Google removes Sci-Hub domains from U.S. search results due to dated court order

290 pointsposted 2 months ago
by t-3
(torrentfreak.com)

66 Comments

freefaler

2 months ago

Check https://open-slum.org/ what's up in the shadow libraries world.

Anna's archive & Z-lib has mirrored all of Sci-hub and are indeed a viable alternative.

sureglymop

2 months ago

Original LibGen was still the best browsing experience and it's been down for months. If we lose this resource it would be truly a setback and grave loss.

mptest

2 months ago

if only i had a machine with a petabyte or two to spare to help seed the whole library

politelemon

2 months ago

Why does it show all red for all zlibs?

HKH2

2 months ago

There is a big green box at the top of the page explaining that.

davely

2 months ago

Hah. I wonder how someone could miss that, but it does kind of look like one of those “sign up for our newsletter” types of elements.

Maybe many of us are just subconsciously blocking those types of things out now because it’s so pervasive.

greendestiny_re

2 months ago

It's called "banner blindness."

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/banner-blindness-original-e...

amypetrik8

2 months ago

I actually have "face blindness" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia )

Got it after a bad car accident, some brain damage. Interestingly it also made me race blind as well - I'm probably one of the few people in the world who can say that! I do identify loved ones from the sound of their voice, though, or if not speaking, I can sometimes tell from how they walk and move. Same thing races, it's not hard to tell if someone's voice sounds black or if they walk like a white guy

dizhn

2 months ago

How about beautiful vs ugly? What do you actually perceived when you look at a face if you don't mind me asking?

CapricornNoble

2 months ago

If I go to a particular Sci-Hub mirror and it's down, I often go to the Wiki page to see the different TLD options. Same for checking some of my favorite Torrent trackers. I don't use Google for any controversial searches anymore, but if Wiki continues to degrade in quality, I'll really be SOL.

alterom

2 months ago

>If I go to a particular Sci-Hub mirror and it's down, I often go to the Wiki page to see the different TLD options

You can still Google Sci-Hub, and find plenty of pages listing active mirrors.

Notably, https://www.sci-hub.pub is the top hit for me, and is reliable enough.

tdeck

2 months ago

The only thing that consistently works for me is the Telegram bot.

alterom

2 months ago

Why does it matter though?

I'd wager few people would use Google to search content on Sci-Hub. The normal usage is simply entering the DOI of the paper you want on Sci-Hub's front page.

Note: you can still search for Sci-Hub itself on Google, and find plenty of pages listing active mirrors.

jacquesm

2 months ago

They could censor that in Chrome as well, in multiple ways. That's one reason why having your DNS services provider, browser provider and search provider as the same entity is an extra risk.

senderista

2 months ago

This changes absolutely nothing about how I use sci-hub. As long as I can find the front page and search for a DOI, I don't care how many search results Google censors.

ur-whale

2 months ago

There are alternative search engines to Google, in particular some where base censorship is not so easily enforced:

https://yandex.com/search/?text=sci-hub

fao_

2 months ago

I really like yep.com, as per https://www.searchenginemap.com/ it's one of only four search engines that run their own web crawlers. Results are slow but incredibly high-quality.

jillesvangurp

2 months ago

You are recommending a search engine that is operating from Russia under one of the most oppressive regimes in the world. The Russian state monitors usage and is definitely censoring all sorts of stuff on it.

Of course Sci Hub was developed by a Russian, which is probably why Yandex is not censoring it. Also, I don't think the Russian government cares much for intellectual property rights of companies in NATO countries, for obvious reasons. But they are definitely censoring a wide range of other topics.

Check this reports for some details on the types of things that Yandex censors: https://www.hrw.org/report/2025/07/30/disrupted-throttled-an...

baranul

2 months ago

You don't have to go too far to see such similar censorship in action. It's not just "them over there". Hacker News conducts stealth censorship, shadow banning, and manipulations of all kinds to push artificial narratives, etc...

Its about unchecked corruption, abuse, and the misuse of power. It's a mistake to believe such things are only done by "them" in a different country.

