Much of our day to day is now spent consuming various forms of online content through social media or video streaming sites, but many of us don’t look much past many of the restrictions or walls that we may run into whilst trying to enjoy many of these content choice – so where are you most likely to find blocked content and what’s the best way to access it?
Streamed content – The biggest category that this fits is likely within movie or TV show streaming through platforms such as Netflix or Disney+, and particularly in the case with Netflix there has been a shift over recent years to add region locks to certain shows and movies – the solution to this problem has often been within VPN to spoof your location in order to access what wouldn’t ordinarily be available to you, but it does seem like this practice may be on the way out with the introduction of services like Disney+, as it seems they’re on the path to wide scale releases of their content without region locks. Similarly, live streaming has also become extremely popular through Twitch, Youtube Live and Facebook gaming, but with the different sites requiring different access and the addition of different regions such as China also having different sites, it can be difficult to keep on top of which streamer is where – but you’re in luck here too, with the recent release and close of Mixer, there have been some extensions developed to allow you to watch your favourite streamer on a single platform with a little trickery, whilst not always the easiest or best, it does bring everything under one hat if you can invest the time.
(Image from macinfo.us)
Mobile gaming – The fastest rising gaming platform in the world has been on our mobile devices as many of the barriers of entry are removed – no additional cost for devices, no additional cost for games, and this has led to a huge surge in the audience playing the games. But there are many restrictions here too, one recently has been seen in the rising popularity for online gambling as a growing number of online casinos have captured a huge audience during the pandemic – at the same time changes have been made to initiatives such as Gamstop aimed at reducing participation options on sites, but as operators look to offer alternatives for players a growing number of sites, such as many here have become available providing a safe alternative to the growing number of blocked services to many.
In the growing world of restriction and regulation online, understanding how to work around the blocks put in place and accessing content you should have as a baseline may make your experience of using your favourite sites and apps much better – although there are some efforts to prevent these restrictions on some services that are many that will continue to enforce these likely because of licensing, just know that there are ways to watch or play what you want, when you want!
