as political websites. In addition, hacktivist websites are also blocked.
USA.
The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) requires highschools in the United States to implement content filtering regimes in order to receive federal funding. N2H2's BESS runs on "over 40% of all schools in the U.S.". In addition to blocking all "free hosting" websites (geocities.com, tripod.com) it also blocks websites relating to teen health and advice/counseling (www.teenadviceonline.org/archive/), sexuality (sexuality.about.com) (including gay & lesbian sites).
Uzbekistan.
In addition to intermittent political blocking, Uzbekistan blocks access to Islamic opposition parties.
Vietnam.
Vietnam blocks news websites (www.vnn-news.com), human rights groups (www.vnhrnet.org) and websites by overseas Vietnamese.
Yemen.
Yemen uses the Websense’s commercially available content filtering software. Websites that are classified as "pornography" or "sex" are blocked as are sites that fall under other default categories.
As you can see from the list above there is nothing per say for the average business owner to be worried about however, as a general rule of thumb, if you think your site may get blocked in those countries listed the simplistic solution would be to reconsider your marketing approach.
The most interesting of countries in the above list however would be the USA as, it is generally not known that the US blocks access to as many types of site as they do.
Hopefully this brief article has given you some further insight into the global economies and government restrictions online and you will be able to tailor your online business needs accordingly.
Article written by Lee.
http://www.europeanwebmasters.com
