One Year After GDPR Came Into Force, Over Half of Us News Sites Are Still Blocked in Europe

One year after the European Union implemented its strict new data protection regime, US expats and travellers, along with European journalists, are among those in the EU being cut off from regional news sources in the USA, according to the new US News Access Index from Virtual Private Network (VPN) review service Top10VPN.com.

More than four in 10 (42%) US news sites, including regional titles like The Chicago Tribune, are still blocking European visitors to their sites – in addition, one in 10 (9%) US titles are offering a limited, inferior service to people accessing their sites.

In the most comprehensive study of its kind, Top10VPN.com tested whether US news sites were accessible to visitors from the EU or were blocking such traffic to avoid complying with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements. The 500+ sites tested represent news media from every US state and every level of relative significance, from hyperlocal news sources through to national brands.

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The findings revealed a significant disparity from state to state in the accessibility of regional US news to visitors from Europe. For example, Nebraska’s news sites are 90% blocked to visitors from Europe, in contrast with 80% of news sites based in California and Nevada that remain accessible and GDPR-compliant.

The full Access Index is below.

State	Blocked in the EU	Reduced content in the EU	Available in the EU
National	0%	8%	92%
Alabama	60%	10%	30%
Alaska	30%	0%	70%
Arizona	60%	10%	30%
Arkansas	30%	10%	60%
California	20%	0%	80%
Colorado	20%	10%	70%
Connecticut	20%	0%	80%
Delaware	10%	10%	80%
Florida	60%	10%	30%
Georgia	60%	0%	40%
Hawaii	10%	0%	90%
Idaho	60%	0%	40%
Illinois	60%	0%	40%
Indiana	50%	40%	10%
Iowa	80%	10%	10%
Kansas	80%	0%	20%
Kentucky	70%	10%	20%
Louisiana	30%	40%	30%
Maine	20%	0%	80%
Maryland	50%	0%	50%
Massachusetts	40%	0%	60%
Michigan	50%	20%	30%
Minnesota	30%	0%	70%
Mississippi	30%	20%	50%
Missouri	70%	10%	20%
Montana	60%	10%	30%
Nebraska	90%	0%	10%
Nevada	0%	10%	90%
New Hampshire	50%	0%	50%
New Jersey	20%	40%	40%
New Mexico	10%	40%	50%
New York	30%	0%	70%
North Carolina	50%	10%	40%
North Dakota	50%	0%	50%
Ohio	50%	10%	40%
Oklahoma	70%	0%	30%
Oregon	50%	10%	40%
Pennsylvania	30%	10%	60%
Rhode Island	20%	0%	80%
South Carolina	20%	10%	70%
South Dakota	60%	10%	30%
Tennessee	20%	30%	50%
Texas	30%	20%	50%
Utah	40%	0%	60%
Vermont	20%	20%	60%
Virginia	90%	0%	10%
Washington	20%	10%	70%
West Virginia	70%	0%	30%
Wisconsin	60%	20%	20%
Wyoming	70%	0%	30%

Simon Migliano, Head of Research at Top10VPN.com, says: “It’s understandable that many US regional news outlets have taken the view that there’s not enough upside from incurring the expense of complying with regulations imposed from across the Atlantic, and are simply avoiding the issue altogether by blocking visitors from the EU.

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“Whatever the benefits to EU citizens from GDPR, it surely can’t have been the intention of EU lawmakers to restrict the flow of important information like this. As a consequence, not only are US travellers and expats prevented from keeping up-to-date with their local news, but journalists and researchers are also unable to access these valuable and diverse sources of information.

“While it may be possible to sidestep these restrictions by using a VPN, this should not be necessary and discriminates against the less tech-savvy or those unable to pay for a good quality VPN service.”

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