List of websites blocked in Belgium explained

The precise number of websites blocked in Belgium is unknown. Blocking may vary from one Internet Service Provider (ISP) to another with some sites blocked by some ISPs and not by others.

Site blocks in Belgium are at this moment based on DNS Hijacking which has the possibilities of circumventing using proxies or DNS over HTTPS. Blocked websites are redirected to a multilingual StopPage

Verification

There is no official complete register of blocked sites. Blocked content includes:

• Court orders (mainly for copyright issues)
• Unilateral blocking (some websites have been reported as being blocked without any known court order on the sole initiative of certain ISPs)
• Gambling regulations (Belgian gambling laws requires a Gambling business to have a local physical gambling point and proper license in order to provide online gambling)^[1]

Court-ordered blocked websites

These are the sites explicitly listed and blocked by court cases in Belgium.

Site name	Domain or URL	Type of site	Reason	ISPs in Court Case	Blocked By^[2]	Start date	Resolution date
The Pirate Bay	thepiratebay.se thepiratebay.org thepiratebay.net thepiratebay.com thepiratebay.nu piratebay.org piratebay.net piratebay.se piratebay.no jimkeyser.se ripthepiratebay.com	Torrent Indexer	Copyright^[3]	Proximus Telenet	Proximus Telenet Numericable^[4] Orange Voo	data-sort-value="2011-11-01"	November 2011^[5] ^[6] ^[7]
Vitae	vitae.co vitaetoken.io	Crypto currency	Potential scam		Telenet	June 2021
LS Script Hub	lsscripthub.xyz	Exploiting	Copyright		Proximus Telenet Orange Voo	June 2023

Notes

Unilaterally blocked websites

These are the sites blocked by some ISPs in Belgium without any known related court-order. It is believed that these blockings are the result of pressure by the Belgian Anti-piracy Federation (BAF) who threatened ISPs with heavy legal fees should they not comply with their request.^{[8] [9] [10]} The list of ISPs below is probably incomplete as each ISP can decide individually on the matter.

Case name	Domain or URL	Type of site	Reason	Blocked by	Start date	Resolution date
The Pirate Bay	thepiratebay.se depiraatbaai.be	Torrent Indexer	Copyright	Proximus Orange Numericable Telenet Voo	data-sort-value="2011-11-01"	December 2011^[11]	data-sort-value="2012-11-30"
IsoHunt	isohunt.com	Torrent Indexer	Copyright	Proximus Orange Numericable Telenet Voo	data-sort-value="2012-05-01"	unknown	data-sort-value="9999-12-31"	Site moved to new domain in October 2013^[12]
KickAssTorrents	kat.ph kickass.to	Torrent Indexer	Copyright	Proximus Orange Numericable Telenet Voo	August 2013^[13]
BitSnoop	bitsnoop.com	Torrent Indexer	Copyright	Proximus Orange Telenet Voo	August 2013
ExtraTorrent	extratorrent.cc	Torrent Indexer	Copyright	Proximus Orange Telenet Voo	August 2013
h33t	h33t.com	Torrent Indexer	Copyright	Proximus Orange Numericable Telenet Voo	August 2013	Site moved to new domain in December 2013^[14]
monova	monova.org	Torrent Indexer	Copyright	Proximus Orange Telenet Voo	unknown
TorrentReactor	torrentreactor.net	Torrent Indexer	Copyright	Proximus Orange Numericable Telenet Voo	unknown
TorrentHound	torrenthound.com	Torrent Indexer	Copyright	Proximus Orange Telenet Voo	unknown
Yify Subtitles	yifysubtitles.com	Movie Subtitles	Copyright	Proximus Telenet	February 2016
LS Script Hub	lsscripthub.xyz	ExploitingTool	Copyright	Proximus Telenet Orange Voo	June 2023

EU-ordered blocked websites

These are the sites blocked because of EU mandates.

Site name	Domain or URL	Type of site	Reason	Blocked By	Start date	Resolution date
Sputnik	sputniknews.com	News agency	Political^[15]	Orange EDPnet Telenet	2022-08-03
RT	www.rt.com de.rt.com francais.rt.com actualidad.rt.com	News agency	Political	Orange EDPnet Telenet	2022-08-03

Gambling regulations blocked websites

The list of blocked gambling websites is the only official publicly available and maintained blocklist in Belgium. The list is available on the official Belgian Gaming Commission website.^[16]

