ooni-talk April 2024

ooni-talk@lists.torproject.org

2 participants
6 discussions

[Report] Tanzania: Surge in online LGBTIQ censorship and other targeted blocks
by Maria Xynou 19 Jun '24

19 Jun '24

Hello, Today OONI published a new research report: "*Tanzania: Surge in online LGBTIQ censorship and other targeted blocks*". Read the report here: https://ooni.org/post/2024-tanzania-lgbtiq-censorship-and-other-targeted-bl… As part of this report, we analyzed OONI data collected from Tanzania over the last year, between 1st January 2023 to 31st January 2024. Our analysis of OONI data collected from Tanzania shows: 1) *Blocking of many LGBTIQ websites*, including: * LGBTIQ social networks (such as Grindr) * LGBTIQ rights sites (such as OutRight International and ILGA) * LGBTIQ news and culture sites (such as Queerty) * LGBTIQ suicide prevention site (The Trevor Project) 2) *Blocking of online dating websites* (such as Tinder and OKCupid) 3) *Blocking of specific websites that defend human rights through grants and petitions* (Change.org, Global Fund for Women, GlobalGiving, Open Society Foundations) 4) *Blocking of specific social networking sites* (Clubhouse and 4chan) 5) *Blocking of a specific VPN* (ProtonVPN) Our analysis reveals the *extensive blocking of LGBTIQ sites*, which correlates with the escalating discrimination and crackdown on LGBTIQ communities in Tanzania in recent years. Many other blocks identified as part of this study appear to be targeted, as they involve very specific websites, while other sites from the same categories (e.g. social media, human rights) were found accessible. For example, access to the Global Fund for Women website was found blocked in Tanzania, while Amnesty International's website was found accessible. Meanwhile, Tanzania recently started requiring users to report their use of VPNs. Out of tested VPNs, we only found *ProtonVPN blocked* in Tanzania during the analysis period. We encourage researchers to explore whether the new VPN reporting requirement results in reduced VPN use in Tanzania, as well as its impact on LGBTIQ communities and other human rights movements in Tanzania. Overall, the results of our analysis show that most ISPs in Tanzania appear to implement blocks by means of *TLS interference*, specifically by timing out the session after the ClientHello message during the TLS handshake. As the timing of the blocks and the types of URLs blocked are (mostly) consistent across (tested) networks, ISPs in Tanzania likely implement blocks in a coordinated manner (possibly through the use of Deep Packet Inspection technology). Learn more through our report: https://ooni.org/post/2024-tanzania-lgbtiq-censorship-and-other-targeted-bl… We thank OONI Probe (https://ooni.org/install/) users in Tanzania for contributing measurements, supporting this study. You can monitor internet censorship in Tanzania (and around the world) through real-time OONI data: https://explorer.ooni.org/chart/mat?probe_cc=TZ&since=2024-03-12&until=2024… Thanks, Maria.

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OONI reports on TikTok blocks in Kygyzstan and Senegal
by Maria Xynou 30 Apr '24

30 Apr '24

Hello, We just *published 2 new reports* on the OONI Explorer Findings page: • *Ongoing blocking of TikTok in Kyrgyzstan*: https://explorer.ooni.org/findings/154621229001 • *Blocking of TikTok in Senegal between August 2023 to February 2024*: https://explorer.ooni.org/findings/144156914701 We thank OONI Probe users in Kyrgyzstan and Senegal for contributing measurements! ~ OONI team.

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OONI Monthly Report: March 2024
by Maria Xynou 15 Apr '24

