Today, YouTube is more popular than ever. With billions of views every month and countless videos to watch, there is no doubt why YouTube has reached such milestone and still continues to reach out to more audiences.
Unfortunately, the second biggest social media isn’t readily available to everyone worldwide. For instance, YouTube is being blocked in countries like Pakistan, Turkey, China, North Korea and many others.
In addition to completely being banned in several countries, there are also geographic locations where YouTube is limited to only specific video categories or content.
Reasons why YouTube is being censored
Countries, governments and other private institutions are blocking YouTube for a variety of reasons. Below are the main reasons why YouTube (and other social media platforms) blocking occurs.
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Preventive measures against possible social and political conflicts
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Shutting criticism of the government, religion and different community leaders
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Violations of national laws, suppression of freedom of expression / speech
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Preventing access to videos that are deemed to be inappropriate, offensive and blasphemous
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Reducing distractions at work or school
In certain countries like Brazil, there are specific laws governing the censorship of the video-sharing network. Note that other YouTube-like websites or services are also being censored. YouTube blocking is possible because the government have asked and mandated ISPs to block YouTube and many other websites that are considered to be platforms critical to the government.
Unblocking YouTube in Pakistan, China and other Countries
The question now is, is it really impossible to access YouTube or similar platforms in countries that block them? Actually, there is a trick on how to bypass online restrictions.
Luckily, there is an amazing tool that can do wonders in unblocking all sorts of internet censorships and restrictions. Aside from allowing access to blocked sites, this tool also improves internet security and privacy. Not even the government can spy on you while you are using or running this bypassing tool.
So, what’s this tool we’re talking about? It’s really no secret, but only a VPN can effectively reverse website restrictions. A VPN delivers anonymous and secure connections.
Why do I still need a VPN to watch YouTube?
Whether YouTube is banned from your country of residence or not, you should definitely use a VPN in all your internet activities. The reason behind why using a VPN is highly advisable is because it makes the internet (connections) more secure.
If you’re worried about hackers, spies and data sniffers, then you should really get yourself a VPN service. Watching YouTube with a VPN service is also more convenient since you can enjoy all the videos you like without coming across an error message saying the content you are trying to view is not available in your country yet.
With a VPN, you can bypass geographic restrictions. If you have noticed it, there are certain videos on YouTube that are only available to users in specific locations. You can bypass this limitations, censorship and online restrictions simply by using a reliable VPN service.
What’s the Difference Between a Free and Premium VPN?
There’s really no big difference between a free and a premium VPN aside from the fact that the latter is only the paid VPN version. If you’re on a tight budget and you can’t shell out any cash to purchase a premium VPN service, there are numerous VPN service providers that are offering FREE trial accounts for a certain span of time.
But if you are going to use the free VPN to watch YouTube videos, there’s some bad news for you. FREE VPNs and streaming isn’t a good match. It’s really not advisable to use free VPNs to access / unblock YouTube since free VPNs tend to come with a lot of limitations such as capped bandwidth and speed limits.
In order to maximize your YouTube viewing experience, you need to use a premium VPN service. Why so? Well, with paid VPN services, you get the complete product without limitations. If you’re watching a video on YouTube while connected to a premium VPN, you are most likely to experience smooth and continuous viewing experiences. Unlike with free VPNs where you’ll be bombarded with buffering and disconnection issues.
Which VPN Providers are the best for Youtube?
As you need a good speed to have fun watching Youtube, we do not recomment Free VPN Services – as they are just usable for basic web surfing but way too slow for video streaming. To enjoy unblocking Youtube with a VPN, we recommend the following VPN Servies – just click on the name and you can read a comprehensive review about the VPN service:
Is Using a VPN to Watch YouTube Risky?
As mentioned earlier, VPN connections are generally secured compared to those that are not connected to a VPN network. If you’re worried about being spied on while watching videos or sending sensitive information, know that a VPN will keep your data secured and private, away from prying eyes. Plus, data being sent from your system are encrypted thus allowing maximum data protection.
Will YouTube Ever be Unblocked in Countries such as China?
In 2014, Reporters Without Borders released its annual report honouring countries that are considered as “Enemies of the Internet”, including China as one of the biggest offenders. China is known to block various contents including YouTube and we really don’t know if China will ever unblock anything.
Reports claim that China’s “great wall” is even getting taller. Not to mention website contents are continuously being blocked, but internet activities are also being monitored. In other countries like Pakistan, YouTube had somewhat been unblocked. Unfortunately, a lot of web contents still remains to be inaccessible.
For now, if you are residing in a country where YouTube or any other content you’re intending to ‘freely’ access are being blocked, we recommend that you continue using a VPN service in bypassing such restrictions.
Is SmartDNS Better Than VPN?
To set the records straight, SmartDNS is not any better than VPN. It is a good alternative for accessing streaming websites though. SmartDNS does not provide encryption so it’s not any safer than a VPN. It can bypass georestricted stream media better than with a VPN that’s for sure. If you only want to unblock YouTube, Netflix, Hulu and other streaming websites, you can opt to use SmartDNS which is also cheaper compared to a premium VPN service. You can get Free Smart DNS Trial periods from most providers – so you can try if SmartDNS works for you.
Take note though that using VPN and SmartDNS can somewhat deteriorate your internet speed but only very minimal and unnoticeable. Thus, we recommend you subscribe to a VPN service that provides fast and stable VPN connections. We highly recommend ExpressVPN since this VPN service provider is widely known to provide the fastest anonymous VPN for YouTube.