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Glossary · Circumvention

Geoblocking

Also calledgeographic block
Definition

Geoblocking is the general term for restricting access to online content based on the visitor's geographic location — includes streaming region locks, AI service region policies, and country-specific price differentiation.

Explanation

In depth

The term overlaps heavily with "geo-block" (see that entry for the mechanism). "Geoblocking" as a word tends to be used in policy and consumer-rights discussions ("EU digital single market prohibits unjustified geoblocking of retail sites") where "geo-block" is more common in technical writing. Both refer to the same underlying pattern: destinations restricting content by IP-inferred country. Circumvention needs a proxy or VPN in a country the destination serves. Consumer streaming services are the most common context; increasingly AI services and paywalled news sites also geoblock.

Related terms

Geo-blockA geo-block is a restriction imposed by the destination site based on the visitor's IP-inferred country — not by the local network.IP addressAn IP address is a numeric identifier assigned to each device on a network — how packets know where to go.ProxyA proxy is a server that acts on your behalf — it makes network requests for you and hands the responses back to your device.VPNA VPN is a service that routes every network request from your device through an encrypted tunnel to a remote server.

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