March 2021 - ooni-talk - lists.torproject.org

Google Summer of Code with OONI
by Maria Xynou 29 Mar '21

29 Mar '21

Hello, Would you like to do a Google Summer of Code (GSoC) with the OONI team? :) Applications start today! This year, we have 5 OONI GSoC projects (https://community.torproject.org/gsoc/) that you can apply to: 1) OONI: Implement Roaming Test Helpers => https://community.torproject.org/gsoc/ooni-roaming-test/ 2) OONI: Integration And Unit Testing Of OONI Probe Desktop Apps => https://community.torproject.org/gsoc/ooni-probe-testing/ 3) OONI Probe Network Experiments => https://community.torproject.org/gsoc/ooni-probe-experiments/ 4) OONI: Measure The Accuracy Of OONI GeoIP Lookup => https://community.torproject.org/gsoc/ooni-geoip-accuracy/ 5) OONI: Improve OONI Explorer Code Quality => https://community.torproject.org/gsoc/ooni-explorer-code-quality/ If you have your own OONI project idea, we invite you to contact us via email (contact(a)openobservatory.org) or Slack (https://slack.ooni.org/) If accepted, you will work on your GSoC project (paid by Google) during the summer of 2021 (between 7th June 2021 to 16th August 2021) with mentorship from the OONI team. Learn all about GSoC here: https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com Apply by 13th April 2021: https://hub.osc.dial.community/t/gsoc-2021-dial-open-source-center/2134 Please help spread the word: https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1376495799752867845 Thanks, ~ OONI team. -- Maria Xynou Research & Partnerships Director Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) https://ooni.org/ PGP Key Fingerprint: 2DC8 AFB6 CA11 B552 1081 FBDE 2131 B3BE 70CA 417E

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OONI Community Meeting: Tuesday, 30th March 2021
by Maria Xynou 29 Mar '21

29 Mar '21

Hello, The OONI team warmly welcomes you to join us next Tuesday for our monthly community meeting. => Where? OONI Slack channel: https://slack.ooni.org/ (bridged with IRC: ircs://irc.oftc.net:6697/#ooni) => When? Tuesday, 30th March 2021 at 14:00 UTC (for 1 hour) Please add topics that you'd like to discuss during the meeting in this pad: https://pad.riseup.net/p/ooni-community-meeting-keep The monthly OONI community meetings aim to: * Collect community feedback on OONI tools & methodologies * Address questions in relation to the use of OONI tools and OONI data * Foster discussions on internet censorship issues * Receive updates from the community We hope you can join us! All the best, ~ OONI team -- Maria Xynou Research & Partnerships Director Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) https://ooni.org/ PGP Key Fingerprint: 2DC8 AFB6 CA11 B552 1081 FBDE 2131 B3BE 70CA 417E

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Automated testing now supported on OONI Probe Desktop!
by Maria Xynou 22 Mar '21

22 Mar '21

Hi friends, The OONI team is super excited to share that the OONI Probe Desktop App now supports automated testing! Please update to OONI Probe Desktop 3.3.0 on Windows and macOS: https://ooni.org/install/desktop Instead of having to remember to manually run tests, you can now enable "automated testing" in the settings of your OONI Probe desktop app (version 3.3.0) and OONI Probe will run tests automatically for you! If you enable "automated testing", OONI Probe will automatically run tests every hour in the background, and the test results will automatically get published on OONI Explorer: https://explorer.ooni.org/ That way, you can regularly contribute censorship measurements (without having to do anything), enabling the internet freedom community to monitor and detect censorship events in your country. Please help spread the word: https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1374019400194523138 Thanks, ~ OONI team. -- Maria Xynou Research & Partnerships Director Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) https://ooni.org/ PGP Key Fingerprint: 2DC8 AFB6 CA11 B552 1081 FBDE 2131 B3BE 70CA 417E

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[NEW Report] Myanmar: Data on internet blocks and internet outages following military coup
by Maria Xynou 09 Mar '21

09 Mar '21

Hello, Today, in collaboration with IODA and MIDO, we published a new research report which shares network measurement data on the ongoing internet blocks and internet outages in Myanmar, following the military coup. Our report is available here: https://ooni.org/post/2021-myanmar-internet-blocks-and-outages/ In the report, we share OONI data on: * Blocking of social media (Facebook, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter) in Myanmar; * Blocking of Wikipedia (primarily seen from 20th February 2021 onwards); * Blocking of circumvention tool websites (such as protonvpn.com) * Blocking of Justice for Myanmar (www.justiceformyanmar.org) an activist campaign which aims to pressure businesses and investors around the world to divest from Myanmar military businesses; * Blocking of a COVID-19 website (coronavirus.app); * Ongoing blocking of news media (which started last year), including a few ethnic media sites. Through OONI data, we observe the following: 1) Censorship variance across networks: Internet censorship appears to vary across networks in Myanmar, as we observe different sites being blocked on different networks (and the blocks are not implemented on all networks). 2) Variance in censorship techniques: * IP blocking: In many cases, we observe the IP blocking of websites and apps across networks in Myanmar. * DNS based interference: In some cases, ISPs in Myanmar block sites by means of DNS based interference, returning IP addresses that host block pages (59.153.90.11, 167.172.4.60) or an address in private IP space (such as 127.0.0.1 or 172.29.8.1). We were able to automatically confirm these censorship cases. 3) Non-deterministic censorship: Not all IP blocks appear to be effective. OONI data shows that it is sometimes possible for connections to go through (even though IP blocks appear to be in place), which is likely why we observe inconsistent measurements (in terms of accessibility and blocking). The report also shares IODA data (along with Google traffic data & Oracle Internet Intelligence data) on the nightly internet outages that Myanmar has been experiencing. The first internet disruption was observed in the early hours of 1st February 2021 (on the day of the military coup), followed by a second, higher impact internet outage on 6th February 2021 (which lasted for almost 30 hours). As of 15th February 2021, Myanmar has been experiencing complete internet outages every night (between around 1am to 9am local time). The findings of this study suggest an alarming shift in Myanmar’s internet censorship landscape. In our 2017 study (which examined internet censorship in Myanmar based on the analysis of all OONI measurements collected between 2016-2017), we barely found any internet censorship in the country. Now, the ongoing social media blocks and nightly internet outages raise major human rights concerns, particularly in light of the current political environment. We thank OONI Probe users in Myanmar for contributing measurements, making this study possible! Please help share this report: https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1369252608590942208 Thanks, Maria. -- Maria Xynou Research & Partnerships Director Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) https://ooni.org/ PGP Key Fingerprint: 2DC8 AFB6 CA11 B552 1081 FBDE 2131 B3BE 70CA 417E

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