If you’ve ever travelled to another part of the world and tried to watch a TV show on a streaming service, like Netflix or Hulu, you might find it isn’t available in your current location. This is called geo-blocking and while it can be annoying, there’s a way around it.
Streaming services aren’t the only places you might run into geo-blocked content. A few examples of geo-blocking include online stores restricting sales to certain regions and state governments blocking access to services like WhatsApp or X, formerly known as Twitter.
Here’s how geo-blocking works and what you can do to get around these restrictions.
What is geo-blocking?
“Geoblocking restricts access to online content based on the user’s geographical location,” said Peter Yu, the director of Texas A&M University’s Center for Law and Property.
You can think of geo-blocking in terms of school districts. If you live within a certain community you can send your child to particular schools and have access to that district’s resources. When online content is geo-blocked, you can access content specific to your “school district” but not others.
How does geo-blocking work?
Your public IP (internet protocol) address makes geo-blocking possible. An IP address is a unique numerical label attached to a device on the internet or a local network. This address makes it possible to send and receive information online — without it, you wouldn’t be able to read this article right now.
Your IP address also holds information about your geographic location because it’s determined by your router, not the device you’re using to browse the internet. For example, if you connect your phone to your home network, you will have a different IP address than if you connect your phone to your work network.
The location information in your IP address can help ensure that if you travel somewhere you can access, or are blocked from, area…
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