Every minute YouTube content creators upload 400 hours of video on the YouTube platform.
Not impressed?
Well, then let’s have another fact.
Visitors to YouTube watch more than one billion hours of video content every day.
One simply cannot deny the fact that YouTube is the most popular website in the world after the Google search engine.
And as far as the video platform market is concerned, YouTube literally has no competitors.
Of course, there are other niche video platforms that cater to different sections of the society.
But as a general video website, YouTube is the biggest.
However, despite the fact that it is the biggest video platform in the world, many online users simply cannot access YouTube.
In other words, there are many regions in the world where YouTube simply does not work.
There are also some specific places where a user cannot access YouTube.
Some of these specific places include the office, school, and libraries.
A few online consumers have even experienced that YouTube does not work for them while they are traveling.
And for anyone who has gotten used to YouTube for any amount of time, a situation where he/she cannot access Youtube is a deeply disturbing one.
It causes some serious frustration when one can’t have access to the content that one wants to have access to.
Thankfully, there are ways to get around the problem of unblocking YouTube.
No matter where the user is located and no matter where the user is going, if the user makes use of a Virtual Private Network or a VPN, then the user should have all the opportunity in the world to unblock YouTube anytime and anyplace.
When a user makes use of a VPN service, the VPN service creates a tunnel.
Then it moves ahead by redirecting all of the user’s internet traffic through that tunnel to one of its own VPN servers.
The location of the VPN server is something that the user himself/herself has to select.
After that, the user should have no problems in watching YouTube from his/her school, office, abroad.
Basically, a VPN will unblock YouTube and many other streaming services including Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime irrespective of where the user is located on the map.
But hang on.
There is more.
A VPN doesn’t change allow people to change their online location.
It is also a very effective tool for those who want to encrypt their data.
Encryption is very important for those online consumers who want to protect their sensitive information from their internet service providers, governments and hackers.
When a user makes use of a VPN service in order to encrypt his/her data, nobody on earth can see what the user is doing or not doing in the online world.
Encryption also makes sure that no one is able to track the user’s online activity.
All of these are some major benefits.
In short, if any online consumer wants to protect himself/herself against cybercriminals, network administrators and internet service providers then they need to make use of a VPN service.
In this guide, we will try to explain and describe where and why some countries, offices, schools, and libraries block YouTube.
Then we will mention a list of VPN services that our research shows are the best when it comes to unblock YouTube online.
Apart from that, we will also give some time to those VPN services that the user should avoid like a plague.
Most of these would include free VPN service providers and proxies.
Finally, we will talk a little bit about what the user should do if he/she finds out that a particular VPN is blocked somewhere.
After reading this guide, we are very confident that the reader would know everything there is to know about using a VPN service to access and/or unblock YouTube online.
Table of Contents
Why do schools, offices, libraries and some countries block YouTube?
Let’s add to that a question a little bit by saying that why and where is YouTube blocked.
First of all, we would like to mention that we are totally aware of the fact that if the reader has decided to read this guide, then it is highly like that he/she is suffering from the YouTube block problem.
If that is not the case then it may be that the reader has come across the YouTube block problem in the past at one point or another.
Users typically encounter these network block problems because of (you guessed it) network administrators.
And where do most of these network administrators reside?
Yes.
They reside in schools.
And Offices.
Sometimes they are present in libraries as well.
Of course, network administrators are not the only evil when it comes to YouTube blocks.
The majority of the large-scale and comprehensive blocks that affect millions and millions of people are actually enforced by internet service providers and governments.
And when a government implements a block, the block can cover full regions.
There are times when users of a particular country cannot access a single video on YouTube.
In other words, the whole YouTube site becomes off-limits.
Then there are those cases where a government or an internet service provider only block specific pieces of online content.
When YouTube is blocked at the office or when YouTube is completely blocked at work.
Employers are not nasty people.
At least, not all of them are.
What we mean to say is that usually, these block any and all access to YouTube because they think YouTube can quickly become a source of distraction.
Our research shows that it doesn’t take long for an average online consumer to go from the Discovery Channel and TED talks to funny cat videos and “social experiments” known as pranks.
Employers don’t want that.
At least, not in the office.
Therefore, the majority of employers simply block popular streaming sources, social media platforms, and e-commerce sites.
