Table of Contents
The family of 400 error codes has a new member: Say hello to newcomer 451, the HTTP error code that lets you know you don’t see what you want to see because it has been blocked for legal reasons.
The HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Client 451 Unavailable For Legal Reasons error response code indicates that the user has requested a resource that is not available for legal reasons, such as a web page for which legal proceedings have been initiated.
Status:
451 Unavailable For Legal Reasons
This is to provide more useful information than the 403 bans that many servers now return when they openly block access to comply with a court order.
Using a VPN
The best way to correct the HTTP 451 error, which is not available for legal reasons, is to use a VPN service to bypass censorship.
- Download private Internet access
- Install PIA on your computer and start it up.
- Click on the VPN server and select a country from the list
- Press the big power button to connect to the VPN server.
- Try to visit the blocked page in your web browser.
Use HTTPS instead of HTTP
Since error 451, which is not available for legal reasons, occurs when using the HTTP protocol, try using HTTPS instead. If the page also has an SSL certificate, your request will force the HTTPS page instead of loading the HTTP version.
Conclusion
The use of status code 451 does not imply the existence or non-existence of the resource mentioned in the request. In other words, a resource request may still not be accepted if legal requirements have been removed.
Note that in many cases clients can still access the denied resource using technical countermeasures such as a VPN or the Tor network.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Status/451