Byteful blocks some domains and some kinds of traffic to keep the network secure, prevent abuse, and stay compliant. As an IWF (Internet Watch Foundation) member, we also enforce some of their blocklists.
Blocked by Default
Some traffic is blocked by default because it carries a higher risk of abuse. If your use case requires it and you have a legitimate business reason, you can request access. We review requests case by case. AI inference access requires KYC verification. Direct IP access typically requires it too.
AI inference traffic carries a higher risk of abuse, such as foreign AI distillation attacks. We have not seen this activity on our network. This is a preemptive step to reduce compliance risk. Over 99.9% of traffic goes to other hostnames and is not affected. If you need access, send your request and complete KYC before 30 October 2026, so that access is in place before the change.
What We Restrict
- Government websites (
.gov, .mil and country-specific government domains)
- Banking, financial services and payment processors (banks, PayPal, Stripe, etc.)
- NSFW websites
- Mail services (national postal services)
- Select e-commerce platforms (case by case)
- Direct IP addresses and AI inference APIs (see above)
Our full blocklist contains over 6,000 items and grows every day. Many entries are entire top-level domains: blocking gov restricts millions of websites in one rule. The examples below are indicative, not exhaustive.
We do not publish or share our full blocklist. Keeping it private is a deliberate part of how we prevent fraud and abuse. To check whether a specific domain is accessible for a legitimate use case, contact [email protected].
Banking & Financial Institutions
What You See When a Domain Is Blocked
Requests to a restricted domain can fail with a connection failure, an access denied error, a timeout, or an HTTP 403 error. See Debugging and Error Codes for the meaning of each code.
Requesting Exceptions
If a legitimate business need requires access to a blocked domain, email [email protected] with the domain and your use case. We review each request case by case. We rarely grant exceptions for government, banking and financial domains.
Reporting Domains That Should Be Blocked
If you are affiliated with an organisation that should be shielded from proxy traffic, such as an operator of essential or public-interest services, email [email protected]. Include the domain, your connection to it, and why it needs protection. We may ask you to confirm your affiliation. We cannot restrict commercial websites only because they carry valuable public data.
See our Acceptable Usage Policy for more on our network guidelines. 