No one should try to argue against the fact that YouTube has a tendency of becoming a massive productivity killer for even the most hyper-competitive people.
As mentioned before, employers are employers because they are usually shrewd people.
And because they are shrewd, they know that workers would end up spending hours and hours watching pointless videos on YouTube instead of doing some actual work.
So, blocking YouTube is the most sensible choice for most of these employers.
On the other hand, VPN servers have one aim:
To circumvent all YouTube blocks.
Perhaps this is a good time to mention the fact that if the user makes use of a VPN service in order to bypass YouTube block at work then it could be considered as a breach of contract.
Therefore, the user should also check this problem before signing up for a VPN service in order to unblock YouTube.
YouTube blocked at University/School
Since employers want good employees, schools have to make sure that they are able to provide them with people who would eventually good employees.
Hence, in a similar vein, University campuses and the schools also want to help out their students by making it easy for them to focus on their assignments and other studies.
They don’t want their students to waste their precious little time in watching YouTube videos.
Schools also have the best interest of students at heart in the sense that they also want their students to become good citizens of the country.
In order to do so, each school wants to prevent its students from intentionally or accidentally accessing content that is inappropriate while they are spending their time in school.
The other thing readers need to note here is that it is usually entirely possible for the school’s network administrator to block online access to content selectively.
This way, certain people, to take an example, members of the faculty, can have total access to content on YouTube while the students of the school can’t.
YouTube blocked in my country
As mentioned at the top as well, some countries not only restrict access to streaming sites like YouTube, they outright ban it.
It is true that the number of countries which had banned YouTube has decreased when compared to the last five years or so.
But there are still countries that are not giving up and still blocking access to YouTube for entire populations.
Some of the countries that are still blocking YouTube or one reason or another include,
- North Korea
- Iran
- China
As indicated earlier as well, the reasons for blocking YouTube content are many.
But the chief among those reasons is the desire to control what citizens can and can’t access.
Moreover, some countries also want to enable local streaming services to have opportunities to not only flourish but also take the country forward into a new future.
There is no guarantee that if the government has blocked YouTube access in a given area fully or partially.
It is entirely possible that local competitors might urge their governments to block YouTube in a given country so that they have more opportunities to attract visitors, sell advertisements and make some money.
Of course, it is entirely possible that once in a while the user is able to access YouTube.
This can happen when the filters a given government makes use of malfunctions.
At other times, the government may simply not want to block all access to YouTube but only to problematic content.
When that happens, the user usually comes across an error message which informs the user that the uploader had not made the desired video available in his/her country.
How to unblock Youtube with VPN
This is the modern world we live in.
Here, everyone wants to make money.
And in order to make money, one has to look for opportunities to make money.
Unblocking YouTube for a specific amount of money seems like a great opportunity.
So online consumers of today should thank such market principle that there are a ton of VPN services available that can bypass all internet restrictions in a very simple way.
With the use of a VPN service, the user can actually mask his/her original IP address and then replace that IP address with the one that the VPN service has provided via a VPN server.
The VPN service usually gives the option of selecting the location of the VPN server to the VPN user.
When the user has successfully managed to connect to a VPN service, then he/she can make it appear to the outside world as if he/she is from a place that is outside the restricted region and/or network.
Let’s go through a step-by-step guide on how to use a VPN service to unblock YouTube.
Step-by-step guide on how to use a VPN to unblock YouTube
- First, the user (you) has to sign up for a VPN service.
The best VPN for this choice according to our research is IPVanish.
if you want to sign up for IPVanish right now and from the official website as well.
After selecting a VPN service, the user has to pay for the service and then note down his/her VPN-provided password and username. - After that, the user has to download the appropriate VPN app for his/her streaming device.
Most of the best VPN service providers offer dedicated and customized applications for platforms such as Android, iOS, MacOS and Windows - After the previous step is completed, the user has to install the VPN app.
Then the user has to run the VPN app.
In order to run the app, the user has to make use of his/her VPN credentials.
These are the same ones that the VPN service may have provided to the user.
If not, then the user has to contact the VPN service’s customer support in order to log in. - The fourth step is to connect to a VPN server which is located in a place of the user’s choosing.
To take an example, let’s say the user wants to unblock YouTube at his/her office and/or school, then perhaps the best way forward would be to simply connect to a VPN server that is located closest to his/her current location.
