This past weekend, the one-year anniversary of the implementation of GDPR and, as has been made very clear recently, more has to be done to get it right. One area where the European Union’s data protection regulation is a problem is when it comes to US news sites.

42 per cent of US news sites, including titles such as The Chicago Tribune, still block European visitors from viewing their sites, according to Top10VPN.com. A further nine per cent of US titles are offering a limited service for people in Europe.

However, the number of US sites blocking EU visitors differs greatly depending on which state the site originates from. For example, 80 per cent of news outlets from California and Nevada are accessible to EU users, while 90 per cent of Nebraska’s news sites are blocked with the EU.

“It’s understandable that many US regional news outlets have taken the view that there’s not enough upside from incurring the expense of complying with regulations imposed from across the Atlantic, and are simply avoiding the issue altogether by blocking visitors from the EU,” said Simon Migliano, head of research at Top10VPN.com.

“Whatever the benefits to EU citizens from GDPR, it surely can’t have been the intention of EU lawmakers to restrict the flow of important information like this. As a consequence, not only are US travellers and expats prevented from keeping up-to-date with their local news, but journalists and researchers are also unable to access these valuable and diverse sources of information.”