Blocking Behavior
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Google Public DNS strongly believes in our users' freedom to use the
DNS resolver of their choice and being able to resolve any name in the
Domain Name System. However, copyright laws in some jurisdictions allow
rights holders to seek judicial injunctions against DNS intermediaries that
require those intermediaries to block specified copyright infringing domains
in those jurisdictions.
For these jurisdictions, Google Public DNS will comply with court orders
to block DNS resolution of all names under specified domains. In the event of
a block, we will communicate this explicitly in the query response.
The response returned will have
DNS RCODE REFUSED,
optionally with an extended DNS error 16 (Censored).
Jurisdictions where we perform blocking
- Belgium (BE)
- France (FR)
- Italy (IT)
- Portugal (PT)
Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. For details, see the Google Developers Site Policies. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Last updated 2025-07-21 UTC.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-07-21 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eGoogle Public DNS supports users' freedom to choose their DNS resolver and resolve any domain name, but respects court orders requiring the blocking of copyright-infringing domains in specific jurisdictions.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWhen blocking is required by court order, Google Public DNS will return a "REFUSED" response code, potentially with an extended error code indicating censorship, for queries to the specified domains.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eCurrently, France is the only jurisdiction where Google Public DNS is actively blocking domains due to court orders.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Google Public DNS will adhere to court orders in certain jurisdictions, blocking DNS resolution for copyright-infringing domains. In these cases, the DNS query will return a `REFUSED` response code, possibly with an extended error code of `16 (Censored)`. This action is taken to comply with copyright laws. Currently, France is the only jurisdiction where Google Public DNS performs this type of domain blocking.\n"],null,["# Blocking Behavior\n\nGoogle Public DNS strongly believes in our users' freedom to use the\nDNS resolver of their choice and being able to resolve any name in the\nDomain Name System. However, copyright laws in some jurisdictions allow\nrights holders to seek judicial injunctions against DNS intermediaries that\nrequire those intermediaries to block specified copyright infringing domains\nin those jurisdictions.\n\nFor these jurisdictions, Google Public DNS will comply with court orders\nto block DNS resolution of all names under specified domains. In the event of\na block, we will communicate this explicitly in the query response.\nThe response returned will have\nDNS RCODE [*REFUSED*](https://www.iana.org/assignments/dns-parameters/dns-parameters.xhtml#dns-parameters-6),\noptionally with an extended DNS error [*16 (Censored)*](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8914.html#name-extended-dns-error-code-16-).\n\nJurisdictions where we perform blocking\n---------------------------------------\n\n- Belgium (BE)\n- France (FR)\n- Italy (IT)\n- Portugal (PT)"]]