This morning we had a dozen emails and half a dozen tweets sharing the error:
This site can’t be reached
www.jihadwatch.org’s server IP address could not be found.
DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN
The first I knew that something was up was yesterday afternoon on this post over at VladTepesBlog. And we might have seen it coming after CNN and the New York Times both defamed Jihad Watch in the space of 48 hours. We do get the occasional email from someone who can’t get to the site. Sometimes it’s just some transient technical error, and sometimes it’s us intentionally blocking them because they have malware or a bad reputation for malicious activity. We subscribe to Alienvault, and we can correct that if needed.
But this was different.
This NXDOMAIN error is very specific. It means that a DNS A record could not be found. A DNS A record is how a site — in this case www.jihadwatch.org — is found on the Internet; it is similar to how a post/zip code is how your address is found, or a phone number finds you on a phone. But it should be impossible that Jihad Watch’s DNS A record could not be found: Jihad Watch uses a cluster of enterprise DNS servers, and there were no alerts of failures. So it looks as of these widespread failures of people to reach the site is a result of an expansion of the censorship we saw a couple of years ago.
There are a couple of workarounds to these censorship methods: changing the default DNS servers your ISP/mobile operator provides, invest in a VPN, which is a better long-term solution.
Of course, when they censor us, there is no public announcement and no discernible pattern. Many people will blame the management of the site, not realizing that our harmless little site could be such a threat to the elites, and so heavily censored.
The reports today that people couldn’t get to the site have been coming primarily from Europe and Israel. The only ISP we could identify was Virgin Media, but it does not appear to be limited to them.
Searching around, I found this new report from today at blocked.org.uk:
There seems to be a newly added block by “EE.” “EE” is a collective of “Mobile operators turn filters on by default. They can be relatively hard to disable. They use BBFC guidelines, which exclude Suicide and self-harm promotion; Discriminatory language; Promotion, glamorisation or encouragement of drug use; Repeated / aggressive use of ‘cunt’; Sex works; Fetish material; Adult Sex education and advice; Violence and Horror. Sites blocked are subject to an appeals process at BBFC, after complaints to the mobile company.”
So Jihad Watch is being classed as anything but the usual false charge of “hate speech.” Our postings and moderation of comments would never allow us to fall into any of these categories, so this block has been added by someone’s decision. So where did this “EE” come from? You can read more on that here: https://www.internetmatters.org/. All this censorship is carried out under this Orwellian and misleading banner:
“Helping parents keep their children safe online”
It is unlikely to be a coincidence that this blocking has come days after multiple popular news outlets smeared us.
This site is under continuous attack. The significant ddos and attempted hack attacks have not let up for a second in years now. There are also escalating Attacks by Twitter and Facebook, Google and fake news monitoring organisations such as NewsGuard.


Truth says
Censorship is the act of a coward.
DHazard says
“The worst form of snobbery is to deny information; to anyone at all. Always remember that. Bas as it is to look down on another human being: to act as censor? Unforgivable.”
― Matthew Blakstad, Sockpuppet
revereridesagain says
Reminds me of the Mark Twain quote I have on my car’s anti-censorship sticker: “Censorship is denying a steak to a man because a baby can’t chew it.”
Robert, does subscribing to JihadWatch and getting each post via email circumvent the system or do they shut that down as well? If I ever pull up Outlook and there are no JW posts I’ll know what’s happening?
Lydia Church says
When the Jihad Watch website can’t be reached or these sites have been blocked or shut down…. that IS the news! We will know what stage we are in by then.
I’m sort of surprised about this happening in Israel, of all places.
James C. says
If JW is blocked, posts can be received from it, but clicking on the articles in the posts to “read more” brings up an error dialogue, and no “more” to “read”.
gravenimage says
I’m not sure if Israel mostly has her own networks, or if she largely gets internet access from European companies. Any Israelis here who would know?
Lydia Church says
This message:
This site can’t be reached
http://www.jihadwatch.org’s server IP address could not be found.
DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN
will unfortunately be the fate all all truth dispensing sites in the coming Orwellian global tyranny.
NOW is the time to start thinking about that situation.
Don’t be caught off guard because it is around the corner.
It does not take a connect the dots genius to figure all of this stuff out if anyone is paying attention.
The thing is, once freedom of speech is ‘banned,’ they start moving fast.
