How to watch blocked YouTube videos

YouTube is a global platform that attracts over two billion unique users(nouvelle fenêtre) every month from all around the world. Unfortunately, this does not mean that everyone can access every video on YouTube. 

Depending on the country you are in, certain videos are blocked. This is because YouTube uses your location (tagged by your IP address) to determine which videos you can watch. This is called geoblocking or geo-restricting. 

If you have tried to use YouTube while on vacation or living abroad, you will likely be familiar with YouTube’s geo-restriction error message, “The uploader has not made this video available in your country” that occasionally pops up when you try to access videos you watch in your home country.

However, as with other types of geo-restrictions, there are ways to unblock YouTube videos and enjoy all the content on the platform.

Why are videos blocked on YouTube?

There are generally two reasons why YouTube geo-blocks content:

1. Licensing: This typically happens with entertainment material owned by a major company. The video’s owner either has chosen to restrict access to a limited number of countries or does not have the right to share the video in specific countries. Many music videos fall under licensing restrictions, like Wiz Khalifa’s official video for Black and Yellow(nouvelle fenêtre), which is blocked in most of Africa and parts of Central America and the Caribbean.  
2. Complying with local laws: YouTube sometimes blocks a video if it violates local law. For example, it is illegal in Thailand to insult the Thai monarch, so videos critical of the Thai king are blocked(nouvelle fenêtre) within the country. 

At Proton, we believe that the internet is best when you have the freedom to express yourself and exchange ideas. This freedom is undermined when corporations like YouTube impose geoblocks on content. Proton VPN is a firm defender of freedom of speech, and we condemn online censorship in all its forms.

How to unblock YouTube videos

The fastest, easiest, and most reliable way to unblock YouTube videos is to use a VPN. Using a VPN lets you connect to a server in another country and change your IP address to make it appear to YouTube that you are watching videos from that country. By connecting to a server in a country where the videos you want to watch are not blocked, you can successfully bypass geo-restrictions on all YouTube videos.

1. To watch a blocked YouTube video using a VPN, you will first need to sign up for a trustworthy VPN(nouvelle fenêtre). You can sign up for Proton VPN here(nouvelle fenêtre).
2. You then need to download and install the VPN app on your device. You can download Proton VPN here(nouvelle fenêtre), which will allow you to unblock YouTube videos on your mobile and desktop devices or even on your Android TV.
3. Once you have installed the VPN app, you need to log in and connect to a VPN server in a country where the video you want to watch is not blocked. 
4. You can now watch all the YouTube videos that are not blocked in that country.

Depending on the video, it may be obvious which countries it is available in, or you may need to try a few different locations to find one that works. For example, Saturday Night Live(nouvelle fenêtre) (SNL) is an American television show that geoblocks its most recent videos on YouTube for anyone outside of the US. As you would expect, connecting to a US server will make those videos available. However, it may not always be so obvious which country you need to choose to unlock a specific YouTube video.

Using SNL as an example, you can see the extent to which some YouTube channels geoblock their content by looking at how many more videos are available when connected to a VPN server in the US.

Why unblock YouTube with a VPN?

By using a trustworthy and secure VPN to unblock YouTube videos, you are also masking your IP address from your internet service provider and keeping your online activity private. Using a VPN to unblock YouTube videos is also much safer and more reliable than using a YouTube proxy, and it offers a better watching experience than using Tor (although using Tor to unblock YouTube may be necessary in some edge cases).

By using a VPN to bypass geo-restrictions on YouTube videos, you will:

• Keep your viewing history private
• Find it easy to switch between servers in different countries to access different content
• Have a fast enough connection to easily stream videos

You should note that a VPN can see all your online activity while you are connected, which is why you should only use trustworthy VPNs with a no-logs policy, like Proton VPN. (Our latest security audit(nouvelle fenêtre) results confirm our no logs policy.)

Learn more about how VPNs work(nouvelle fenêtre).

Other ways to unblock YouTube videos

Although using a VPN is generally the best way to unblock YouTube videos, you do have other options.

Unblock YouTube videos with Tor Browser

The Tor Browser is a powerful privacy tool that you can use to hide your IP address. It lets you send your internet traffic over the Tor network, a web of special servers around the world. The Tor Browser encrypts your internet traffic three times and then routes it through three different servers, making it almost impossible to trace, so YouTube is unable to know your real IP address and can’t geoblock videos for your location.

The average YouTube user would be better served simply using a VPN, which makes selecting a country to browse from quick and easy. However, you should use Tor Browser to unblock geo-restricted YouTube videos if you think there would be dire ramifications if local authorities found out you were watching this video (for example, due to authoritarian restrictions on freedom of information).

While it is a somewhat complicated procedure, you can also set which country the final Tor server is in(nouvelle fenêtre). There are three main reasons you should avoid using Tor to stream YouTube:

• Tor traffic is slow
• By watching a YouTube video on Tor, you will make the connection even slower for everyone else using Tor
• Tor can be complicated to set up and use

Learn more about using Tor(nouvelle fenêtre).

Unblock YouTube videos with YouTube proxies

A proxy server also allows you to browse the internet as though you are in another country by connecting you to another server. The proxy server hides your IP address from your destination site similarly to a VPN. However, proxies should generally be avoided because they can: 

• Expose your data
• Monitor your online activity
• Provide generally weak performance

However, unlike a VPN, a proxy only works over the connection you open with the proxy. For example, if you are listening to Spotify via the desktop app and you connect to a proxy server in your internet browser, only the traffic from your internet browser will go through the proxy, while Spotify will continue to connect to your local ISP.

Secondly, proxies do not add extra encryption to your traffic like a VPN. In fact, in many cases, free proxies ban HTTPS traffic(nouvelle fenêtre). This means that not only is your data vulnerable to being intercepted and read, but the proxy service can track your activity while you are connected to it. Also, free proxy connections are usually less stable and slower than a VPN connection.

What if YouTube is blocked altogether?

There are some instances where YouTube is blocked altogether, rather than individual videos. This can happen in countries with strict censorship practices or if you use a network that blocks YouTube using a firewall (for example, at work or school).

Government censorship

Some countries, like China, Iran, and Turkmenistan, have blocked YouTube entirely. The reasons provided for blocking YouTube include protecting citizens from harmful content, national security, or for morality reasons. Depending on the methods that country uses, a VPN may or may not be effective.

Network firewalls 

Many schools and workplaces use firewalls to block certain websites like YouTube to remove distractions or increase productivity. However, there are many cases where access to YouTube videos is necessary in these environments — especially for educational reasons.

You can still use a VPN to bypass these restrictions on accessing YouTube, as the VPN will hide your internet traffic from the firewall.

1. To unblock YouTube using a VPN, you will first need to sign up for a VPN. You can sign up for Proton VPN here(nouvelle fenêtre).
2. You then need to download and install the right VPN app(nouvelle fenêtre) for your device.
3. Once you have installed the VPN app, you need to log in and connect to a VPN server in a country where YouTube is not blocked. If you only need to bypass a network firewall, you can connect to a server in the same country that you are already in, as this will still prevent the firewall from blocking your browsing activity.
4. You will now be able to watch YouTube videos.

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