15 Apr '24

Hello, This email shares OONI's monthly report for March 2024. *# OONI Monthly Report: March 2024* Throughout March 2024, the OONI team worked on the following sprints: * Sprint 112 (1st-10th March 2024) * Sprint 113 (11th-24th March 2024) Our work can be tracked through the various OONI GitHub repositories: https://github.com/ooni Highlights are shared in this report below. *## OONI Run* As part of our work on creating the next generation version of OONI Run (“OONI Run v2”), there were several key activities we undertook this month. We continued QA testing for the revamped OONI Probe Android application, and we fixed several issues that were found as a result ( https://github.com/ooni/run/issues/152, https://github.com/ooni/run/issues/149, https://github.com/ooni/run/issues/142, https://github.com/ooni/run/issues/143, https://github.com/ooni/run/issues/141, https://github.com/ooni/run/issues/140). We also continued QA testing for the new OONI Run v2 dashboard, which will allow users to create and maintain their OONI Run links. We fixed several issues that were found as a result of testing ( https://github.com/ooni/run/issues/150, https://github.com/ooni/run/issues/145, https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/issues/1547, https://github.com/ooni/run/issues/144, https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/issues/1540). We also finished refactoring the API (https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/788). *## OONI Probe CLI* In March 2024, we released OONI Probe CLI 3.21.0: https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/releases/tag/v3.21.0 Moreover, we: * Added support for deploying the Web Connectivity Test Helper using a Docker container on cloud platforms ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1520); * Merged a community contribution to fix `tlsmiddleboxes` with IPv6 ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2689); * Fixed a bug in our `./pkg/gobash` tool for automatically using the correct version of Go where we were not correctly validating zip files ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1521); * Reworked the `./pkg/oonimkall` package to facilitate using OONI Run v2 from mobile applications (https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1526); * Merged a community contribution fixing the Tor Snowflake experiment ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1531). *## OONI Explorer* To identify which censorship findings would be most useful (for the internet freedom community) to present on OONI Explorer ( https://explorer.ooni.org/), we conducted extensive user research in March 2024. Specifically, we created a survey (https://forms.gle/tYv3pecJiUFfUfEh9), which we shared widely with members of our community and with the broader internet freedom community. The goal of this survey was to improve our understanding of how community members use OONI Explorer, the types of information that they find most useful, the challenges they encounter in finding information, and how the platform could be improved to enable access to censorship findings. We analyzed the survey results to inform design and information architecture decisions that will guide the implementation of pages that present thematic censorship findings on OONI Explorer. In addition to the survey, we also carried out interviews with members of our community who use OONI Explorer as part of research and advocacy. The goal of these interviews was to supplement the qualitative data collected through the surveys, and to better understand how they use OONI Explorer and the challenges they encounter in discovering censorship findings through the platform. Based on the findings from the survey and interviews, we created a manually-curated list of domains that could be featured in each of the thematic areas, and we started evaluating various approaches for presenting relevant censorship findings. On the development side of things, we made a few improvements to OONI Explorer. Specifically, we improved the performance of the calendar component on the MAT and Search pages ( https://github.com/ooni/explorer/commit/a437373e15f08ba935ec9772b1382535a78…), and we improved the handling of errors and validations on the OONI Explorer country pages ( https://github.com/ooni/explorer/commit/edb33e2b4e89430d28ceee6530d602616e0… ). Notably, the OONI dataset reached 2 billion measurements in March 2024 ( https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1764644397700841669)! We thank our community for contributing measurements over the past decade, shedding light on internet censorship worldwide. *## Automating censorship detection and characterization based on OONI measurements* In March 2024, we made progress towards shipping the new OONI Data Pipeline into production. Specifically, we integrated the pull request that implements the new Experiment Result model into the main branch ( https://github.com/ooni/data/pull/43). More importantly, we worked on researching orchestration systems for running the periodic tasks necessary for analyzing and processing OONI measurements (https://github.com/ooni/data/issues/46). We opened a pull request that adds support for using Temporal as an orchestration system ( https://github.com/ooni/data/pull/58). We also made a piece of very important refactoring, where we separate the OONI Data Pipeline (that’s to be run on servers) from the command line interface and library component that can be installed by end users ( https://github.com/ooni/data/pull/60). *## Research collaborations with partners on upcoming reports* We continued to coordinate with our partners on research efforts required for upcoming research reports. Specifically, we coordinated with our partners on extensive updates to the Citizen Lab test lists for Russia, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, and Iran. In March 2024, the updates for the test lists of Russia and Kazakhstan were finalized. Specifically: * Roskomsvoboda updated the Russian test list: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1691 * Internet Freedom Kazakhstan(IFKZ) updated the test list for Kazakhstan: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1695 (the pull request was opened on 1st April 2024, but the work was conducted throughout March 2024) *## Research report on internet censorship in Tanzania* Beyond the aforementioned (upcoming) research