That is sort of like the last bastion. Once the nazi’s had that power and control, they could move forward quickly. Now in this case, they may be able to ‘shut down’ free speech on the internet, but they will not be able to silence people like us in the public square. Again, of course some will be pressured into submission, just as always has been the case when tyrannies arose.
Don’t wait until that message appears. Think about it now.
What is the best way to combat this now? Or later?
Some of us will go silently into the night of persecution in the sense that we are not going to ‘fight back’ because that’s not what Jesus told us to do (like me). Others will have their ammo ready. Some will wage their crusades and fight on many fronts in this battle. Jesus said to carry a sword. He also said not to strike those who came to arrest Him on His night of betrayal. There is a time to fight and a time to lay our lives down as martyrs, a time to turn the other cheek as the Amish, and go to face the lions of the Coliseum as the brave early Christians have done in droves. There are things to do before that too, of course. But what you should do and when, I cannot tell you, other than the options. If you follow Jesus, like I do, you will know what to do in that moment because only He can tell you at that time what it is you should do. Just like it says, they will bring us before courts and we should not decide beforehand what to say, because it will be given to us by God what to say in that moment in time.
But some things are good to think about now so that you are somewhat prepared.
Heads up in advance: There were a total of zero jokes in this comment body. Just FYI.
CRUSADER says
Next time I’m in Israel, I’d love a chance to speak to those who think it wise to clamp down on JW,
not Jehovah’s Witnesses, but Jihad Watch….
Yohanan says
How long was it blocked in Israel? JW is accessible here in Israel now. Someone with hand near a cutoff switch must have read the title of the site, Jihad Watch, as anti-Israel and blindly followed some European line. So much for our bureaucracies.
Bazz12 says
It would be possible to get the text out of the site by using a radio
data system. I am not referring to WiFi here but a real radio data system that could send the text to another site anywhere in the world.
Ask around you will find them.
smoris says
There is nothing noble or particularly “Christian” in giving oneself up to tyranny. This is a cover for cowardice in most cases. And it does NO GOOD. This is what those who would enslave us want – for people to give themselves up and “turn the other cheek”. You keep that. I want no part of it, nor should any American.
gravenimage says
Agreed, smoris!
ninetyninepct says
Trudeau censors Canadians. What does that tell us?
Brenda L Smith says
FYI: I also was unable to access the site this morning from Togo, West Africa.
gravenimage says
Scary, Brenda.
CRUSADER says
So, how goes it this morning, Brenda?
Brenda L Smith says
No problem last night or today.
gravenimage says
Good.
MJTECH says
It’s worth noting a very popular U.S. tech site DSLReports.com will moderate, delete posts and ban repeat offenders who mention or link to information from Jihad Watch.
The owner of the site Justin Beach has gone so far as to hide form public view and new members the “Red Room” a conservative sub forum of the site calming the election of President Trump would create a national crisis and he didn’t want to e part of it.
It’s worth noting, Justin left America and moved to Australia to escape what he calls the imperialism of the U.S.
marc says
I didn’t know that, I’ve used DSLReports.com myself to check up on ISPs, unrelated to my work here, so thank you.
Obviously we’re not allowed to complain about the censorship, that itself is censored.
revereridesagain says
Australia is full of venomous snakes and funnel spiders and other stealthy, deadly animals, they just don’t call them “progressives” or “dhimmis” or “CAIR officials” there. I think it’s nice that Justin will be learning about that himself, hopefully via experience.
somehistory says
I was booted out by an “error” message yesterday, but was able to get back in by going to my bookmark list. The “error” said the site couldn’t be reached…after I had been on the site for a little while, reading comments and articles. It may have just been a glitch, but I didn’t discount the idea that it could be someone trying to prevent my access from continuing.
revereridesagain says
That’s interesting — I have JW bookmarked as well, but haven’t had reason to test that out yet.
somehistory says
revereridesagain
I haven’t seen a page like what appeared before yesterday. It had a bunch of little boxes with words and numbers too small for my eyesight and, at first, i thought I had just somehow scrolled down too far. It was weird. I tried going back to the page I had been reading, but the same message came up, so I closed the tab.
I’m glad the bookmark worked. .
gravenimage says
More censorship: extensive new blocks of Jihad Watch by Internet providers in Europe and Israel
………………………………
Deeply disturbing–and Europe and Israel are supposed to be the heart of freedom of speech.
