The research study will examine practices of regional discrimination, in which users from select geographies are blocked from access to internet resources, often as part of efforts to prevent credit card fraud and other scams. Using a combination of qualitative interviews, crowdsourcing, and automated measurement modules, this research study will consider such questions as: How prevalent is regional discrimination and what are its characteristics? Which categories of websites are more likely to deploy regional discrimination? How do those responsible justify these mechanisms, and what are the implications for excluded users and excluding websites?