AlexeyBelov

2 months ago

Can you elaborate further? Sounds very conspiratorial.

baranul

2 months ago

The context is that corporate entity A is usually no more "pure" than corporate entity B in another country. When at the end of the day, they're corporate entities that will do whatever in service of their profits, interests, or goals. What is allowed to be seen or promoted, including not seen, can be what aligns to their interests and profits.

What users or readers might perceive as popular or best, may not be, because of manipulation. Most would have no idea of the situation, unless stumbling upon it or exposed, and many could care less even if aware. If they make too much of a direct fuss about it, their account or even the person might cease functioning. Users will not usually even know the totality of what's banned, vice versa, nor know what's promoted by hand or via algorithm.

RobotToaster

2 months ago

If I was looking for something that is against the interests of Russian oligarchs I wouldn't use yandex.

In the same way it has become obvious that you should not use Google if you are looking for something that is against the interests of American oligarchs.

specproc

2 months ago

Jeez, gimme a break. The US is rounding up people on the streets, the UK throwing terrorism legislation at pensioners, don't get me started on Israel.

Russia is an oppressive and dangerous regime, sure, but in 2025, there's nothing particularly special about it on human rights and censorship.

In the context of Western censorship of a global resource, Yandex makes a load of sense.

tonyhart7

2 months ago

its crazy that russian search engine is more "open" compared to US search engine

ch4s3

2 months ago

On this one particular issue. There are certainly things blocked by Russian search engines which have to comply with a rather lengthy list of banned sites since about 2012.

red_Seashell_32

2 months ago

It’s most definitely not.

groundzeros2015

2 months ago

There are countless websites and topics removed from Google. It’s impossible to say.

rootusrootus

2 months ago

If by more open you mean not easily censored by anybody but Putin. But it's hard to imagine that it's actually more open by any reasonable definition of that word.

anonym29

2 months ago

By open, they mean fewer results censored. The west censors more results overall than Russia, kind of like how more UK citizens are arrested for speech crimes than Russians, or kind of like how abortion is more legal in Russia than it is in half of the USA.

Which isn't to say Russia is a bastion of free speech, it's not, you still can't go hold an LGBTQIA2s+ pride parade or publicly march demanding you be given the right to hold the parade in the future without being thrown in prison, but they're a poor case study for authoritarianism when the west is rapidly turning more authoritarian than Russia is, while Russia hasn't really changed much in that regard in the last quarter century or so.

gfdvgfffv

2 months ago

“Practical freedom” is a very important measure of freedom. If you are generally more free to do what you want, how much does it matter that you live in a dictatorship? If I live in a democracy with 10,000 laws I can’t meaningful affect with 1 vote, am I free?

NicuCalcea

2 months ago

Get off it, Russia is arresting people for a single web search: https://zona.media/news/2025/12/10/glukhikh

If you think the West is becoming more authoritarian than Russia, you're either misinformed or lying.

user205738

2 months ago

When did a 3,000₽ ($37) fine for searching for nazi symbols turn into an arrest? Your source doesn't say anything about this.

NicuCalcea

2 months ago

> Sergei Glukhikh, 20, was arrested in September under a law that had come into force earlier that month, and which raised concerns about expanded surveillance and potential abuse by law enforcement.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/12/10/first-russian-fine...

Hope that clarifies it for you.

user205738

2 months ago

The Moscow Times has the same relationship to Moscow as the RFA has to Chinese news. This is a propaganda mouthpiece, thepurpose the purpose of which is to engage in cherrypicking, finding isolated cases and making a big deal out of a molehill.

If it's also going to be against Russia, it would be great.

>"found Glukhikh guilty and imposed a fine of 3,000 rubles ($38)."

"Glukhikh, who did not attend his sentencing hearing, has denied his guilt."

And also:

"FSB officer noticed Glukhikh searching for extremist content while riding next to him on the bus"

  That is, an employee of the services saw a search for a banned organization engaged in the murder of Russians and the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine and reported it. 

  You must admit that this is not the same as just looking for information on Yandex.

  And the parental comment refers specifically to the Yandex search, and not to isolated cases when an FSB agent suddenly stands behind you.