And claiming that preventing people from accessing the very civilized Jihad Watch is “Helping parents keep their children safe online” could not be more grotesque–as if preventing people from opposing a creed that allows for child rape and “marriage” is keeping children safe. *Ugh*.
revereridesagain says
They don’t want the kids reading any Quran/Hadith quotes promoting child marriage because if little Aisha in their class — the 9-year-old in hijab — goes to “visit relatives” back in Afghanistan and never returns they might start to wonder if one of the “relatives” was a male first cousin. Awkward questions might result.
jule says
There is talk from EU/UN to widespread censorship and I wonder how it will pass & affect us.
Stinkhorn says
I’m in UK, with BT as my provider, and had this block yesterday through to today. Tried work internet access, and the same. Did try the “Blocked” website this morning, but it came up with no information. And then, from early evening onwards, access as normal. Seems odd to block and then unblock – could this be a trial run, monitored to see what volume of tries are attempted?
marc says
please keep this handy as I have simple bypass methods listed here https://freespeechdefense.net/2019/06/more-censorship-extensive-new-blocks-of-jihad-watch-by-internet-providers-in-europe-and-israel/
gravenimage says
Thank you, Marc.
t. says
Thanks,Marc.
James C. says
Looks useful. Thanks 🙂
overman says
Same here. l had to use a proxy to get through.
Tonight it’s alright.
juleonly says
Brexit fast! EU/UN is becoming dangerous.
DHazard says
As of the afternoon of June 27 I have had no problems accessing Jihad Watch from California.
If Google is in fact proactively censoring and shutting down users based on their opinions, especially popular longstanding websites and users, then we have a first amendment showdown coming our way. That is unless voters swing to the left. The outcome of Marxist style leftism, when first voted into full governmental dominance by unsuspecting voters, is currently on view: Venezuela. In my home state of California the impossibility of promising everything to the poor, disabled and victimized, and still have an affordable cost of living is growing every day. The voters here are so brainwashed that they even agreed to increasing auto registration, license and gas tax rate increases. Who gets hurt the most by this tax? The Democrats “beloved” poor people.
Not to mention the fact that the backlash will ensure a Trump 2020 win. They will always cut off their noses to spite their faces.
Angemon says
Ah, so that’s what happened. I found it odd that, for roughly 24 hours, I could only access JW via VPN, whether I was using my home network or my mobile data. The oddest part was that “down for everyone or just me” reported JW as being “down” when using those networks but “up” when using a VPN.
marc says
whos your ISP? and yes, the days are getting closer where a VPN is essential, I advocate for them heavily, along with a password manager as being essential these days
marc says
thank you for the PM with your ISP, that’s a new one, will need to see if they are connected to the others
gravenimage says
Sorry–I’m not that tech savvy–what is a VPN?
marc says
this is a nice vendor neutral explanation
https://www.whatismyip.com/what-is-a-vpn/
personally I use https://airvpn.org/ but for “noobs” i will recommend https://www.f-secure.com/en/home/products/freedome as they have some good support with Air lacks
gravenimage says
I appreciate the link, Marc. Thanks.
marc says
you can reach out anytime for help
CRUSADER says
Anything for GravenImage — such a stalwart!
gravenimage says
Thank you, Marc and CRUSADER. I am no luddite–I appreciate tech greatly–it is just not my forte.
D J says
Hi Marc
Good to see you are back. It was my message on the Vlad Tepes site.
I am glad it was some help.
Interesting that it seems to be an EE filter. My phone is on an EE account. Hope that is helpful as a little piece of the censorship jigsaw.
Just checked in again after work to see what was happening.
I am not great as a techie but am slowly learning.
KBO!
marc says
Thank you so much, as much detail as possible is so helpful, most of the blocks seem to have been removed today now, only Virgin seems to stubbornly persist.
I’d never heard of EE today, I’d say switch, but they are all at it.
CRUSADER says
TechControl / SkyNet….remember from “Terminator” ?
————————————————————————
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church says the data-gathering capacity of devices such as smartphones risks bringing humanity closer to the arrival of the Antichrist.
In an interview shown on state TV, Patriarch Kirill said the church does not oppose technological progress but is concerned that “someone can know exactly where you are, know exactly what you are interested in, know exactly what you are afraid of” and that such information could be used for centralized control of the world.
“Control from one point is a foreshadowing of the coming of Antichrist, if we talk about the Christian view. Antichrist is the person who will be at the head of the world wide web that controls the entire human race,” he said.
