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OONI Monthly Report: April 2023
by Maria Xynou 12 Jul '23

12 Jul '23

Hello, This email shares OONI's monthly report for April 2023. *# OONI Monthly Report: April 2023* Throughout April 2023, the OONI team worked on the following sprints: * Sprint 88 (27th March - 9 April 2023) * Sprint 89 (10th - 23 April 2023) Our work can be tracked through the various OONI GitHub repositories: https://github.com/ooni Highlights are shared in this report below. *## New partnerships* We are excited to have formed 2 new partnerships! Specifically, OONI established partnerships with the following digital rights organizations: * Roskomsvoboda (Russia): https://ooni.org/partners/roskomsvoboda/ * Miaan Group (Iran): https://ooni.org/partners/miaan/ The goal of the partnerships is to collaborate on the study of internet censorship (in Russia and Iran), and we published dedicated partner pages (provided above) to highlight their important work. *## Published report on the blocking of Telegram in Brazil* We published a new report documenting the blocking of Telegram in Brazil. The report is available here: https://ooni.org/post/2023-brazil-telegram/ OONI data shows that some ISPs in Brazil immediately complied with the federal judge’s decision to suspend Telegram, as the blocking of Telegram started on 26th April 2023 (same day as the judge's decision). However, the block was not implemented by all ISPs in Brazil, nor was it implemented in the same way. OONI data shows that some ISPs blocked access to all tested Telegram endpoints, while others only blocked some of them. This suggests lack of coordination between providers, and that each ISP implemented the block autonomously. Our Brazilian partner, Coding Rights, published a translated version of the report: https://codingrights.org/library-item/brasil-dados-da-ooni-sobre-o-bloqueio… *## Published report on throttling of news media in Kazakhstan* We published a new research report documenting the throttling of news media websites in Kazakhstan. This report documents how OONI data can be used to investigate and document cases of throttling. The report is available here: https://ooni.org/post/2023-throttling-kz-elections/ In our report, we analyze the ongoing throttling of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Kazakhstan’s service websites in Kazakh and Russian ( www.azattyq.org and rus.azattyq.org), which started on 27th September 2022. We also document the temporary throttling of Current Time TV during Kazakhstan's 2022 presidential election. OONI data shows the ongoing throttling of RFE/RL Kazakhstan’s service websites on most tested Kazakh providers, while Current Time TV was mainly throttled on AS9198 (JSC Kazakhtelecom). Our report received the following press coverage: https://www.rferl.org/a/kazakhstan-rferl-internet-throttling-ooni/32383892.… https://rus.azattyq.org/a/kazakhstan-throttling-azattyq-currenttime/3238407… https://www.azattyq.org/a/32383510.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I10nuJBKdUc *## OONI Probe Mobile* Throughout April 2023, we worked on OONI Probe Mobile bug fixing and release engineering. Specifically, we worked on the following bug fixes: * Resolved a crash occurring on custom website list test results ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/pull/569); * Fixed a bug related to starting the background service ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/pull/567); * Made progress on improving pagination-based scrolling in the test result screen (https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/pull/511, https://github.com/ooni/probe-ios/pull/485). We also worked on the following release engineering: * Released OONI Probe version 3.8.0 and 3.8.1 ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/pull/560, https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/pull/568); * Released beta versions for the Android platform, following the X.Y.Z-beta.A versioning pattern ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/pull/566); * Worked towards a deployment plan for beta versions on Android. *## OONI Probe CLI* In April 2023, we: * Started working towards optimizing how we manage the Mozilla certificate pool (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2444); * Continued investigating issues with our integration of tor ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2406#issuecomment-1479365235); * Introduced the optional type to more robustly handle cases where a specific value is not given (https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1131). *## OONI Run* As part of our work on improving OONI Run (https://run.ooni.io/), we understood that the OONI Run v2 and the richer testing input designs should be mutually compatible to reduce the overall complexity. We therefore started sketching out a prototype check-in API implementation that allows these two designs to interoperate (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2445). This is further discussed below (section on richer testing input). We also started updating the frontend application in preparation for upcoming UI changes. This work included migrating the codebase to TypeScript (https://github.com/ooni/run/pull/128) and adding basic end-to-end tests (https://github.com/ooni/run/pull/129). *## Expanding OONI’s testing model to support richer testing input* In April 2023, we continued working towards a design document ( https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/issues/1292) for richer testing inputs and we wrote a prototype (https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1130) implementing some of the ideas in the design document. We realized that the name “input” is often associated with the string we pass to experiments. We therefore considered introducing the concept of “target” to describe a piece of richer input, and we started working on a glossary defining terms used in the probe implementation. We also recognized that richer input and OONI Run v2 depend on each other ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2445). The future check-in v2 API serving the richer input to the probes could also serve OONI Run v2 descriptors. This realization means that we need to ensure that the richer input design and the OONI Run