Russia has blocked Proton Mail more than once, each time citing hoax bomb threats. In March 2019 the FSB, Russia's security service, ordered providers to block it, after accusing it and several other email providers of facilitating hoax threats that had caused mass evacuations of schools and public buildings; providers threw away traffic to Proton's mail servers (TechCrunch, 11 March 2019). On 29 January 2020 the government announced a block effective immediately. Proton said it had never received a request for help with the case and called the block disproportionate, unjustified and counterproductive (Proton, 31 January 2020). OONI's tests of mail.proton.me from 8 September to 8 October 2026 found signs of blocking in 802 of 922 tests in Russia, 297 of them a known block page.
China has published no reason. GreatFire.org, which tests access to foreign sites from inside China, has recorded mail.proton.me as blocked since 14 September 2023, with its last test in May 2026, and none of OONI's 45 tests in China in the latest month reached it cleanly.
Belarus blocked the addresses of Proton's servers on 15 November 2019, with local reports pointing to suspected criminal activity by a single user; Proton confirmed on 19 November that access was back. Turkey's providers stopped resolving Proton's domain in March 2018, starting with Vodafone Turkey, in what Proton confirmed was a government-ordered block; Proton updated its post on 20 March 2020 to say users in Turkey could reach it again.
OONI's latest tests of mail.proton.me were clean in almost every case in Belarus (60 of 62), Turkey (65 of 65) and Iran (171 of 173), and in all 5 tests from Saudi Arabia.
Understanding Internet Censorship
Internet censorship takes many forms, from state-level firewalls to corporate network restrictions. Organizations like Access Now's #KeepItOn coalition track internet shutdowns globally, while the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) provides open data on censorship around the world.
GhostShield uses standard WireGuard without an obfuscation layer. In countries that detect and block VPN traffic itself, such as China, Russia and Iran, connections can fail at times, and some school and office networks block VPN connections too.
Alternative methods to unblock ProtonMail
Proton has its own tools for this. Alternative routing, built into Proton's mobile and desktop apps, sends the app's connection through third-party infrastructure when Proton thinks you are being censored; Proton names companies such as Amazon, Cloudflare and Google among those networks. They can see your IP address and that you are connecting to Proton, but not your mail, which stays encrypted. It does not work for the website.
Proton also runs an onion site for Proton Mail at protonmailrmez3lotccipshtkleegetolb73fuirgj7r4o4vfu7ozyd.onion, which opens only in Tor Browser. Proton calls it experimental and warns that Tor is much slower than a normal connection. In Russia and China Tor itself is blocked, so you will need a bridge; our Tor guide explains how.
A VPN is the simplest option where it connects: the browser and the app both go through one encrypted tunnel to a server outside the country. When Russia blocked Proton in January 2020, Proton itself told users there to use its own VPN and connect to a server outside Russia. In China, reports since early 2022 describe the firewall detecting and blocking WireGuard, the protocol GhostShield uses, and GhostShield has no obfuscation, so keep alternative routing switched on in the app as a backup.
Is unblocking ProtonMail legal?
The Russian blocks were orders to internet providers, and the published reasons concerned bomb-threat emails sent by others, not the people reading their own mail. Whether you may use a VPN is a separate question; our Russia and China guides cover the VPN rules in each.
Learn more about internet censorship and privacy →