ytdl-org/youtube-dl · error · ExtractorError

Access to this webpage has been blocked by Indian censorship

Error message

Access to this webpage has been blocked by Indian censorship. Use a VPN or proxy server (with --proxy) to route around it.

What it means

Error "Access to this webpage has been blocked by Indian censorship. Use a VPN or proxy server (with --proxy) to route around it." thrown in ytdl-org/youtube-dl.

Source

Thrown at youtube_dl/extractor/common.py:759

        if ('<title>Access to this site is blocked</title>' in content
                and 'Websense' in first_block):
            msg = 'Access to this webpage has been blocked by Websense filtering software in your network.'
            blocked_iframe = self._html_search_regex(
                r'<iframe src="([^"]+)"', content,
                'Websense information URL', default=None)
            if blocked_iframe:
                msg += ' Visit %s for more details' % blocked_iframe
            raise ExtractorError(msg, expected=True)
        if '<title>The URL you requested has been blocked</title>' in first_block:
            msg = (
                'Access to this webpage has been blocked by Indian censorship. '
                'Use a VPN or proxy server (with --proxy) to route around it.')
            block_msg = self._html_search_regex(
                r'</h1><p>(.*?)</p>',
                content, 'block message', default=None)
            if block_msg:
                msg += ' (Message: "%s")' % block_msg.replace('\n', ' ')
            raise ExtractorError(msg, expected=True)
        if ('<title>TTK :: Доступ к ресурсу ограничен</title>' in content
                and 'blocklist.rkn.gov.ru' in content):
            raise ExtractorError(
                'Access to this webpage has been blocked by decision of the Russian government. '
                'Visit http://blocklist.rkn.gov.ru/ for a block reason.',
                expected=True)

    def _webpage_read_content(self, urlh, url_or_request, video_id, note=None, errnote=None, fatal=True, prefix=None, encoding=None):
        content_type = urlh.headers.get('Content-Type', '')
        webpage_bytes = urlh.read()
        if prefix is not None:
            webpage_bytes = prefix + webpage_bytes
        if not encoding:
            encoding = self._guess_encoding_from_content(content_type, webpage_bytes)
        if self.get_param('dump_intermediate_pages', False):
            self.to_screen('Dumping request to ' + urlh.geturl())
            dump = base64.b64encode(webpage_bytes).decode('ascii')
            self.to_screen(dump)

View on GitHub (pinned to 956b8c5855)

Solutions

1. Use a VPN or proxy server (with --proxy) to route around the block.

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at youtube_dl/extractor/common.py:759 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of ytdl-org/youtube-dl@956b8c5855 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/81b77cfb7b12940c. Report an issue: GitHub.