—————————————————————-
gravenimage says
Unfortunately, Patriarch Kirill also castigates the West for not allowing in more ravening Muslims.
And tech is a mixed bag–it also allows the existence of sites like Jihad Watch, which warn about the Jihad threat.
Wellington says
Krill, gravenimage, is about as awful as Putin. He has less power certainly but this does not diminish his “awfulness.”
juleonly says
Shia has been telling the Russian Orthodox that they are part of the winning team with them for Allah.
gravenimage says
Grimly true, juleonly.
CRUSADER says
Can’t be shooting the messenger for this, as it is a viable warning signal.
Neither do we want to be selling our souls for either scenario:
Tech run amok over us…
Muslims overrunning us…
CRUSADER says
Very easy to lose our humanity and connection to spirit
via both/either scenarios….
gravenimage says
Like so many other things, tech is a tool. It can be used, overused, or misused.
Wellington says
Yes, I too got a “this site can’t be reached” notification today. Fortunately it didn’t last long (kudos to Marc for this).
Islam is evil and has free rein while the truth about Islam is censored often times.
Lesson to be learned: Man never learns. It’s the same old same old again and again, to wit, defeat Nazism and then comes Communism, defeat Communism and then comes the longest-lived totalitarian ideology of all time, Islam, portraying itself as something good—and foolish dhimmis aplenty buy this.
As I said, man never learns. And the price for this monumental stupidity is enormous. Actually, beyond calculation.
Anjuli Pandavar says
Thank you for keeping us informed, Marc. The block has hit me, too, in Europe. To get to JW, I’m now having to do as I’ve had to do in China: keep one step ahead of the DNS poisoners. The future is coming!
If they’re determined to shut us down, then it doesn’t matter how restrained we are in what we say. I take the view (something to do with being an ex-Muslim and Islam saying I must be killed for that fact alone) that if they do manage to shut us down, we’ll regret what we haven’t said, because saying it would’ve made no difference at all to what was going to happen anyway.
I’m grateful to all the people, especially Robert, who so tirelessly keep this little island of sanity afloat. JW clearly punches well above its weight and those punches land hard. We’ve just seen more proof of that.
Norger says
Yes, Spencer punches well above his weight. His detractors have learned through experience that they cannot actually engage in debate or even discussion with him (without losing any substantive argument ). Being incapable of refuting the substance of virtually anything Spencer says, his opponents resort to smearing and name-calling (“don’t listen to Richard/Robert Spencer, he’s a notorious ‘Islamophobe, banned from the UK”) and if that doesn’t work, they do everything they can to deprive him of a forum, whether “on line” or in person.It’s cowardly and disgusting.
gravenimage says
So true, Norger.
CRUSADER says
And apparently he’s a modern day “nazi”
and “white supremacist” and “islamophobe” !!!
‘Heavens to Murgatroyd’
Goodness gracious!
😉
TKF says
Seems you are a threat to someone…I wonder who? Linkum!
James C. says
To some CAIRing person, no doubt……
Un United kingdom says
I’m in the UK and we’re blocked from reading jihadwatch.
I’m using the 1.1.1.1 app spread the word
marc says
1.1.1.1 is a great initiative, as it comes with as an app https://1.1.1.1/dns/
https://use.opendns.com/ which I often advocate for has instructions to install on anything, you could use those instructions and use 1.1.1.1
both of these were initially developed for use by dissidents in places like China and Iran, who ever thought I’d be touting them to the English a few years later.
James C. says
Installed. Thanks to both of you for suggesting 1.1.1.1 🙂
Bella says
That’s just for phones right?
marc says
No @Bella, it can be used on anything where you can change the dns servers, https://use.opendns.com/ shows you how to change most, you can use 1.1.1.1 instead of these IPs, actually I do, but opendns has the best instructions which is why i share them.
James Lincoln says
I may sound old-fashioned, but I think that Jihad Watch should also consider putting out a weekly newsletter – mailed out to paid subscribers through the Postal Service.
The articles could be condensed – and the subscription rates affordable.
Comments from subscribers could be mailed back – and the best comments could find their way into the following week’s newsletter. Maybe have a word limit.
Jihad Watch HAS to survive in some form…
revereridesagain says
Email subscriber list? Please tell me they can’t censor email yet.