This will ensure that the user gets to enjoy the fastest possible speeds.
In order to bypass any country’s YouTube block restrictions, the user should always prefer to select a VPN server which is located in a country where the government or the internet service provider has not restricted access to YouTube. - The final step is to start streaming content from YouTube once the VPN app has confirmed the VPN connection.
The other thing users need to take note of here is that they must refresh their currently opened YouTube page and/or open up a new web browser window in order to allow the changes to take effect.
Can I unblock YouTube without paying for a VPN service?
Yes.
But the solution will be temporary, to say the least.
In other words, if there is a user out there who wants to unblock YouTube for only a short amount of time, then the user can take advantage of the various trial period that different VPN services offer.
For example, there is ExpressVPN.
This company offers a month-long trial period for all its users.
By utilizing this offer users can have free and complete access to YouTube.
Of course, ExpressVPN requires the user to sign up with his/her payment information, however, the user is free to cancel his/her subscription any time as long as thirty days have not passed.
If the user does that then ExpressVPN will comply with offering a complete refund for the user.
Our research shows that this is the ideal solution for those users who are just visiting a country where the government or the main internet service provider has blocked Youtube.
It is also possible that this solution might prove useful for users who are working on a temporary basis at an office where the company has restricted internet access.
Best VPN to unblock YouTube anywhere
Theoretically speaking, most VPN service providers should have no problems in helping out the user to unblock YouTube.
With that said, it is also true that not each and every VPN is a good one.
Some are good.
A lot are bad.
But essentially, there are lots of factors one needs to consider in order to judge and rank a VPN service.
Some of the most important factors are,
- Speed
- Customer service
- Security
- Reliability
- Reputation
And lots more.
When we research VPN services we try to found out the strengths and weaknesses of each VPN service.
Through our research, we have actually managed to compile a complete list of VPN services with which users can unblock YouTube.
Our criteria is a bit more strict than others.
When we are looking for a good VPN service, we are looking for a VPN service that
- Provides exceptional customer support
- Has no problems maintaining a zero-logs policy
- Makes use of strong encryption
- Offer at least a few advanced security functions and features
- Offers users easy-to-use and dedicated mobile and desktop apps.
- Operates a decently sized network of VPN servers which are global.
- Offers VPN servers which are not only fast but also reliable and suitable for users who want to stream HD content.
- Has enough circumvention techniques available that it is able to bypass any network and any country’s YouTube blocks.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at all the VPN services that have made it to our list.
NordVPN
One of our favorite VPN service provider is NordVPN.
This VPN service provider probably runs the biggest VPN server network in the whole of the VPN industry.
It offers more than a total of 4500 VPN servers.
Moreover, the company has optimized a good number of VPN servers for streaming High Definition video.
Overall, it can actually assist the user to unblock YouTube with ease along with several other popular online streaming services such as,
- Amazon Prime Video
- BBC iPlayer
- Hulu
- Netflix
NordVPN is the best VPN service for unblocking YouTube because it has the strongest privacy and security features.
That’s the company’s main focus.
To further strengthen its offering, NordVPN offers users a zero-log policy.
The company also claims that it provides users with a military-grade encryption technology along with other state of the art security features such as,
- DNS leak protection
- Perfect forward secrecy
- An automatic WiFi network protection feature
- Killswitch
NordVPN offers users dedicated applications for platforms such as,
- Android
- iOS
- macOS
- Windows
With NordVPN, the longer a user subscribes to the service, the bigger the discount NordVPn offers.
If the user signs up with NordVPN for a period of 2 years then NordVPN offers the user a total of 66 percent discount.
In other words, users only have to pay $3.99 per month for using NordVPN.
Click here to take a look at our complete NordVPN review.
to sign up for NordVPN from the official website right now.IPVanish
IPVanish is another popular Virtual Private Network service.
It doesn’t work with US Netflix but apart from that, it has reasonable streaming capabilities.
The most important thing that IPVanish does well to qualify for a mention in this list is the fact that it has speed.
Moreover, it is reliable.
As mentioned just now, IPVanish has no problems in unblocking VPN services such as YouTube and others.
IPVanish is perhaps the most popular VPN service with heavy Torrent users.
It is also the number one VPN service for Kodi users.
And because it has an Android apk, it is also in-demand amongst the mobile community.
