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Website blocking in the European Union: Network interference from the perspective of Open Internet

  • By establishing an infrastructure for monitoring and blocking networks in accordance with European Union (EU) law on preventive measures against the spread of information, EU member states have also made it easier to block websites and services and monitor information. While relevant studies have documented Internet censorship in non-European countries, as well as the use of such infrastructures for political reasons, this study examines network interference practices such as website blocking against the backdrop of an almost complete lack of EU-related research. Specifically, it performs and demonstrates an analysis for the total of 27 EU countries based on three different sources. They include first, tens of millions of historical network measurements collected in 2020 by Open Observatory of Network Interference volunteers from around the world; second, the publicly available blocking lists used by EU member states; and third, the reports issued by network regulators in each country from May 2020 to April 2021. Our results show that authorities issue multiple types of blocklists. Internet Service Providers limit access to different types and categories of websites and services. Such resources are sometimes blocked for unknown reasons and not included in any of the publicly available blocklists. The study concludes with the hurdles related to network measurements and the nontransparency from regulators regarding specifying website addresses in blocking activities.

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Metadaten
Author:Vasilis VerverisORCiD, Lucas Lasota, Tatiana ErmakovaORCiD, Benjamin FabianORCiD
URN:urn:nbn:de:kobv:526-opus4-17982
DOI (Version of Record):https://doi.org/10.1002/poi3.367
ISSN:1944-2866
Parent Title (English):Policy & Internet
Publisher:Wiley
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Year of Publication:2024
Publishing Institution:Technische Hochschule Wildau
Release Date:2024/04/02
Tag:DNS manipulation; EU; Internet censorship; Open Internet; blocklist; nationalregulation authority; network interference; website blocking
Volume:16
Issue:1
First Page:121
Last Page:148
Source:Ververis, V., Lasota, L., Ermakova, T., & Fabian, B. (2024). Website blocking in the European Union: Network interference from the perspective of Open Internet. Policy & Internet, 16, 121–148. https://doi.org/10.1002/poi3.367
Faculties an central facilities:Fachbereich Wirtschaft, Informatik, Recht
Dewey Decimal Classification:0 Informatik, Informationswissenschaft, allgemeine Werke / 00 Informatik, Wissen, Systeme / 004 Datenverarbeitung; Informatik
3 Sozialwissenschaften / 32 Politikwissenschaft / 320 Politikwissenschaft
Licence (German):Creative Commons - CC BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International
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