reports, we have been working on a research report that documents internet censorship in Tanzania based on the analysis of OONI data collected between January 2023 to January 2024. In March 2024, we completed all of the data analysis, research, and writing required for our research report documenting internet censorship in Tanzania. We scheduled the publication of this report in April 2024 to enable more thorough review (both by the OONI team and local partners) prior to publication. *## Planning the OONI Partner Gathering 2024* In preparation for the upcoming OONI Partner Gathering in Malaysia in May 2024, we continued to coordinate on numerous logistics (flights, shuttle service, hotel, catering, etc.). We also assisted participants with visa requirements as needed (though very few participants require e-visas, while most participants don’t need visas to travel to Malaysia), and we coordinated with designers on event-related supplies and materials. Notably, we created and shared a survey with all OONI Partner Gathering participants to collect their feedback, which will help shape and inform the final agenda of the event. As our goal is to ensure that we create an agenda that is valuable to all participants, we requested their feedback on the types of sessions that they would find most useful, the types of skills and knowledge that they would like to learn, and the outcomes that would make their participation feel well spent. As participants started to fill out the survey, we started to analyze the results and create a draft agenda based on participant feedback. In addition to the pre-Partner Gathering survey (which was designed to collect feedback for the agenda), we also prepared a post-Partner Gathering survey to collect participant feedback after the event. These two surveys include a few mutual questions, which will enable us to compare and evaluate the effectiveness of the event in sharing OONI-related skills and knowledge. *## Community use of OONI data### Publication by Oxford on how digital technologies are used to wield authoritarian power during Russia’s 2024 presidential election* Ahead of Russia’s March 2024 presidential election, researchers from the Oxford Internet Institute and the University of Bremen published an article which shares their insights on how digital technologies can be used to wield authoritarian power in the context of the Russian election. Their article makes use of OONI data, and is available here: https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/news-events/2024-russian-presidential-elections-ho… *## Community activities### OONI demo at the OTF Internet Freedom Expos* On 18th and 19th March 2024, OONI’s Arturo traveled to Washington D.C to participate in the Open Technology Fund’s (OTF) Internet Freedom Expo at the U.S Congress ( https://twitter.com/OpenTechFund/status/1773726871965802906). As part of his participation, Arturo hosted an OONI demo and presented OONI’s work. *### OONI participation in Roskomsvoboda’s DEMHACK 8* Between 29th-31st March 2024, Roskmosvoboda hosted the 8th hackathon in its series of DEMHACK hackathons (https://8.demhack.org/). OONI participated in this hackathon as a partner and as part of the jury board. As part of DEMHACK 8, two teams used OONI tools and methodologies for their hackathon projects. One team developed a prototype of the messengers' accessibility tests for DPI Detector ( https://github.com/nomah4/ubiquitous-rotary-phone), using OONI Probe tests as a reference. This team acquired third place in the hackathon. Another team used OONI data and the OONI API to compare the Roskomnadzor blocklist with the domains identified as blocked by OONI Probe, with the goal of potentially creating an alternative blocklist based on OONI measurements (https://github.com/1andrevich/ooni-zapret-list). We hope to stay in touch with both teams to further collaborate on investigating censorship in Russia. *### OONI Community Meeting* On 26th March 2024, we hosted the monthly OONI Community Meeting on our Slack channel (https://slack.ooni.org/). The topic of this meeting was “Network measurements and censorship circumvention”, and we invited the following speakers: * Ain Ghazal, Information Controls OTF Fellow with OONI * Cecylia Bocovich, Tor Project * Keith McManamen, Psiphon * Diwen Xue, PhD Student, University of Michigan, Censored Planet As part of this meeting, our invited guests shared their experiences and some of the questions discussed ( https://pad.riseup.net/p/ooni-community-meeting-keep) include: * Why is it important for circumvention projects to measure networks? How do existing network measurement projects contribute to circumvention technologies? * What could both network measurement projects and circumvention development projects do better in terms of measurement or in terms of data sharing? What are the challenges to fill the existing gaps? * How can network measurement data help inform circumvention tool development and deployment efforts? What type of data would be most useful, and what questions would you want such data to answer? * What are the challenges associated with measuring and evaluating whether a circumvention tool works? * What is needed to help ensure that circumvention technologies are more resilient to censorship? *## Measurement coverage* In March 2024, 58,901,099 OONI Probe measurements were collected from 2,904 networks in 173 countries around the world. This information can also be found through our measurement stats on OONI Explorer (see chart on “monthly coverage worldwide”): https://explorer.ooni.org/ —------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *As a non-profit, we rely on donations and grants to defend a free and open internet for all.You can support OONI’s work through a donation (https://ooni.org/donate <https://ooni.org/donate>) or by getting OONI swag (https://shop.ooni.org/ <https://shop.ooni.org/>). We thank our supporters Jigsaw, Pantheon, Luminate, Amazon, DigitalOcean, Greenhost, Netlify, Surfshark, and VPNCompare for supporting OONI’s work and mission.If you are a company interested in supporting OONI, please refer to our Supporters page for more information: https://ooni.org/about/supporters <https://ooni.org/about/supporters>We also thank our funders for supporting our work over the years: https://ooni.org/about/supporters#funders <https://ooni.org/about/supporters#funders> *

