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Is my site blocked in Germany?
Six German providers, among them Telekom, Vodafone, O2 and 1&1, block pirate sites named by the CUII, a body they set up with rights holders. They block in their DNS (the internet's address book), and Telekom and O2 also filter sites they list as scams or malware. A legitimate site can get caught if its domain was blocked under a previous owner and the block was never lifted, or if a filter lists it by mistake. You can search cuii.info and OONI Explorer, a public archive of tests run with the OONI Probe app, but both show only what someone has listed or tested.
Sources: heise online, 16 July 2025 · CUII, members · CUII, court orders · Deutsche Telekom, Transparency Report 2025 · O2, Onlineschutz · netzpolitik.org, 12 September 2024 · OONI, Explorer guide, updated 15 March 2023; pages without a date checked 11 November 2026
Check your page in Germany now
We open it through home and mobile connections of Telekom, Vodafone and O2, the way their customers would, and tell you provider by provider whether it opens. Free, about a minute, a few checks per hour.
What is the CUII, and how does it block sites?
The CUII (Clearingstelle Urheberrecht im Internet, a copyright clearing house) was set up in 2021. Its members are six providers (Telekom, Vodafone, Telefónica with its O2 brand, 1&1, Deutsche Glasfaser and freenet) and rights holders such as Sky, DAZN and the football league DFL. Since July 2025 a new site is blocked only after a court orders one member to block it; all members then block it too. An expert examiner appointed by the CUII adds further domains and copies of an already blocked site, without a new court case.
Sources: heise online, 16 July 2025 · CUII, members and FAQ, checked 11 November 2026 · CUII Code of Conduct 2.0, 23 June 2025
CUII blocks happen only in the provider's DNS: its address book stops giving out the server address for a blocked name. Other sites on the same server or CDN (a shared network serving many sites from the same addresses) keep working. Spain is different: there, blocks of IP addresses (numeric server addresses) during football broadcasts have cut off many unrelated sites (see collateral blocking in Europe).
Sources: CUII Code of Conduct 2.0, 23 June 2025 · OONI, 30 June 2026
Blocked visitors may not see a notice page at all. The CUII says they see its notice page or their provider's, and its own page had about 50 million visitors in 2024. But the providers' DNS answers have changed more than once. In February 2025, netzpolitik.org reported that Telekom, Vodafone and 1&1 had switched in 2024 to answering that a blocked domain does not exist. In our own measurements in November 2026, Telekom, O2, most Vodafone lines and Deutsche Glasfaser sent visitors to a notice server, while 1&1 and Vodafone's former Kabel Deutschland network answered that the domain does not exist. Because almost every site uses https (encrypted connections), a visitor sent to a notice server usually sees a browser security error, not the notice. Either way, it looks like a broken site, not a block.
Sources: CUII, FAQ, checked 11 November 2026 · heise online, 16 July 2025 · netzpolitik.org, 26 February 2025
Can a CUII block hit a site that is not a pirate site?
Yes, through old domains and mistakes. On 23 August 2024, 41 of 122 CUII-blocked domains no longer worked or forwarded visitors to sites that were not blocked, according to cuiiliste.de, an unofficial list run mainly by one young developer. One of them, burningseries.tw, had shown only a "Buy this Domain" banner since at least July 2023. Providers lifted 39 of them within a month, though O2 still blocked seven. The CUII's rules of June 2025 say a block should end when a domain is empty, only for sale, no longer carries the pirate content, or forwards to a site with other content. In June 2026 netzpolitik.org reported a block on stikeout.im, a domain that never existed, probably a typo for strikeout.im. If you buy a used domain, check first whether it was ever blocked in Germany.
Sources: netzpolitik.org, 12 September 2024 · cuiiliste.de, about, checked 11 November 2026 · netzpolitik.org, 23 September 2024 · CUII Code of Conduct 2.0, 23 June 2025 · netzpolitik.org, 23 June 2026
Do German providers also block sites on their own?
Yes. Telekom says its Malware Protection blocked 21,105,901 domains and 2,193 IP addresses used for malware or phishing in 2025, protecting 684,590 customers. O2 sells Onlineschutz, a filter in its network that compares each address a customer opens with a list of known scam and malware sites. If the address is listed, the customer sees a warning page instead of the site. O2 says more than 1 million customers use Onlineschutz (as of June 2026). It works only on O2's own connections, not on other Wi-Fi. Vodafone says its Secure Net+ blocks harmful websites on a customer's home line. It can no longer be booked, but existing customers keep it. If O2's or Vodafone's filter wrongly lists your site, only customers who use it lose access, so you may not see the problem from another line.
Sources: Deutsche Telekom, Transparency Report 2025 · O2, Onlineschutz · Vodafone, help: security; all checked 11 November 2026
Who else can make providers block a site?
- Media regulators. German state media authorities can order blocks under youth-protection law. In April 2024 North Rhine-Westphalia's media authority ordered a large provider to block Pornhub and YouPorn. In October 2026 the state's higher administrative court put those orders on hold. It found such orders probably break EU law for platforms based elsewhere in the EU, since the EU's Digital Services Act now governs youth protection. As of 11 November 2026, the full court cases had not been decided.Source: OVG NRW, 9 October 2026
- Gambling. In March 2025 the states' joint gambling authority, GGL, said it had not gone after internet providers since a 2022 court ruling. It had stepped up action against hosting companies instead, and counted about 930 domains blocked or no longer reachable. On 19 March 2025 the Federal Administrative Court ruled that under the states' 2021 gambling treaty, internet providers can in practice almost never be made to block gambling sites. In March 2026 the states signed a treaty change that would let the gambling authority order internet providers, too, to block illegal gambling offers. It takes effect only after every state has ratified it.
How do I check the CUII lists and complain about a wrong block?
For the CUII, cuii.info names the sites blocked after 13 court orders and 29 recommendations of its review committee, made until June 2025 (as of November 2026). The full list of blocked domains is not officially published, so also search cuiiliste.de. OONI Explorer publishes tests run by OONI Probe app users, so it covers only addresses someone has tested. To see one provider's results, filter by its network number: Telekom is AS3320, Vodafone AS3209, and O2 AS6805 and AS12638. If a CUII block hits your domain by mistake, complain to the CUII. Its rules say it passes such complaints on to its members, and that site owners, internet users and others can also go to court. For a filter, ask the provider whose filter blocks you.
Sources: CUII, court orders, checked 11 November 2026 · heise online, 16 July 2025 · OONI, Explorer guide, updated 15 March 2023 · PeeringDB: AS3320, AS3209, AS6805, AS12638, checked 11 November 2026 · CUII Code of Conduct 2.0, 23 June 2025
What does linkspect measure in Germany?
We open your URL through Telekom, Vodafone and O2 home broadband and mobile connections, the way their customers would. Each answer says whether the page opened and, if not, what stopped it, and says so when we are not sure: on mobile networks, for example, we cannot ask the provider's DNS server directly, so a DNS block there is reported as "likely" at most. Vodafone's and O2's optional security filters are not measured yet, because we have not found test connections with them switched on. You can also include 1&1, Deutsche Glasfaser, EWE, NetCologne, PŸUR, wilhelm.tel and M-net in a check; when we have no suitable test connection there, that answer says "not measured" and is free.
Facts checked on 11 November 2026.