David M says
I used to put the word “jihad” into google & it would give me the “jihad watch” in a list of options after that. Now “jihad watch” doesn’t come up, I have to put it in manually.
revereridesagain says
Try “Jihad” + “kafir” or “kuffar”. That has worked for me in the past, though possibly not on Google.
James C. says
I got to JW by clicking its address, on DuckDuckGo. Those first two searches brought plenty of stuff up, but not JW.
CRUSADER says
“inappropriate and offensive” to some audiences:
Reziac says
Just as a for-the-record, I have not noticed any issues here in the wilds of Montana.
ISP CenturyLink, DNS server Google.
I’d not heard of the 1.1.1.1 initiative, but that looks like a good alternative.
I’ve used OpenDNS, but frankly the response time is often too slow.
marc says
1.1.1.1 is faster than opendns, opendns have been doing this for over 10 years, cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 is fairly new, maybe it’s just number of users and popularity. both great free services.
IanB says
Here in the UK my internet provider is Virgin Media and also my mobile (cell) phone contract is with Virgin Media through EE. American VWs may not realise the business connection between Virgin Media and EE.
I have had no difficulty in reaching Jihadwatch through my smart phone, desktop computer or Kindle Fire. Yet. Apparently.
Robert Spencer has some people very rattled indeed which is very good news. Keep it up Robert and all at JW.
roger standen says
I tried to contact Robert at his email address director@jihadwatch.org and even that was sent back as undeliverable. The account I sent it from is the same ISP I use.
Harry Again says
I am in the UK on bt internet.
Jihadwatch was blocked for me too.
Even emails sent to jihadwatch “bounced”.
marc says
but back now? which ISP?
James C. says
This UK poster got back here by pressing a link in a digest post from JW – if that helps to answer the question at all. I’m using either Safari or DuckDuckGo. At least one go post to JW on FBook, but not (AFAIK) to the site itself.
marc says
can you let me know which ISP you are using
James C. says
My ISP is “Public Internet Service also known as ‘British Telecommunications PLC” – according to whoismyisp.org – so, some version of BT.
marc says
Thanks, they have been blocking us for years, you must have the child safety feature disabled.
InfidelLover says
Can we have the IP4 address of JihadWatch?
Entering it direct is a pain but it bypasses DNS lookup (DNS lookup translates a www address to equivalent IP4 address, so if this is nobbled, it does not matter)
Thanks
marc says
no, the firewall will not allow that, changing your dns servers such as https://use.opendns.com/ will fix this if you are affected by this sort of censorship
Cotrim says
ping jihadwatch.org
PING jihadwatch.org (192.124.249.53): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.124.249.53: icmp_seq=0 ttl=53 time=97.927 ms
64 bytes from 192.124.249.53: icmp_seq=1 ttl=53 time=41.340 ms
Nemeth says
Couldn’t access the site for a couple of days from the UK but seems ok now. Tried a few browsers in case it was a Chrome issue given the recent revelations about Google’s meddling by James O’Keefe. Got the same DNS message on them all.
Paul says
Here in Barcelona, the site was unavailable for about 2 days. Thought it was a DDS, so I didn’t think to use TOR. This is indeed very worrisome.
marc says
can you let me know which ISP your using?
Paul says
Orange for mobile and Jazztel for fixed
James C says
Got through to the site at c. 14.40 on Friday June 28. So far, it seems to be inaccessible from FBook.
Jan Disher says
Thankfully, still available in Canada.
Frank S says
EVERYONE SHOULD USE A PAID VPN ON ALL THEIR DEVICES.
marc says
I don’t normally approve comments typed in all caps, but this is an exception.
EVERYONE SHOULD USE A PAID VPN ON ALL THEIR DEVICES
AND USE A PASSWORD MANAGER
UNCLE VLADDI says
This is a coordinated leftist attack – similar shenanigans abounded across the Internet today!
Tom Cox says
The feeling I had when I saw a courageous jihadi with his knife at the throat of a non-believer, that is on his knees with his hands zip tied behind his back. That is the courage of the ultimate coward. That is the same feeling I had reading the above piece. This crowd likes to have you on your knees with your hands zip tied behind your back, they then can express their courage. In a fair fight they they never fight.
CRUSADER says
VPN, virtual private network extends a private network across a public network, and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network.
Green Infidel says
EE is a joint venture between Orange (France Telecom) and T-Mobile (Deutsche Telekom). As such, it is (as I understand) Britain’s biggest mobile network provider.