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OONI Monthly Report: February 2024
by Maria Xynou 15 Apr '24

15 Apr '24

Hello, This email shares OONI's monthly report for February 2024. *# OONI Monthly Report: February 2024* Throughout February 2024, the OONI team worked on the following sprints: * Sprint 110 (1st-11th February 2024) * Sprint 111 (12th - 25th February 2024) Our work can be tracked through the various OONI GitHub repositories: https://github.com/ooni Highlights are shared in this report below. *## New partnership with Digital Rights Foundation Pakistan* In February 2024, we had the opportunity to formally establish a partnership with Digital Rights Foundation ( https://digitalrightsfoundation.pk/), a leading digital rights organization in Pakistan. As part of this partnership, we aim to collaborate on the study of internet censorship. *## Published report on blocks in Pakistan ahead of 2024 elections* In February 2024, we published a report (based on OONI data) on the blocking of an investigative news platform (Fact Focus), as well as on the blocking of PTI political party websites in Pakistan leading up to the country’s 2024 general election. The report is available here: https://explorer.ooni.org/findings/108298926901 *## Published FOCI paper on EU internet sanctions on Russian media* In collaboration with researchers from the University of Illinois Chicago, the University of Twente and the University of Amsterdam, we co-authored a paper which analyzes how different ISPs in EU member states implement sanctions on Russian media. This paper (which made extensive use of OONI data) was published by FOCI in February 2024: https://petsymposium.org/foci/2024/foci-2024-0001.pdf SIDN Labs published a blog post, providing a summary of the paper: https://www.sidnlabs.nl/en/news-and-blogs/internet-sanctions-on-russian-med… This blog post was cross-posted on the OONI blog: https://ooni.org/post/2024-eu-sanctions/ *## OONI Probe Mobile* We released OONI Probe Mobile 3.8.6 on iOS: https://github.com/ooni/probe-ios/releases/tag/v3.8.6 The latest version includes an important fix for the data quality of the Signal Private Messenger App experiment results. The Signal experiment fix is also available in the latest versions of OONI Probe Android (3.8.6), OONI Probe Desktop (3.9.3), and OONI Probe CLI. As part of the OONI Probe iOS 3.8.6 release, we also fixed an issue with RTL language support on the iOS app (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2578), and we made several other bug fixes and improvements. To enable the localization of Deutsche Welle’s News Media Scan app ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dw.ooniprobe), we added support for Transifex in the app ( https://github.com/ooni/translations/pull/32). *## OONI Run* As part of our work on creating the next generation version of OONI Run (“OONI Run v2”), there were several key activities we undertook this month. The main highlight is that we officially started QA testing for the Android version of the new OONI Probe app that has both an improved UI and support for new OONI Run links. This is a big next step in the progress for this project! Thus far, we completed a major initial testing pass to test the new user-interface. We also started QA testing for the new OONI Run v2 dashboard, which will allow users to create and maintain their OONI Run links. Some other highlights worth noting: * We ensured alignment between the spec and backend ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/787) and we refactored the API as a result (https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/788); * We started implementing support for OONI Run v2 in the iOS app ( https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/issues/1518). *## OONI Probe CLI* Most of the OONI Probe CLI development work in February 2024 was focused on continuing to bring Web Connectivity v0.5 to production (as documented further in the next section). We also: * Added Wikimedia DNS as a DNS-over-HTTPS session resolver ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2532); * Reworked the code to generate summaries and made it more robust and safe ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2667); * Improved building tor as a library to make it work under ArchLinux ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2651); * Reworked test case generation for our QA suite to reduce churn and simplify the process of spotting bugs ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2677); * Fixed a bug in the test lists Gardener script to avoid trusting a URL database that has become stale (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2684). *## Creating a methodology for measuring throttling * To measure throttling more effectively, we need to ship Web Connectivity v0.5, which is based on an underlying measurement library specifically designed to collect additional throttling-related information and, more generally, easier-to-process measurements. To this end, we continued our efforts to ensure a high standard of data quality for Web Connectivity v0.5 and made progress on our plans for rolling it out to production. Specifically, we: * Fixed a regression introduced in a previous release where Web Connectivity v0.5 was missing network events ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2674). * Refined the functionality to read partial response bodies when interrupted by a timeout (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2654), which is relevant for throttling. * Ensured Web Connectivity v0.5 counted the bytes sent and received ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2655). * Made some updates to the Web Connectivity v0.5 specification ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2666). * Added the `tcptls_experiment` tag that was missing in Web Connectivity v0.5 to be backward compatible with v0.4 ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2673). * Addressed an issue that left the `client_resolver` field empty to ensure backward compatibility with v0.4 (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2676). * Addressed a list of to-do items to clean up, refactor and add tests to the codebase (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2669) which included: * Implementing DNS cache expiration for the DNS whoami code used by Web Connectivity v0.5 so that we can periodically update our understanding of the DNS we’re using (https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1499). * Using a random DNS-over-UDP resolver drawn from a list of well known resolvers (rather than using 8.8.4.4) in response to community feedback ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1500). *## OONI Design System* As part of our work on the OONI design system ( https://github.com/ooni/design-system/), we upgraded dependencies and configured storybook to use Vite instead of Webpack ( https://github.com/ooni/design-system/pull/172), which makes Storybook faster and requires less configuration. We also replaced Eslint and Prettier with Biome for code linting and formatting ( https://github.com/ooni/design-system/pull/173), which is all part of maintenance work to simplify the repository. We explored different frameworks for building and maintaining frontend components. To this end, we created two different examples of Button component implementation, using two of the most popular approaches in 2024: * TailwindCSS as an example of utility-first CSS library, using Class Variance Authority (https://github.com/ooni/design-system/pull/170); * Vanilla-Extract as an example of zero-runtime CSS-in-TS ( https://github.com/ooni/design-system/pull/171). *## OONI Explorer* To identify which censorship findings would be most useful (for the internet freedom community) to present on OONI Explorer ( https://explorer.ooni.org/), we organized a user research study ( https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/issues/1543) so that we can better understand the habits and needs of our community (and determine how best to present this information on OONI Explorer). In February 2024, we drafted and finalized the user research survey, and we prepared for the user research interviews. We disseminated the survey and conducted user research interviews in March 2024. *## Test list updates* Ahead of Pakistan’s 2024 general elections, we updated the Citizen Lab test list for Pakistan: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1651 *## Research collaborations with partners on upcoming reports* In February 2024, we continued to coordinate with our partners on research efforts required for upcoming research reports. Specifically, we coordinated with our partners on extensive updates to the Citizen Lab test lists for Russia, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, and Iran. Each of these test list updates has a thematic focus based on the specific research questions of each (upcoming) research report. *## Planning the OONI Partner Gathering 2024* In preparation for the upcoming OONI Partner Gathering in Malaysia in May 2024, we continued to coordinate with the travel agency on booking flights for participants and other travel logistics. We also continued to coordinate with participants and the hotel on numerous other logistics. *## Updated the OONI Data Policy* On 23rd February 2024, we updated the OONI Data Policy: https://ooni.org/about/data-policy As part of this update, we replaced the use of Matomo analytics with Umami analytics. The Data Policy changes are visible here: https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/pull/1550/files *## Rapid response efforts### Blocking of TikTok in Senegal* Starting from (at least) 25th January 2024, OONI data suggests that Senegal had been blocking access to TikTok. OONI data shows that the block was primarily visible on Sonatel (AS8346), and appears to have been implemented by means of TLS interference. In response, we posted about the block on Twitter/X ( https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1754944166130327716) and we shared relevant OONI data with local partners and advocacy groups. *### Unblocking of social media in Guinea* On 23rd February 2024, we reported the unblocking of social media platforms in Guinea on Twitter/X ( https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1761049064752177282) and shared relevant OONI data and information with advocacy groups. We had previously published a report on the blocking of social media platforms in Guinea, sharing OONI data on the blocking of WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube ( https://explorer.ooni.org/findings/296303006301). OONI data shows that the blocks lasted between 24th November 2023 to 22nd February 2024. *## OONI citations### Tor Project blog post about defending internet freedom during elections in 2024* In February 2024, the Tor Project published a blog post about defending internet freedom with Tor during elections in 2024. As part of this blog post, they cite OONI research reports documenting censorship events that emerged during previous elections in countries around the world, and encourage the use of OONI tools and data. Their blog post is available here: https://blog.torproject.org/2024-defend-internet-freedom-during-elections/ *### CPJ statement on West African lawsuit against Senegal internet shutdowns* In February 2024, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) published a statement on the lawsuit filed against Senegal at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice challenging Senegal’s internet shutdowns in 2023. This statement cites OONI’s research report, which documented social media blocks and network outages in Senegal during political unrest in 2023 ( https://ooni.org/post/2023-senegal-social-media-blocks/). CPJ’s statement is available here: https://cpj.org/2024/02/cpj-welcomes-west-african-lawsuit-against-senegal-i… *## OONI Community Meeting* On 27th February 2024, we hosted the monthly OONI Community Meeting on our Slack channel (https://slack.ooni.org/). The topic of this meeting was “Litigation against internet censorship and shutdowns”, and we invited the following speakers: * Natalia Krapiva, Tech-Legal Counsel, Access Now * Toby Mendel, Executive Director of the Centre for Law and Democracy * Yelzhan Kabyshev, Director, Internet Freedom Kazakhstan (IFKZ) * Unggul Sagena, Head of Internet Access Division, Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet) As part of this meeting, our invited guests shared their experiences from litigating against cases of internet censorship and internet shutdowns, while other community members who participated in the meeting shared questions (https://pad.riseup.net/p/ooni-community-meeting-keep). *## Measurement coverage* In February 2024, 57,616,784 OONI Probe measurements were collected from 2,981 networks in 173 countries around the world. This information can also be found through our measurement stats on OONI Explorer (see chart on “monthly coverage worldwide”): https://explorer.ooni.org/ —------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *As a non-profit, we rely on donations and grants to defend a free and open internet for all.You can support OONI’s work through a donation (https://ooni.org/donate <https://ooni.org/donate>) or by getting OONI swag (https://shop.ooni.org/ <https://shop.ooni.org/>). We thank our supporters Jigsaw, Pantheon, Luminate, Amazon, DigitalOcean, Greenhost, Netlify, Surfshark, and VPNCompare for supporting OONI’s work and mission.If you are a company interested in supporting OONI, please refer to our Supporters page for more information: https://ooni.org/about/supporters <https://ooni.org/about/supporters>We also thank our funders for supporting our work over the years: https://ooni.org/about/supporters#funders <https://ooni.org/about/supporters#funders> *