 Keep in mind that millions of Russians search for information about VPN and the rest every day, openly discuss it on social networks and do not receive any punishment for it.

NicuCalcea

2 months ago

I'm sure you're experienced enough at using Yandex/Rambler/whatever to find other sources. What are those, btw? Соловьёв Live?

> You must admit that this is not the same as just looking for information on Yandex.

I must do no such thing. The other week I searched for the fascist Ivan Ilyin because I wanted to see what kind of ideas Putin built his ideology on. I've also read about the Russian Nazi paramilitary unit Rusich Group, responsible for the murder of Ukrainians. I've googled Maria Lvova-Belova, wanted by the International Criminal Court for kidnapping children. Do you think I should have been arrested for those?

I'm happy you guys can still search for VPNs, enjoy it while you can. Truly the pinnacle of democracy.

anonym29

2 months ago

Isn't the comment you're responding to using the source that you provided?

NicuCalcea

2 months ago

Yes, and? I'm perfectly fine with discussing it based on The Moscow Times article, it's the other commenter who disregarded it for being "against Russia" (I wish!). Since there are other sources that have reported on this, I suggested they search the runet for an officially-sanctioned outlet if that's what they prefer.

user205738

2 months ago

I did not ignore it, my comments are really based on the material of this article, I only pointed out that such a source is Russian news, in which RFA is Chinese news.

Unfortunately, from your next comment (you've collected a whole bingo there) I realized that I might have wasted my time on you.

This level of concern is corrected only if you want it yourself, no one from the outside can help you.

My statement that you can safely search for the necessary information on Yandex remains valid.

NicuCalcea

2 months ago

Hope they feed you well over there.

alterom

2 months ago

>There are alternative search engines to Google,

..and of those, I really wouldn't be giving the one under the direct control of Russia's FSB as my top recommendation.

A little-known American search engine known as Bing[1] lists Sci-Hub just fine though.

[1] https://www.bing.com/search?q=sci-hub

Ey7NFZ3P0nzAe

2 months ago

How come there's no decentralized anonymous global library? Like some kind of onion routed, p2p file sharing website? Something like tor + ipfs + storj.

The technology is already there, isn't it?

I know plenty of people who would gladly "sudo docker compose up" something that would route some data between peers like in tor and donate a few tens of Go like in storj.

The demand is absolutely there.

roguh

2 months ago

Hail the corporate overlords!!!

amelius

2 months ago

So we give Russia and China free access to science, while we block our own people? Smart move ... /s

jmclnx

2 months ago

Interesting, did not think if it that way. I guess why not, with this admin the US is handing China what is left of our scientific lead on a silver platter. Just look at the de-funding of mRNA vaccine research in the US for an example.

misnome

2 months ago

Is Sci-Hub still relevant? Haven’t they been frozen for like 5+ years at this point?

shaky-carrousel

2 months ago

More like: "is Google still relevant?" Specially for the kind of people that browses Sci-Hub. It's been months since I've done a search in ad-ridden Google.

misnome

2 months ago

I know lots of people who still use google.

Sci-hub has ceased to be mentioned or considered when scientists/grads I know look for papers. Everything has gone back do “Does your institution have a subscription for X?”.

hermanzegerman

2 months ago

There is a successor to SciHub which relies on IPFS

catlikesshrimp

2 months ago

I still use sci-hub because the newer the article, the less I trust it.

I am not a student anymore, though.

kelipso

2 months ago

Well for a student or researcher, that’s completely impractical.

mmooss

2 months ago

What country are you in, if you don't mind saying?

adrian_b

2 months ago

The research papers from 10, 20 or 50 years ago are at least as valuable and frequently more valuable than the papers from this year.

A lot of "new" discoveries are rediscoveries of old things, which may have been not important at the time of their initial discovery, because in order to be useful they depended on advances in other domains, but when those advances happen, suddenly they become important and they can be the base of state-of-the-art techniques.

Therefore Sci-Hub remains very relevant, as a repository containing a very large number of historically-important research papers, including many research papers from the 19th century or early 20th century, which should have been in the public domain, but which can still be found behind paywalls elsewhere.