Then there is the little-known fact that IPVanish is pretty much completely remote control compatible.
IPVanish has dedicated its staff to provide customers with a private and secure VPN service.
Just like all the other elite VPN service provider, IPVanish does not keep any logs on its user’s activities.
It also doesn’t know anything about the user’s session history.
The company employs a 256-bit encryption.
It also offers users perfect forward secrecy.
IPVanish clients also offer users DNS leak protection as well as a Kill Switch.
Being an elite VPN service provider that IPVanish is, it offers dedicated desktop VPN clients for Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows.
Some might get even more excited for IPVanish after hearing that the company offers users 60 percent off their annual plan if they sign up in the discount season.
Click here if you want to read the full IPVanish review right here.
to buy IPVanish subscription package from the official website and at the best price right now.ExpressVPN
Many consider ExpressVPN as the best VPN service for people who want to unblock YouTube for a multiple number of reasons.
The first of these reasons is that the company operates a rather huge network of VPN servers.
According to some accounts, ExpressVPN offers users over 2000 VPN servers which span over a total of 94 countries.
Moreover, the company has optimized some of these servers for speed.
ExpressVPN has made a name for itself by offering users top-class reliable connections and various unblocking abilities.
This ensures that any ExpressVPN user is not only able to unblock YouTube but also enjoy the experience.
ExpressVPN doesn’t just work on YouTube.
It can block a host of other popular streaming sites such as,
- Amazon Prime Video
- Netflix
And some more.
This is one of the handful of VPN services which regularly works in China.
In other words, ExpressVPN is the VPN of choice for people who are traveling to China and want to watch YouTube there.
ExpressVPN is, of course, great for people already living in China.
Apart from all the features and good performance, ExpressVPN also offers users excellent customer support.
The company has a live chat feature where the company’s support staff is just sitting there for a customer to come and ask the company some questions about the company and its VPN services.
ExpressVPN offers the user a 24-hour seven-days-a-week live chat feature.
This means that user can always get help from ExpressVPN if and when they run into operational issues with the company’s VPN service.
As far as the actual security suite is concerned, ExpressVPN, according to our research offers the best-in-class online suite.
The suite includes security measures such as 256-bit encryption along with DNS leak protection, perfect forward secrecy, and an advanced kill switch.
All of these advanced security features mean that ExpressVPN can easily protect the user’s information.
It can ensure that the user’s information always stays inside the tunnel which it has encrypted.
Because of this no entity can just come in and start snooping around to discover that the user made use of a bypassing technique in order to avoid YouTube blocks.
ExpressVPN, as mentioned before as well, does not keep any information on its user which someone can use to personally identify him/her.
Hence, Express VPN users never ever have to worry about ExpressVPN handing their information to any third-party marketing company for a set amount of money.
ExpressVPN offers apps for all major platforms such as,
- Android
- iOS
- Linux
- macOS
- Windows
ExpressVPN also sells various routers with different configurations which are available for those who don’t want to waste their time on installing a VPN app on a router.
With a VPN router, the user is free to cover his/her entire network at home and/or router.
Sometimes ExpressVPN offers discounts as big as 50 percent on its annual plan.
Moreover, it also throws 3 months of free VPN service with its 12-month plan.
There is also a 30-day official money-back guarantee for those who are looking to sign up with a VPN service without risking a lot of their money.
Click here if you want to read our full review on ExpressVPN.
CyberGhost
This VPN service provider can count itself as one of those VPN services that has managed to make a name for itself by offering high-quality streaming features.
That’s how CyberGhost VPN entered the business.
But the company is not just resting on its laurels.
CyberGhost is expanding.
It is expanding its server network.
And more number of VPN servers can only mean good things for the user.
Because of the increased number of good VPN servers, CyberGhost VPN is now able to deliver some really fast VPN server speeds.
There is more.
CyberGhost VPN also has a dedicated and exclusive unblock streaming VPN mode.
In this mode, users can simply go ahead and choose the channel that they wish to watch.
Once CyberGhost detects that the user has enabled this feature it automatically directs to the appropriate VPN server.
YouTube free and the premium edition of YouTube, YouTube Red, are all available as options.
Moreover, other streaming services such as,
- BBC iPlayer
- Amazon Prime Video
- Netflix
CyberGhost is no slouch when it comes to security issues either.
