My post copied over from JihadWatch.org for those who were unable to read it, click through it you are able to, as the comments are also helpful…
This is not new. It has been ongoing for years: when fascists are unable to control the narrative, they shut down the discussion.
I am seeing now that most of the UK and many other European Internet service providers (ISPs) are blocking this as well as many other websites from being viewed.
Not content with shadow banning academics guilty of wrongspeak from social media, attempting to turn them into unpersons, they are using blocking methods originally developed but rarely used to block criminal enterprises on the web (think scammers and pedophiles) with far more alacrity than when they were ever used as originally intended.
They use a variety of methods to control what you are allowed to view online, much like how I had “guardian control” on our television to stop the kids from watching channels that were not suitable. Amusingly, I know of one home and office firewall company that is listing jihadwatch.org as “adult entertainment.” A provider in the UK, also listing Jihad Watch as adult, asks for credit card numbers to prove you are old enough to view the site.
Canada is introducing “measures,” specifically in Quebec, to block illegal gaming sites, which I would bet my last Loony on being leveraged in the same way, as soon as they criminalize “Islamophobia,” a.k.a. any criticism of jihad and the violence and crime that go hand-in-hand with Islam.
So today, some Internet providers just block this and other sites, giving the impression that site is “down,” not available, mockingly suggesting, “please try later.” We will be seeing far more of this, and there is little anyone can do to stop this from being implemented further.
The vast majority of blocks are actually very simple to bypass. They “poison” the DNS servers that they provide free with your Internet access to misdirect you to other locations. The Turkish government has been using this method for Internet access for a few years. The Chinese “protect” nearly half the world’s population from ThoughtCrime with this trick.
DNS stands for Domain Name Servers. They translate the user-entered website (domain name) such as www.jihadwatch.org into a number that is used by your computer to connect to the website — think postal/zip code. Normally, you are automatically assigned DNS Name Server addresses by your Internet service provider, but changing the DNS servers (on your local machine or router) will stop censorship using this method.
Bypassing the simple DNS poisoning method that is most commonly used is very simple: you just change the DNS servers that Cisco, the worldwide leader in IT and networking hardware, was kind enough to provide. Try use.opendns.com or safer for sharing 208.69.38.205 (which cannot be easily blocked). In fact, in many cases, OpenDNS may be a better service than your own service provider’s DNS. It is simply tested, but whatever happens in the future, keep that link handy to check if your favorite websites really did just vanish.
Here is a complete current list of free to use public DNS servers, Cisco just has great instructions to make the required changes. I believe they do this intentionally to assist in bypassing government censorship.
Further, I would strongly suggest that anyone who may in the future be guilty of wrongthink or some other thoughtcrime, go one step further and encrypt all your Internet traffic using a VPN (Virtual Private Network), so that Internet providers, government agencies and even employers can not snoop. I have been involved with the development of airvpn. I have no financial motive, but I believe they are the best (speed/price), but maybe not as user-friendly as some more commercial VPNs such as Freedome. Using a VPN would be best practice to also stop cyber criminals from carrying out a number of attacks against you when you are using a public wifi (cafe, airport, etc.). It also is a more thorough way to block censorship. If you use a VPN, you do not need to change DNS servers, as the VPN does this for you.
*above, I knowingly use the term “dns poisoning” knowing that it is most commonly used to describe an attack when a bad actor diverts a website’s intended traffic to some other location, normally to inflict some damage, but the ISPs are using similar methods that a Bad Actor would use with the intent of censorship.
UPDATE 24 Sept 2017: Recently added, enabling opendns for Windows 10 https://support.opendns.com/hc/en-us/articles/228007207-Windows-10-Configuration
Nice site. Was easy to setup dd-wrt router to use. Thanks.
What is your URL. Can’t comment w/out it.
OpenDNS is now owned by Cisco. Better look at other alternatives. It was great for a long time before Cisco got their hands on things.
I’ve worked with cisco myself as a contractor over nearly 20 years, I found them totally apolitical, unlike the other big boys who all turned to the dark side, Fortenet block JW by default. But if you have some evidence that cisco have started censoring or misusing their power, please let me know.
I have my own gripes with cisco, leaving exploits in telnet, then not providing free updates out of warranty.
There is also google public DNS at 8.8.8.8, very easy to remember.
Google have been seen to have taken a side here, the wrong side, while I have not seen their DNS:
$ dig A www.jihadwatch.org @8.8.8.8; <<>> DiG 9.11.0-P3 <<>> A www.jihadwatch.org @8.8.8.8
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 11502 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1 ;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION: ; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 512 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;www.jihadwatch.org. IN A ;; ANSWER SECTION: www.jihadwatch.org. 289 IN A 192.124.249.3 ;; Query time: 37 msec ;; SERVER: 8.8.8.8#53(8.8.8.8) ;; WHEN: Fri May 26 11:10:49 ADT 2017 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 63
I wouldn't trust them going forward, I doubt they are logging dns lookups, but that also becomes a concern.
Why do you freedom of speech guys never mention Tails ? This is far safer than using a VPN tunnel.
Tails is what you use when your life depends on you staying anonymous, like a journalist behind enemy
lines. Tails lives off a DVD and does not touch your harddisk unless you want it to, when you power off
no trace of your activity is present on your pc. Tails also bypasses internet censorship but with added
anonymity, think of it like a VPN on steroids.
Times are changing, its now you should think about protecting yourself. In the EU people are being
arrested for browsing “fake news”, posting stuff and voicing theire opinions in public. Even in member
states where you are not arrested it can have other undesired consequences by now.
Remember the only thing that EU really fears are the people. Its starting to look like the 30ies all over
again here. Seems like a lot of people have forgotten what we learned all those years ago, thankfully
there are also many who have not.
If you decide to use tails remember to create a brand new identity online, never ever login to an
account or service that you created outside of Tails!
See: https://tails.boum.org
Tails is excellent, but well beyond most people’s ability to setup VM, and like Tor, very slow, getting people to change DNS server records, use a VPN is a good start. Ideally I’d like everyone to start using a password manager also, people are just not taking security seriously online.
Problem! I bet most of us reading this has no idea what or how to do any of the ways offered!
Fuzz, you are right. Where can we go for help?
If you have technical issues with security, don’t understand some specific detail, just ask, there are so many resources available, https://ssd.eff.org/ have some great stuff for noobs, luckily we are not the only community suffering.
I seem to be blocked at this time and I am here in America. When I try to use Bing or Google, I receive an popup stating “Hmmm…can’t reach this page.” If anyone has any suggestions, I will try most anything.
did you try the dns change mentioned in the post here? who are your ISP?
I cannot find a link to inform Robert Spencer that I cannot purchase a copy of his book.
Amazon and another US bookseller will not sell it to Australia.
Australian bookshops have nill stock and do not have a delivery date.
Any ideas ?
https://www.barnesandnoble.com should have it there, i checked recently for someone.
Robert can be contacted using the sidebar on the right here.
Startpage.com had an anoymous view,no VPN needed.But dont know if it works.
I use a VPN from Switzerland or China.
I once had an add on,and the Romania server dont let me saw barenakedislam.
Stupid Lefties attack Christians in Germany
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQuzDgikTXk
ps:check bittube=free speech portal
anonymous browsing and privacy is unconnected to censorship, a VPN will block both, private browsing will only block snooping (to some degree.
I ve made 3 replys thrice censored. No sence replying any more. Therefore I will be deleting this site.
I have checked the email and IP address you used to post this comment, neither have been blocked by us, what error are you seeing?