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OONI Monthly Report: January 2024
by Maria Xynou 15 Apr '24

15 Apr '24

Hello, This email shares OONI's monthly report for January 2024. *# OONI Monthly Report: January 2024* Throughout January 2024, the OONI team worked on the following sprints: * Sprint 108 (1st - 14th January 2024) * Sprint 109 (15th - 28th January 2024) Our work can be tracked through the various OONI GitHub repositories: https://github.com/ooni Highlights are shared in this report below. *## Published report on news media censorship in Bangladesh during 2024 elections* In January 2024, we published a short report documenting the blocking of news media websites in Bangladesh (based on OONI data) amid the country’s 2024 general elections. The report is available here: https://explorer.ooni.org/findings/11686385001 *## OONI Probe Mobile* We released OONI Probe Mobile 3.8.6 on Android: https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/releases/tag/v3.8.6 This release includes an important fix for the data quality of the Signal Private Messenger App experiment (https://ooni.org/nettest/signal) results. It also ensures that the measurement engine is synced with OONI Probe CLI v3.20.0, and it includes several bug fixes and improvements. *## OONI Run* As part of our work on creating the next generation version of OONI Run (“OONI Run v2”), there were several key activities we undertook this month. Specifically, we continued to work towards achieving a ‘feature complete’ status for the Android application so that we can begin end-to-end testing. This included focusing on finishing the initial implementation of the add link flow, including addressing some feedback from early testing ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2595). We worked on implementing the dashboard link loading and we reviewed the updates ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2594), and we continued to work on the dashboard (https://github.com/ooni/run/pull/131), which is now ready for testing. Additionally, we enumerated the remaining backend work we need to complete as part of this project ( https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/issues/1519). *## OONI Probe CLI* Most of the development work in January 2024 was focused on bringing Web Connectivity v0.5 to production (as documented in the next section below). In addition to this work, we reworked the output of the DNS Ping experiment to make it more actionable (https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1444) by taking into account specific feedback provided by community members. We also increased the robustness of the internal libtor package to prevent concurrent tor instances, which would lead to a crash because libtor uses several shared, unlocked, global data structures ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1445). This issue emerged while debugging Tor Snowflake experiment crashes ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2406). While addressing this issue is not enough to prevent crashes (given that we were not running libtor concurrently anyway), we tried to structurally prevent this from happening directly inside the libtor codebase. *## Creating a methodology for measuring throttling * To measure throttling more effectively, we need to ship Web Connectivity v0.5, which is based on an underlying measurement library specifically designed to collect additional throttling-related information and, more generally, easier-to-process measurements. To this end, in the previous month we ensured that Web Connectivity v0.5 produced the same results as version v0.4 (the one currently running in production) for all test cases in our QA suite. In January 2024, we continued this work by fixing additional data quality issues affecting Web Connectivity v0.4 and v0.5 so that when we release Web Connectivity v0.5, we are sure there are hopefully no regressions and only improvements. Specifically, we: * Ensured that the data analysis engine used by Web Connectivity v0.5 behaves correctly and detects multiple cases of blocking ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2640). While the overall result of the experiment uses a logic that is still compatible with v0.4, the result also contains flags indicating all the anomalies observed. For example, as part of the same measurement, OONI could detect both DNS and TLS interference. * Enumerated and fixed a number of edge cases where otherwise the measurement result would have been inaccurate, including cases where (a) a domain does not exist anymore but there’s still DNS censorship returning the IP address where a blockpage is hosted and (b) domains for which there are no A or AAAA records, which are now correctly recognized as not accessible and not blocked (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2652). * Handled more cases where a website is not TCP or TLS reachable, which are now marked as not accessible, not blocked ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2299). * Ensured that IDNA (Internationalized Domain Names) are handled correctly by adding test cases and fixes (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1925). * Added test cases to avoid flagging TCP blocking when IPv6 is available but there are no IPv6 routes (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2456). * Ensured that cases where a website address is a loopback address (due to censorship or misconfiguration) are handled correctly ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1517). * Ensured that v0.5 does not include cached DNS responses to avoid confusing pipelines processing OONI data ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1530). * Fixed a bug where v0.5 was not able to correctly process URLs containing IPv4 or IPv6 addresses (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1511). In addition to the code and test case changes described above, we also verified ~40 data quality issues and we started sketching out fixes for other outstanding issues. All the data quality issues that we vetted and closed in January 2024 can be found here: https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues?q=is%3Aissue+label%3A2024-01-data-qual… *## OONI Explorer* In January 2024, we worked on updating dependencies for OONI Explorer ( https://github.com/ooni/explorer/issues/901), and we started working towards