It is actually one of the top VPN services in this regard.
We say that because CyberGhost VPN makes use of a strong 256-bit encryption along with automatic protection from any and all DNS leaks.
CyberGhost VPN even has a kill switch feature which comes as a built-in feature with its VPN client.
Kill Switch features have become more of a necessity these days as they ensure that the user’s internet connection is promptly killed as soon as the user’s VPN connection drops for whatever reason.
As for apps, CyberGhost offers dedicated apps for platforms such as,
- Android
- iOS
- macOS
- Windows
CyberGhost VPN also offers discount seasons.
If the user signs up with the service for a period of 12 months then the user can save up to 77 percent off the original price.
Plus, CyberGhost also throws in a total of six months of free VPN service.
There is also a 30-day official money-back guarantee which makes CyberGhost VPN a pretty risk-free and trustworthy purchase.
In order to delve into the full in-depth review for CyberGhost, click here.
PrivateVPN
PrivateVPN is not the most experienced VPN service that we have on this list.
It is also not the biggest.
But it is good.
At least good enough to rub its shoulders with some of the best competitors in the business.
Even though it does not have the resources that all the other big VPN companies have, it is still not shy of increasing its market share through sheer hard work and will.
Indeed, our research shows that PrivateVPN can post some of the most impressive numbers on the speed clock when it has to.
It has continued to impress reviewers all over the internet.
Especially when it comes to unblocking all the different streaming services including any version of YouTube.
PrivateVPN, as the name suggests, is a VPN company that fully understands that after everything is said and done, the only thing that a VPN service has to provide to the user is privacy.
If it doesn’t have that, no amount of features and speed is going to make up for the lack of privacy.
PrivateVPN understands that.
And hence it does not keep any logs on its users whatsoever.
The company offers users two encryption options.
One is the industry standard 256-bit encryption.
The other is the 128-bit encryption option.
Needless to say, the actual encryption implementation will depend on the VPN protocol that the user would make use of when he/she installs the VPN app.
Users should find even more comfort with PrivateVPN as the company also offers features such as DNS leak protection.
Its VPN app even has a kill switch feature.
PrivateVPN, as a VPN service provider, provides users with dedicated applications for platforms such as Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows.
Users who sign up with PrivateVPN during a special discount season can look forward to getting 70 percent off the original price of the company’s annual plan.
Along with that, they will also get 5 months worth of free VPN.
Click here to check out our complete and comprehensive PrivateVPN review.
Best free VPN to unblock YouTube
For new users, it may not look like it, but the internet is filled with free VPN options.
Those who have not come across such free options will pretty soon come across them.
These VPN service offerings are free.
And there is no doubt, some find that fact very attractive.
On top of that, these free VPN services purport to supply users with a pretty much similar standard of VPN service than their paid VPN counterparts that we have mentioned here.
However, the reality of the situation is slightly different from what it seems.
Free VPN services usually furnish online consumers with a handful of VPN servers.
Moreover, they have very few locations.
Apart from that, free VPNs have this need of sharing its resources with a ton of other users.
Yes.
It is true.
Everyone loves free.
Anything that comes for free, whether good or bad, chances are there will be a ton of people lining up for it.
With that said, the “free” part of these VPNs mean that they have very limited capacity to serve a large number of users with a good enough service.
Most of the times, free VPN users can look forward to some very long waiting times in order to connect to a server which inevitably turns out to be a slow VPN server.
And even after all that waiting and slowness, if the user has somehow connected to the internet via a free VPN’s server in a country of the user’s choosing, then there are chances the free VPN would simply NOT find any success in unblocking YouTube.
Not convinced yet?
Wait.
There is more.
Free VPNs sound great.
But that’s about it.
Free VPN services are notorious for putting the privacy and security of the user at risk.
There are some free VPN services which make bold claims about how they would encrypt the user’s traffic.
In reality, they don’t.
In fact, there are some free VPNs which would even go to the length of infecting the user’s Internet-enabled device with nasty malware.
Now, we’re not saying no Free VPN encrypts user data.
To be honest, some do.
But even these few free VPNs typically have other ulterior motives.
More often than not, free VPNs come with questionable privacy policies.
No one should be surprised at hearing all of this.
Running a VPN service is a tough business.
It requires a lot of investment and technical prowess.