External links

• Gaming Commission
• the StopPage
• anti-piracy.be

Notes and References

1. Web site: 10 JANVIER 2010. - Loi portant modification de la législation relative aux jeux de hasard. 10 January 2010. - Bill to amend the law regarding games of chance. LOI - WET. 1 February 2010. 2014-01-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20140117074728/http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/cgi_loi/change_lg.pl?language=fr&la=F&table_name=loi&cn=2010011012. 2014-01-17. live.
2. DNS Lookups on ISP DNS Servers
3. Web site: Dutch . Het hof van beroep, zitting houdend te ANTWERPEN, EERSTE KAMER, recht doende in burgerlijke zaken, heeft volgend arrest gewezen: inzake: 2010/AR/2541, VZW BELGIAN ANTI-PIRACY FEDERATION, afgekort VZW BAF, met zetel gevestigd te 1200 Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe, Almapleine 3 bus 10 en ingeschreven in de kruispuntbank der ondernemingen onder der nr. 0427.907.283 . The Court of Appeal, sitting in ANTWERP, FIRST CHAMBER, acting in civil cases, has issued the following judgment: regarding 2010/AR/2541, VZW BELGIAN ANTI-PIRACY FEDERATION, abbreviated as VZW BAF, with registered office at 1200 Sint- Lambrechts-Woluwe, Almapleine 3 bus 10 and registered at the companies crossroads bank under no. 0427.907.283 . 4 October 2011 . Hof van beroep, eerste kamer (Court of Appeal, First Chamber) . Antwerp . 16 January 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20121025131855/http://nurpa.be/files/20111004_BAF-Belgacom-Telenet-DNS-blocking.pdf . 25 October 2012 . live .
4. It is important to note that despite the fact that only two ISPs were actually concerned in this court order, many other ISPs have implemented the same blocking without any specific court order. It is not fully known which ISPs decided to enforce this ruling or not.
5. Web site: Slashdot . SlashdotMedia . Belgian ISP ordered to block The Pirate Bay; Telecomix and TPB Offer Workarounds . 4 October 2011 . 18 January 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140119034048/http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/10/04/1855211/belgian-isp-ordered-to-block-the-pirate-bay-telecomix-and-tpb-offer-workarounds . 19 January 2014 . live .
6. Web site: Pirate Bay encourages filesharers to dodge Belgium block . 6 October 2011 . Jennifer . Baker . Techworld . IDG UK . 18 January 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140201102206/http://news.techworld.com/networking/3309047/pirate-bay-encourages-filesharers-to-dodge-belgium-block/ . 1 February 2014 . live .
7. Web site: Belgian ISPs vs Internet Freedom . 7 December 2011 . Jef . Ausloos . EFF: Electronic Frontier Foundation . Electronic Frontier Foundation . 18 January 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140121023732/https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/12/belgian-isps-vs-internet-freedom . 21 January 2014 . live .
8. Web site: Dutch . BAF Letter to ISPs . 17 November 2011 . Christophe . Van Mechelen . Belgian Anti-piracy Federation . Brussels, Belgium . 16 January 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120126160542/http://nurpa.be/files/20111117_BAF-letter-to-ISP_NL.pdf . 26 January 2012 . live .
9. Web site: French . La BAF fait chanter les fournisseurs d'accès pour étendre la censure internet . The BAF blackmails ISPs to extend internet censorship . 5 December 2011 . Brussels . NURPA . Net Users' Rights Protection Association . 16 January 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140223053201/http://nurpa.be/actualites/2011/12/BAF-chantage-censure-Internet . 23 February 2014 . live .
10. News: French . Les FAI belges invités à bloquer The Pirate Bay pour éviter les frais de justice . Belgian ISPs invited to block The Pirate Bay to avoid court costs . Julien . Lausson . 6 December 2011 . . 16 January 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140121064152/http://www.numerama.com/magazine/20819-les-fai-belges-invites-a-bloquer-the-pirate-bay-pour-eviter-des-frais-de-justice.html . 21 January 2014 . live .
11. Web site: French . Les fournisseurs d'accès à Internet étendent la censure, sans base légale . ISPs extend censure, without legal basis . 19 December 2011 . NURPA . Net Users' Rights Protection Association . 16 January 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140203002357/http://nurpa.be/actualites/2011/12/FAI-etendent-censure-sans-base-legale . 3 February 2014 . live .
12. News: Isohunt BitTorrent search engine back online . Samuel . Gibbs . 30 October 2013 . . Guardian News and Media Limited .
13. Web site: Belgian ISPs Quietly Expand Torrent Site Blockade . Ernesto . Van der Sar . 28 August 2013 . TorrentFreak . 16 January 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140123060507/http://torrentfreak.com/belgian-isps-quietly-expand-torrent-site-blockade-130828/ . 23 January 2014 . live .
14. Web site: H33T Back Online After Several Months Downtime . 10 December 2013 . Andy . Maxwell . TorrentFreak . 17 January 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140122202908/http://torrentfreak.com/h33t-back-online-after-several-months-downtime-131210/ . 22 January 2014 . live .
15. Web site: EU officially boots Russia's RT, Sputnik outlets . Laura . Kayali . 1 March 2022 . Politico EU . 2022-03-08 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220302114746/https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-rt-sputnik-illegal-europe/ . 2022-03-02 . live .
16. Web site: Liste noire: Liste des sites de jeux interdits . French . Blacklist

    List of prohibited gaming sites

    . SPF JUSTICE: Commission des jeux de hasard . Commission des jeux de Hasard . 2014-01-16 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140201160320/http://www.gamingcommission.be/opencms/opencms/jhksweb_fr/establishments/Online/blacklist/ . 2014-02-01 . live .