building design system components ( https://github.com/ooni/design-system/issues/168). We also started working towards presenting thematic censorship findings on OONI Explorer through brainstorming sessions to discuss the potential scope of work and agree on next steps. *## OONI Backend* We made significant progress on coming up with a plan about the future of OONI infrastructure. Specifically, we started exploring several solutions for having a better pattern for deploying frontend and server-side components. As part of this work, we carried out an internal survey with our development team. After experimenting with several different solutions, we concluded that it’s probably ideal to go for an approach which can be adopted iteratively and that connects well with the existing patterns. We will therefore have a system for defining our infrastructure as code and start using (where it makes sense) more cloud infrastructure ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/785). We also started making a big refactor of backend components to make it easier to deploy our OONI data analysis tool (https://github.com/ooni/data) as part of the OONI backend (https://github.com/ooni/backend/pull/791). *## Test list updates* Throughout January 2024, we coordinated with community members on updating the Citizen Lab test lists and we reviewed many pull requests. These include: * Updates to the Bangladesh test list ahead of the country’s January 2024 general elections (https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1544, https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1543, https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1531); * Updates to the Indonesian test list ( https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1527); * Updates to the Japanese and Global test lists ( https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1504, https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1511); * Updates to the Philippines test list ( https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1461, https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1559); * Updates to the Senegalese test list ( https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1600, https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1602); * Updates to the Thai test list ( https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1521). *## Research collaborations with partners on upcoming reports* In January 2024, we coordinated with the Tor Project on signing Fixed Award Agreements (FAAs) with 4 of our local partners to financially support their contributions to upcoming research reports (as part of a DRL grant). This officially initiated the research collaborations, and we started collaborating with our partners on several research reports. Specifically, we started this research process by finalizing the research scope for each of the upcoming reports, and collaborating with our partners on updating the Citizen Lab test lists for Russia, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, and Iran. Each of these test list updates has a thematic focus based on the specific research questions of each (upcoming) research report. *## Planning the OONI Partner Gathering 2024* We are excited to share that on 8th and 9th May 2024, we will host an in-person OONI Partner Gathering in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. As part of this 2-day event, we will bring our partners (primarily from Asia and the Middle East) together to share skills and knowledge on internet censorship research. The goal of the event is to strengthen regional and global collaboration on censorship measurement research and advocacy. To host this event, we had previously (in 2023) carried out all the necessary fundraising and logistical planning work. As we were not able to reach the target overall budget that would have allowed us to bring all our partners from around the world, we decided to limit the scope of the event primarily to our partners from Asia and the Middle East (while also inviting some of our international partners, whose work is relevant/important to our regional partners). We decided this because countries in Asia and the Middle East experience the most pervasive forms of internet censorship (and we therefore prioritized these regions over other regions which experience less internet censorship). In an effort to ensure that the OONI Partner Gathering is hosted in a location that is as visa-friendly as possible for our participants, we developed a script which identifies such locations based on various parameters, such as visa requirements, safety index, and flight travel time (https://github.com/hellais/global-gather). Based on this data-driven approach, Malaysia was identified as one of the top visa-free countries in the world for our specific list of participants. This was another reason why we decided to limit the event primarily to our partners from Asia. That said, we hope to host additional OONI Partner Gathering events for our partners in Africa and Latin America over the next few years. In January 2024, we sent official invitations (along with a Concept Note) to our partners from Asia (Southeast Asia, South Asia, East Asia, Central Asia), the Middle East, and to some of our international partners. We also started coordinating with a travel agency on the booking of flights, with the hotel on the booking of rooms and meeting spaces, and on a number of other logistics. We expect to welcome 46 participants at the OONI Partner Gathering in May 2024. *## OONI workshops and presentations### OONI training for Digital Rights Foundation Pakistan* On 12th January 2024, OONI’s Elizaveta hosted an online OONI workshop for Pakistan’s Digital Rights Foundation (https://digitalrightsfoundation.pk/), training their team members on how to use OONI tools in preparation for Pakistan’s upcoming 2024 elections. The goal of this training was to enable Digital Rights Foundation to train local journalists on how to use OONI tools to measure and monitor censorship events. *### OONI Q&A for BebasID Indonesia * On 12th January 2024, OONI’s Elizaveta and Simone hosted an online OONI Q&A session with the BebasID community in Indonesia (https://bebasid.com/). As part of this session, we answered questions regarding the use of OONI tools, we collected community feedback, and we discussed the current state of