In other words, any given VPN service needs to make enough money in order to keep afloat.
And free VPNs make that money by exploiting their users.
Sometimes, these free VPN service providers serve users with annoying little advertisements via the VPN app.
Other times, these VPN services show users advertisements on the sites that they visit regularly.
There are a few VPN service providers who track the user’s activity and then sell that data (the user’s online profile) to a third-party marketing company.
We know you don’t want that.
Hence it should become pretty clear by now that the only worthy option in the case of free VPNs is to steer clear of all of them.
We are of the opinion that it is always worth it to spend a few dollars each month in exchange for a top-rated premium and paid VPN service provider.
To answer the question that we asked in the heading for this section:
There is no best free VPN to unblock YouTube.
Is it possible to unblock YouTube with a proxy?
Since we have already dealt with free VPNs, we won’t mention them here.
No.
Wait.
We just changed our mind.
We will mention free VPNs and will say that just like free VPNs online consumers are likely to find a ton of advertisements for something called free proxies as well.
There are some proxies which developers have designed specifically for users who want to unblock YouTube.
Just like free VPNs, these proxy services may seem extremely attractive to some.
Especially the ones that come with tailor-made names and options such as the recent YouTubeProxy.win
So are they legit?
Should you try them out?
If you have sensitive data on your computer machine then we would advise against it.
If you don’t, still we’ll advise to stay away.
But a bit more softly this time around.
Free proxy services are plagued with the same security problems as free VPN services.
And users should expect to see those problems if they make use of either service.
Free proxy services usually have a very limited number of VPN server locations.
More importantly, they don’t always bypass YouTube restrictions that a user may be facing.
Additionally, no matter how good a proxy service is, it simply cannot encrypt the user’s traffic.
This is something all elite VPN service providers do.
A proxy server will essentially leave the user’s information pretty much completely exposed to hackers and/or anyone with enough skills to just swoop in and see some data about what the user is doing on the internet.
However, free proxy services do have their advantages.
One advantage that proxy services have over VPN services is that they are very fast.
Most of the times, users should not notice any kind of slowdowns.
Why?
Because proxy services don’t have to worry about encryption.
VPNs do.
And hence they slow down a given internet connection sometimes.
However, the very best VPN service providers offer blazing speeds.
Moreover, the extra security that comes with a VPN service is well worth its price and slight slowness.
What about other country restrictions on YouTube
The history of countries and YouTube is pretty long.
Many countries have banned YouTube for only a couple of months.
Some have banned YouTube permanently.
Countries like China don’t allow any YouTube within the country’s borders.
There are many possible reasons for that.
Some want the local competition to get some relief and hence flourish.
Other governments and countries want just a bit of more control over their citizens in terms of the content that they see on the internet.
At the time of writing this report, countries that have banned YouTube include,
- North Korea
- Iran
- China
However, as mentioned at the top as well, many other governments and/or countries have banned YouTube in the past.
Some would no doubt do it in the future as well.
The countries that have previously banned YouTube include,
- Thailand
- Sudan
- Russia
- Pakistan
As indicated earlier as well, sometimes governments would simply block specific content.
Other times they will block entire sites.
To take an example, the government in Sudan has blocked sites like YouTube completely on about two occasions.
The government in Sudan first blocked YouTube in 2010.
It did that because someone published a video about election fraud on YouTube.
Then, in 2012, the government in Sudan blocked YouTube again.
This time around, it did that because it wanted to retaliate against YouTube’s outright refusal to move Innocence of Muslims, an anti-Islam film.
Of course, YouTube is not the only website that has to experience these blocks.
Other media giants such as Twitter and Facebook have to face the same treatment from different governments.
The most prominent of all internet blocks are the ones that are implemented in China.
The restrictions in China are so vast and so comprehensive that the rest of the world has started to call it The Great Firewall of China.
It is basically a huge internet filter.
The Chinese government makes use of the filter in order to block a plethora of online services and sites.
It is so effective at blocking everything the government wants it to that it can even block VPN services.
Fortunately for some, there are a few VPN left that still unblock sites in China.
Such VPN services not only get rid of Chinese restrictions but they also unblock YouTube and all such similar streaming sites.
What to do if VPN is blocked?
We have already mentioned the fact that the government can block anything.
It can block Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Amazon, and any other popular site.
So much so that governments can even block VPNs.
