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Unblock The Guardian, from the front page to a 2013 story

When The Guardian will not open, the block sits on the network in front of you rather than on the paper’s side. TrickyBird opens it from a browser tab: paste the address, press Launch, and the site loads in the same tab through TrickyBird’s own address, with nothing to install and no account to create.

Most of these blocks are not aimed at The Guardian in particular. News and media is one of the categories a content filter can switch off in a single setting, and when a network does switch it off, every outlet in the category goes with it. In mainland China the block is national rather than a setting on one network: GreatFire’s page for theguardian.com reads “It’s blocked”, with 100% of the last 88 conclusive tests failing in mainland China, and it records interference with the site since 30 March 2025.

A Guardian page is words and photographs, and a proxy that carries only the words leaves you reading around blank rectangles. Both halves arrive here, on the front page and inside a story, including one we pulled up from 2013. We read all of it on a desktop.

What to expect from The Guardian

The words and the photographs arrive together, on the front page and inside a story, and a piece from 2013 still opens at its old address. We read it on a desktop.

Is theguardian.com blocked on your network?

The check asks theguardian.com for one small file directly from your connection, not through TrickyBird, so your network can see that request like any direct visit.

One of our addresses, with the site’s encoded into it

The site loads in the tab you are already in, and this address will not always look the same, since sometimes it is only numbers.

How does TrickyBird open The Guardian?

Your browser talks to TrickyBird, and TrickyBird goes to The Guardian for you. Every headline link, photograph, and background request in the page it sends back points at TrickyBird rather than at theguardian.com, and a small script stays in the tab to catch what loads as you move from the front page into a story. Your browser does not connect to theguardian.com: the address it works from is one of ours, with the Guardian address carried inside, encoded rather than spelled out.

A Guardian page is assembled from 2 places: the words come from theguardian.com and the photographs come from a picture host of the paper’s own. A proxy that follows only the address you typed leaves you reading around empty frames. Through TrickyBird the pictures arrive with the words, so the page looks the way it looks anywhere else.

On the network that is actually blocking the paper, that split is what decides whether you can read anything. Both halves come through TrickyBird, so nothing in the page reaches back out to an address the filter would stop.

What can you read on The Guardian through TrickyBird?

Whatever The Guardian shows a reader who is not signed in, which is nearly all of it. The paper publishes free to read, funded by reader support, so the front page, the sections, and individual stories with their photographs are all there. The archive holds up as well: the oldest piece we opened was the June 2013 report on the NSA and Verizon phone records, and it came through with its text and its pictures intact.

Nothing installs on your side and TrickyBird has no sign-up, so a managed work laptop that refuses new software still opens the site. TrickyBird is a web proxy, which opens 1 site in a browser tab where a VPN reroutes the whole device, and that is why it works on a machine you are not allowed to change. The other news sites our tests cover have pages of their own: BBC, DW, and Al Jazeera.

TrickyBird is for reaching a public site your network blocks, and for keeping your IP address away from that site. It is not a way past paywalls or copyright.

Is your Guardian reading private through TrickyBird?

The Guardian sees TrickyBird’s server rather than your IP address. The network you are on sees a connection to TrickyBird and no request for theguardian.com, because your browser does not go there: that address rides inside one of ours, encoded rather than spelled out.

On our side, the edge keeps a short access log to run the service and stop abuse: a shortened form of your IP address, the hostname of the site you connected to, and basic response details, kept for at most 48 hours. Which stories you opened is not recorded, and there is no TrickyBird account for any of it to attach to. Our privacy page has the full picture.

Questions

Do older Guardian articles open, or only today’s news?

They open. Guardian stories keep their original address for years, so we picked an old one and opened it ourselves: the June 2013 report on the NSA and Verizon phone records. It came through TrickyBird with its text, its photographs and its links in place, reading the same as it does on a direct visit.

Do I need a Guardian account to read?

No. The Guardian is free to read, funded by reader support, so whatever it shows a reader who is not signed in is what arrives through TrickyBird. There is no TrickyBird sign-up either, so nothing between you and the story asks for an email or a card.

Do the photographs load, or only the text?

They load. Guardian photographs come from a separate picture host rather than from theguardian.com, and that split is where a proxy usually drops them, leaving you the words and blank rectangles where the pictures should be. In our own checks they arrive together: on the international front page, in the World section, and in the article we opened.

Is The Guardian blocked in mainland China?

Yes, by the measurement we can point to. GreatFire tests the site from inside mainland China, and 100% of the last 88 conclusive tests failed there; its page for theguardian.com reads “It’s blocked” and records interference since 30 March 2025. Those tests are country-level, so it is not something a different Wi-Fi network in the country fixes.

Does it work on a device you cannot install anything on?

Yes. TrickyBird is a website, so it runs in the browser tab you already have, with no download and no admin rights to ask for. The usual advice for a blocked site is to install an app, and that is the one step a managed work laptop refuses.

Is opening The Guardian through TrickyBird legal?

This is general information, not legal advice. Reaching a public news site is usually a question of your network’s or your employer’s rules rather than the law, and those rules differ by place. Mainland China, where The Guardian is blocked nationally, is a different situation from a filter at the office. Check the policy you are under, and do not use TrickyBird for piracy or to get past paywalls.

Other sites people unblock

Open The Guardian now

Press the button and the site opens in this tab. You do not need to install anything or create an account.