internet censorship in Indonesia with the BebasID community. *### OONI training for human rights advocates in Senegal * Between 16th-18th January 2024, OONI’s Elizaveta co-hosted a 3-day hybrid training for human rights advocates in Dakar, Senegal. We organized this training in collaboration with our local partners, Computech ( https://computechinstitute.com/) and Jonction ( https://jonction.e-monsite.com/), and the event was possible thanks to support from Access Now. The goal of the training was to share OONI skills and knowledge that would enable Senegalese human rights advocates and trainers to run OONI workshops for their communities in 5 different regions of Senegal. As part of this training, Elizaveta facilitated the following sessions: * Introduction to Internet Censorship * Using OONI Probe and OONI Run: Hands-on workshop * Updating the Senegalese test list: Hands-on workshop * Using OONI Explorer: Hands-on workshop As part of this training, the participants created the programmes for their own training and scheduled them for January and February 2024. Overall, the goal was to enable local Senegalese trainers and human rights defenders to lead and facilitate OONI censorship measurement workshops in their communities in preparation for the country’s 2024 elections. *### OONI presentation at IAB Workshop on Barriers to Internet Access of Services (BIAS)* On 17th January 2024, OONI’s Simone presented our research report on how internet censorship in Russia changed during the first year of military conflict in Ukraine ( https://ooni.org/post/2023-russia-a-year-after-the-conflict/) as part of the IAB Workshop on Barriers to Internet Access of Services (BIAS), 2024 ( https://datatracker.ietf.org/group/biasws/about/). The presentation is available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/rz2qkRfaNVE?si=i33_45UTX96Vs21z&t=3404 *## Activities by the OONI community### OONI workshop by Digital Rights Foundation for journalists in Pakistan * In January 2024, our partner, Digital Rights Foundation ( https://digitalrightsfoundation.pk/), facilitated two workshops for 60 journalists in Pakistan in preparation for the country’s 2024 elections. As part of this workshop, Digital Rights Foundation introduced participants to OONI tools and encouraged them to run OONI Probe tests leading up to the election. As part of their 2024 election monitoring efforts, Pakistan’s Digital Rights Foundation encouraged the use of OONI Probe as part of their ElectionDesk resource: https://election2024.digitalrightsfoundation.pk/internet-shutdowns/ *### OONI training by Digital Rights Lab for journalists in Sudan * On 13th January 2024, our partner, Digital Rights Lab Sudan ( https://ooni.org/partners/drlab/), facilitated online OONI training sessions in Arabic for journalists in Sudan. As part of the training sessions, they introduced participants to OONI tools and internet measurement. *### OONI training by Computech and Jonction in Senegal * On 27th January 2024, our partners, Computech ( https://computechinstitute.com/) and Jonction ( https://jonction.e-monsite.com/), hosted an OONI training session in Saint Louis, Senegal. This training (run by local trainers) included hands-on workshops on using OONI Probe and OONI Run. *### OONI training by Advocacy Assembly fellow for human rights defenders in Sierra Leone * On 29th January 2024, the Center for Advocacy and Sustainable Empowerment hosted an in-person workshop in Bo, Sierra Leone, as part of the Advocacy Assembly Internet Shutdown Mentored Training Program ( https://advocacyassembly.org/en/news/236). As part of this workshop, they introduced participants to OONI tools. OONI’s Elizaveta joined this workshop for the online Q&A session to address participants’ questions in relation to OONI’s work and tools. *## OONI Community Meeting* On 30th January 2024, we hosted the monthly OONI Community Meeting on our Slack channel (https://slack.ooni.org/), during which we discussed the following topics: Preparing for elections in 2024: How to monitor and respond to censorship events Improving OONI Explorer: Request for community feedback on needs and challenges *## Measurement coverage* In January 2024, 64,404,108 OONI Probe measurements were collected from 3,028 networks in 167 countries around the world. This information can also be found through our measurement stats on OONI Explorer (see chart on “monthly coverage worldwide”): https://explorer.ooni.org/ —------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *As a non-profit, we rely on donations and grants to defend a free and open internet for all.You can support OONI’s work through a donation (https://ooni.org/donate <https://ooni.org/donate>) or by getting OONI swag (https://shop.ooni.org/ <https://shop.ooni.org/>). We thank our supporters Jigsaw, Pantheon, Luminate, Amazon, DigitalOcean, Greenhost, Netlify, Surfshark, and VPNCompare for supporting OONI’s work and mission.If you are a company interested in supporting OONI, please refer to our Supporters page for more information: https://ooni.org/about/supporters <https://ooni.org/about/supporters>We also thank our funders for supporting our work over the years: https://ooni.org/about/supporters#funders <https://ooni.org/about/supporters#funders> *

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OONI Explorer Survey
by Maria Xynou 09 Apr '24

09 Apr '24

Hi friends, Are you interested in investigating internet censorship through open data? OONI Explorer (https://explorer.ooni.org/) is the world's largest open dataset on internet censorship, consisting of more than 2 billion network measurements contributed by the global OONI community. We're excited to learn about your experience with OONI Explorer so that we can improve it! Specifically, we're aiming to present thematic censorship findings on OONI Explorer, and we're eager to learn more about your needs, the challenges you have encountered, and the types of information that would be most beneficial to your work. To this end, we'd greatly appreciate it if you could *please take a few minutes to share your feedback with us through our survey*: https://forms.gle/tYv3pecJiUFfUfEh9 Please complete the survey by *24th March 2024*. Thanks so much for your time and feedback, we greatly appreciate it! Warm regards, Maria (on behalf of the OONI team).

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ooni-talk April 2024