Network administrators are, for the most part, smart people.
And they have realized that people were using VPN services and proxies in order to bypass and/or circumvent their internet restrictions.
Hence, they took action.
That is understandable.
The measures they put in place pushed VPNs and proxies in the same category as other sites.
That is, blocked.
Plenty of online consumers have reported that they can’t access a given website even with the use of a VPN service.
What such people have to understand is that just like other services, someone can block VPN connections as well.
In order to do that, first, someone has to detect if a user has subscribed to a VPN service.
Some governments and other organizations in different countries block VPN official websites as well as VPN connection.
And in this case too, China is quite possibly the most notorious country when it comes to blocking VPN services.
With that said, it is also true that using a VPN service is not absolutely illegal in China.
The government in China has shut down VPN services for the same reasons it has shut down Google and other services.
But in the case of VPN service providers, the government in China has even arrested and jailed some operators.
Even with that, the use of a VPN service in China remains fairly popular.
China is not the only country that has blocked VPN usage or has tried to.
There are many other countries that have tried to block VPN usage.
Some of these countries include,
- Russia
- Turkey
- Iraq
- Iran
- Belarus
All of these countries have tried to block VPN services.
In fact, some of these countries have even made the use of VPN services illegal.
Apart from that, we would like readers to know that even if the government has banned the use of VPN services, there are still ways in which they can circumvent VPN blocks.
In order for any government to block a VPN service or traffic, the government needs to first identify a given web traffic as VPN traffic.
The VPN industry now has some elite VPN service providers which make use of various obfuscation technologies which render any and all VPN traffic unrecognizable.
It is true that if the user’s VPN service does not offer such technology, then there are still some other ways left.
Though they may not be as effective as obfuscation technologies.
Some VPN services expect the user to simply switch his/her port to 443.
This is sometimes enough for the user to bypass a given firewall.
What is port 443?
Port 443 is generally used only for traffic that is HTTPS.
Needless to say, there is a chance that the user’s VPN client does not offer port switching options.
If that is the case with you then you need to contact the customer support department of your VPN service and ask them for help.
We are sure that they may even have some special and/or dedicated servers available in order to allow users to access to port 443.
What about YouTube censorship?
What about it?
We have already mentioned the fact that governments, schools, offices, universities are not just censoring YouTube.
What we haven’t mentioned is that YouTube is itself involved in censoring content.
Why does it do that?
It does that because the content in question is violating the terms of use contract that one has to follow while using the YouTube platform.
This actually applies to any and all content that violates some predefined set of guidelines.
If a content is not careful about a given individual’s privacy and/or infringes on various copyrights then, YouTube will take that content down.
Needless to say, YouTube certainly comes under pressure from powerful individuals, organizations and governments to take action against and remove certain sections of a given content all the time.
Again, the content may be violating copyrights and/or user privacy.
However, if that is not the case, then the content could contain material which could be classed as hate speech.
Content that has really strong/extreme political views may also get the ax.
For its part, YouTube, as a company, clearly states in its terms of use that YouTube is aiming for its content to be geared towards an audience that is 13 years and/or older.
However, YouTube has actually agreed to move forward in clamping down on content that contains inappropriate material which is aimed at children who are too young.
Privacy and YouTube
Throughout this guide, we haven’t talked about Privacy.
Whenever an online consumer visits the official YouTube website, he/she is taking certain privacy risks.
What are those risks?
Well, let us start with the fact that Google owns YouTube.
Google is a company that has made a name for itself for exploiting user data lately.
We have written long and hard about how any and all Google products collect data about the user.
Not only that, products such as YouTube record everything that the user does on the website.
YouTube keeps information on what the user is watching and on which video the user is commenting and which video the user is liking.
By collecting all this information, Google is able to serve the user advertisements which are based on the user’s online profile from YouTube, Google and other sites that the user has visited in the past around the wider world of the internet.
Google and its products track users by their IP addresses and by cookies.
Of course, users are free to use a VPN service and hide their IP address.
A VPN service is very good at masking the user’s real IP address.
If the user has that protection then Google has no opportunity to tie its profile back to the individual user wherever he may be.
Using a VPN service will also keep the user’s browsing data locked and stored away someplace safe from internet service providers, hackers, snoopers and network administrators.
