As smartphones are more and more popular, VPN apps become the indispensable tool now. Whether you are willing to log in to social networking sites (like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and so on), protect your privacy, or just view online content across regions, VPN services are indispensable. Since VPN can also help you stay away from government censorship, many countries and regions have explicitly blocked VPNs service. In some places, using VPNs is illegal and can result in fines and imprisonment.
Countries where the government blocked VPNs
China
In terms of access to the Internet, China is one of the most restrictive countries. The restricted websites include Google, Instagram and other popular sites in foreign countries. And recently China has begun to focus on combating VPN service. Because the VPN can bypass the government audit to access the restricted content. Only companies which approved by the government can use VPNs legally.
But government-approved VPNs also have drawbacks. They can monitor your online activities. If you don’t follow the relevant laws when using these VPN services, you will also have trouble.
Iran
Iran is not willing to let people know too much of the outside world, so it has built a domestic Internet that can block external information. But you can choose the VPN providers approved by the government. It is worth mentioning that Iranian government officials are also keen to use VPN.
Russia
The Russian government cannot tolerate too many different opinions among the masses. Perhaps you have known that some liberals have been caught because of their opinions online. So people learned to use VPN to evade monitoring. The Russian government also discovered this, so they began to ban the use of VPN.
The United Arab Emirates
Maybe you have a good impression of the UAE, but it still is one of the most restrictive regimes in the world. Of course, the Internet is no exception. The UAE is also a country that explicitly bans the use of VPNs. If you are in the UAE, you will find that even Skype and Whatsapp are not available to use without VPN.
There are more similar countries like：North Korea, Turkey, Iraq, Oman, Belarus, Syria, and Egypt.
Online services which blocked VPNs
Netflix
Because of pressure from some film studios, Netflix made it clear that VPN access is prohibited. However, we all know that it is safer to use VPN to access these video sites. Today, Netflix’s attitude toward VPN and Proxy is still negative. Their CEO also said that they don’t care about the users’ feeling who want to use VPN to access to Netflix.
Hulu
For protecting copyright, users outside the USA are prohibited from accessing Hulu. And people who used VPN to access to Hulu will be blocked. By the way, even local users in the United States are prohibited from using VPN access.
Don’t worry. This is just a list of the government or business who wants to restrict people from using VPN. Usually, you can still connect and use VPN service in some way.