Governments use several technical methods to censor the internet:
- DNS blocking: ISPs are ordered to return false results for blocked domain names. When you try to visit a blocked site, you get an error or redirect. This is the simplest and most common form of censorship.
- IP blocking: The IP 位址 of blocked services are added to a blacklist. All traffic to those IPs is dropped at the ISP level.
- Deep Packet Inspection (DPI): 進階 firewalls (like 中國's 防火牆) analyze the content and patterns of network traffic to identify and block specific protocols (VPN, Tor, etc.).
- SNI filtering: When you connect to an HTTPS site, the domain name is sent in plaintext during the TLS handshake (Server Name Indication). Censors can read this and block specific domains.
- Bandwidth throttling: Instead of blocking services outright, some countries slow them to unusable speeds (making VPNs too slow to use).
- App store removal: Governments pressure app stores to remove VPN and circumvention apps in their country.