Advanced VPN users can combine their VPN protection with their web browser’s private browsing and/or incognito mode in order to hide their IP address and block cookies even more effectively.
We’re not saying that the only thing the user has to give consideration to is his/her privacy.
YouTube is big.
It has a huge following with people of all ages.
More specifically, kids of all ages watch YouTube.
It is by far the most popular website on the internet for them.
Therefore, the user also has to think about the privacy of his/her children.
Recent media reports have revealed that various child advocacy groups have complained to the United States Federal Trade Commission regarding the privacy issue.
However, so far YouTube has managed to have a lot of success in simply hiding behind the company’s terms and conditions.
As mentioned before, these terms and conditions clearly state that YouTube wants to aim its content at children who are over 13.
Children who are over 13 and under 18 don’t usually have the heavy protection of various privacy laws.
All the while, YouTube has no problems in collecting data on children.
Thankfully, if the user is utilizing a VPN service and also browsing the web in incognito mode then that can actually block YouTube from tracking and recording his/her child and creating a profile.
What about other YouTube services?
YouTube is not just a simple video platform anymore.
It is more than that.
Now, online consumers have to think about other products from YouTube.
What are those products?
Those products are,
- YouTube TV
- YouTube Premium, previously known as YouTube Red
- YouTube Music
Can internet service providers, governments and network administrators block these as well?
Well, the answer is complicated.
It actually depends more on the network the user has connected to more than anything else.
Of course, one also has to make sure if the network administrator, internet service provider and/or government has made the decision of blocking the URLs which are associated with the above-mentioned YouTube services.
Let’s take a look at the problems with each of these services.
YouTube Music
As the name suggests, this is a music only website.
You don’t need us to explain that this is where users come to listen to music despite all the shaky science behind it that it makes one feel better and the fact that more than few musicians have to take drugs, alcohol and a host of other things to stay sane.
Of course, there is a huge discussion on what type of music is bad and/or good.
We won’t go into that here.
What we will inform the user’s about is the fact that YouTube Music only offers music and not any videos that accompany that music.
And since YouTube Music is just an online music streaming website/service, our research shows that it is somewhat unlikely that the network administrator would have blocked it for people in the school and/or office.
With that said, it is entirely possible that governments might have blocked this site as well.
Each country has its own culture and tradition and some simply do not like music.
It goes without saying that a VPN will come in handy to unblock such sites if they are blocked.
YouTube Premium
Again, as the name suggests, YouTube premium is actually a paid online subscription service.
And unlike YouTube Music, YouTube Premium has tons of healthy, wholesome and quality content.
The premium version of YouTube allows users to watch content on YouTube without any advertisements.
That’s true.
No more suffering for those who don’t want to use an ad-blocker because of whatever reason.
YouTube Premium is a limited service.
In other words, YouTube only offers it in 17 countries.
As expected the country list includes,
- Germany
- France
- Canada
- Australia
- The United Kingdom
- The United States of America
People who do not live in these countries will simply not have access to YouTube premium.
But again, a VPN can come to the rescue.
Users can turn on a VPN service, spoof their location and then regain YouTube premium access.
YouTube TV
This service is a bit different from the other two we have mentioned so far.
YouTube TV represents a new over-the-top channel provider.
It is available to all users in the United States of America.
YouTube TV offers users content from all the premium channels such as FOX, CBS, ABC.
Not only that, it also tailors the user’s available content based on his/her current and home locations.
With that said, if the user signed up for the service and then traveled outside the United States of America and then tried to access the service, it would give him/her an error.
The error message would most likely inform the user that the content the user was seeking as unavailable.
In order to bypass that error message all that the user needs to accomplish is to connect to a VPN server which is located in the United States of America and then connect.
After that, the user should have no problems accessing all content on YouTube TV.
Conclusion
That’s all for now.
So basically, you just need to make sure you sign up for a decent VPN service when you want to unblock YouTube in your office, school and/or University.
We have talked about all the reasons that governments, network administrators and internet service providers have of blocking YouTube.
And how you can circumvent them.
Right now, we are itching for some kind of feedback so talk to us by using the comments section below.
Let us know if you would use a VPN service to access YouTube or simply not use YouTube because the government knows better.
What about YouTube TV? Is it worth it?
And let’s not even talk about YouTube Music or YouTube Premium because there are obvious free alternatives to those services.