June 2024 - ooni-talk - lists.torproject.org

New OONI Community Interview with Tawanda Mugari, Digital Society of Africa
by Elizaveta Yachmeneva 26 Jun '24

26 Jun '24

Hi everyone! I am pleased to share that we published a new community interview with Tawanda Mugari, Co-Founder and Geek in Chief of the Digital Society of Africa (DSA) <https://digitalsociety.africa/>. DSA is our amazing partner <https://ooni.org/partners/digital-society-of-africa/> who works in six Southern African countries: Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Eswatini and South Africa. DSA works to strengthen the resilience and abilities of frontline activists, human rights defenders and other at-risk groups in the region to independently recognise and respond to digital threats and attacks. In the interview, Tawanda shares both organisational and personal experiences of preparing to and responding to internet shutdowns in multiple Southern African countries. Watch the full interview here: https://youtu.be/upCtt49WFiQ This interview is part of our “OONI Community Interviews” series, through which we highlight the important work of OONI community members, you can find more interviews on our YouTube channel <https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1sH9kYR-16nlPlFT-RDBs8O0OiS2N6fJ>. We also published a blog post to share the interview and information about DSA's work: https://ooni.org/post/2024-interview-with-tawanda-mugari/ Warmly, Elizaveta

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OONI Community Meeting: Tomorrow, 14:00 (UTC)
by Elizaveta Yachmeneva 24 Jun '24

24 Jun '24

Hi everyone! This is a reminder that the monthly OONI Community Meeting is taking place tomorrow. This time we won’t have any specific topic to discuss, but we have some questions in the pad: https://pad.riseup.net/p/ooni-community-meeting-keep Please add your questions to the OONI team, or the community to the same pad. Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow in #ooni channel! => Where? OONI Slack channel: https://slack.ooni.org/ => When? Tuesday, 25th June 2024 at 14:00 UTC (for 1 hour) Warmly, ~ OONI Team

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[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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Thanks
by Lee Ann Coleman 14 Jun '24

14 Jun '24

Key ID: 6B2943F00CB177B7 Fingerprint: 4C15 DDA9 96C6 C0CF 48BD 3309 6B29 43F0 0CB1 77B7 Sent from my iPad

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