Government mandated blocking of foreign Web content

TL;DR

This paper examines the technical challenges and effects of government-mandated blocking of foreign web content in Germany, providing empirical data to inform legal and policy discussions.

Contribution

It offers a technical analysis of blocking mechanisms and empirical data on their effects, addressing a current legal and policy issue.

Findings

Technical issues in implementing blocking at network level

Empirical data on the effectiveness of blocking measures

Implications for legal assessments of blocking orders

Abstract

Blocking of foreign Web content by Internet access providers has been a hot topic for the last 18 months in Germany. Since fall 2001 the state of North-Rhine-Westphalia very actively tries to mandate such blocking. This paper will take a technical view on the problems imposed by the blocking orders and blocking content at access or network provider level in general. It will also give some empirical data on the effects of the blocking orders to help in the legal assessment of the orders.