ETtoday

ETtoday Censorship in China and North Korea: Technical Methods and Workarounds

What ETtoday Is

ETtoday is a Taiwanese news outlet launched in 2000 by the ETtoday News Cloud group. The service operates as a general-interest news platform covering politics, business, entertainment, and social affairs with primary focus on Taiwan and broader Asia-Pacific coverage. ETtoday maintains significant daily readership across Taiwan and diaspora communities, positioning itself as a mainstream digital news source competing with legacy outlets.

Why It's Censored

ETtoday faces hard blocks in two distinct censorship environments for different reasons.

In mainland China, ETtoday is restricted under the broader framework of Taiwan media suppression. The Chinese government, via the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), treats independent Taiwanese news sources as threats to narrative control on cross-strait issues. ETtoday's coverage of Taiwan independence movements, Hong Kong pro-democracy activism, and Uyghur rights directly contradicts official CCP positions. While China does not formally publish a blocked-sites list, ETtoday joins hundreds of Taiwanese and international outlets filtered through the Great Firewall apparatus. The blocking intensified after 2016 when Taiwan elected Tsai Ing-wen, whose administration received critical coverage that Beijing sought to suppress from mainland audiences.

In North Korea, the restrictions stem from total information control under the regime's songun (military-first) policy. All foreign news is categorized as hostile propaganda. The regime operates a near-total internet blackout for general citizens; international sites including ETtoday are inaccessible to the tiny fraction with external connectivity. North Korea's blocking is less technical censorship and more absolute isolation—the country maintains no public internet infrastructure permitting access to foreign news sources.

Technical Blocking Methods

China employs multiple layered methods to block ETtoday, varying by geographic region and ISP:

DNS filtering represents the first barrier. When users query ettoday.net or associated subdomains, state-controlled DNS resolvers return no answer or redirect to null routes. This is the lowest-cost filtering layer managed at ISP level.

IP-based blocking complements DNS filtering. Chinese operators maintain blacklists of IP addresses hosting ETtoday infrastructure. Traffic destined for these IPs is dropped at backbone routers, preventing connection regardless of DNS resolution status.

Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) targets encrypted traffic. The Great Firewall monitors HTTPS handshakes and SSL/TLS metadata (Server Name Indication) to identify connections to ETtoday's domain, even when users attempt to bypass DNS filtering. This method catches users who employ alternative DNS providers or direct-IP access attempts.

North Korea's blocking is less documented in technical detail because the country's internet operates as a closed national intranet (Kwangmyong). The handful of international gateway connections are controlled by state security apparatus, making all foreign content access a matter of physical network policy rather than dynamic filtering.

User Workarounds

Users in mainland China attempting to access ETtoday typically employ circumvention tools that tunnel traffic through servers outside the Great Firewall. Encrypted tunnel protocols obscure destination IP addresses and domain names, defeating DPI filtering. Standard approaches include proxy services, point-to-point encrypted tunnels, and overlay networks designed specifically for censorship resistance.

Direct IP access without DNS queries provides marginal improvement but remains vulnerable to IP-based blocking. Switching to non-Chinese DNS providers offers no protection if DPI filtering is active, rendering DNS-level workarounds ineffective.

Alternatives

For users seeking Taiwan-focused news in censored regions, Apple Daily (Hong Kong edition, now archived online), Radio Taiwan International, and Voice of Taiwan offer similar coverage. Apple Daily itself faces blocking in mainland China since Beijing imposed the National Security Law in 2020. Radio Taiwan International operates via shortwave and internet, with mixed accessibility depending on blocking patterns.

Outlook

Censorship of ETtoday shows no signs of easing. China's regulatory environment has tightened since 2021, with the CAC expanding enforcement against "illegal" foreign news platforms. Taiwan media faces increasingly hostile treatment as cross-strait tensions rise. North Korea's isolation remains absolute. Users seeking unrestricted access should expect persistent, evolving technical barriers.