v2 design are mutually compatible. We implemented an experimental version of the check-in API to support richer testing input (https://github.com/ooni/backend/pull/658). *## Creating a methodology for measuring throttling* As part of our research on the throttling of news media websites in Kazakhstan (https://ooni.org/post/2023-throttling-kz-elections/), we applied our methods for measuring and evaluating cases of throttling. The report that we produced documents how OONI data can be analyzed to investigate cases of throttling. Specifically, our report documents how we analyzed TLS handshake data from the OONI Probe Web Connectivity measurements (collected from Kazakhstan). To perform this analysis, we used the OONI data analysis tool (https://github.com/ooni/data). *## OONI backend* We extracted API specs into a JSON file ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/pull/655), we ran experiments around STUN reachability, and we started moving issues from the old API and pipeline repositories on GitHub to the backend repository. We also deployed and configured Vector on our monitoring host to centralize the log management and implement log analysis. We detected a sudden drop in incoming measurements from the Android probe due to a bug in version 3.8.0, and we created internal dashboards for investigation. We also investigated an issue that incorrectly flagged Signal measurements as failed. *## OONI Explorer* In April 2023, we implemented an API entry point to fetch the measurement metadata and body by measurement_uid. This will allow OONI Explorer users to access every measurement even when two different measurements share the same report ID and URL (https://github.com/ooni/backend/pull/656). Along with the backend changes, we also added a new measurement page that requests the measurement based on the measurement_uid and redirects from the legacy page that requires the report ID and URL ( https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/850). *## Creating a Social Media Censorship Alert System* In April 2023, we made progress on the event detector developed for the new Social Media Censorship Alert System. As part of our work on social media blocking detection, we switched to using the Pandas library and worked on bug fixes and blocking detection improvements. This work is documented through the following pull request: https://github.com/ooni/backend/pull/651 *## Automating censorship detection and characterization based on OONI measurements* In April 2023, we made progress on automating the detection and characterization of censorship based on OONI measurements. Specifically, we carried out the following activities: * Continued developing analysis of DNS measurements to determine when DNS level blocking is happening; * Built a basic set of UI components for displaying DNS-related analysis and merged it into the ooni/data tool (https://github.com/ooni/data/pull/25 ); * Added support for running the analysis using dask to improve the performance and make it easier to scale across multiple machines ( https://github.com/ooni/data/pull/27); * Added support for storing the probe-generated analysis to make it easier to compare the new analysis engine with the current probe-based one ( https://github.com/ooni/data/pull/27/commits/eb460a42734fb73f6bb573edd051e0… ); * Added support for parsing middlebox test results and storing features related to them in database tables ( https://github.com/ooni/data/pull/27/commits/b8421096bd1d41b823e1a95ec51f3e… ); * Added support for processing Telegram measurements ( https://github.com/ooni/data/pull/28); * Added extraction and storing of additional probe-engine related measurement file keys ( https://github.com/ooni/data/pull/27/commits/f0f65917acb2b0c33208e50673cd6c… ). *## Community use of OONI data### Sinar Project’s report on censorship monitoring during Malaysia’s 2022 elections* Leading up to and during Malaysia’s 2022 elections, Sinar Project coordinated an OONI measurement campaign to monitor potential censorship events ( https://sinarproject.org/digital-rights/measuring-and-detecting-network-int…). Based on the analysis of OONI data collected during Malaysia’s 2022 elections, Sinar Project published a report, documenting their findings. Their report is available here: https://imap.sinarproject.org/news/15th-malaysian-general-elections-interne… *### Article about using OONI Probe in Turkmenistan* Progres, an online non-profit journal, published an article about OONI in Turkmen. This article describes OONI Probe, explaining how people in Turkmenistan could use the tool to document internet censorship. The article is available here: https://progres.online/sowatly/name-ucin-web-sahypalar-acylmayar/ *## Community activities### OONI workshop at the Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum (DRIF) 2023 in Kenya* OONI’s Elizaveta traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, to participate in the Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum (DRIF) 2023 organized by Paradigm Initiative. Information about the event is available here: https://drif.paradigmhq.org/ On 13th April 2023, Elizaveta facilitated an OONI workshop (“Tracking internet censorship: how to coordinate, document and investigate network interference in your country”) as part of the event. Information about the workshop is available here: https://drif.paradigmhq.org/stec_event/open-observatory-of-network-interfer… *### OONI MAT demo for Freedom House researchers* On 17th April 2023, OONI’s Maria provided a live demo of the Measurement Aggregation Toolkit (MAT) for Freedom House researchers. Through this session, Maria shared how researchers can use the MAT ( https://explorer.ooni.org/chart/mat) to track (and visualize) internet censorship around the world based on real-time OONI data, and use the platform to answer a variety of research questions. The goal of this session was to enable Freedom House researchers to make use of OONI data, increasing the use of OONI data as part of the annual Freedom on the Net reports (https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net). *### Presentation of Iran research to the EU High Level Group on Internet Governance* On 26th April 2023, OONI’s Maria joined IODA and ISOC to present the findings from our technical multi-stakeholder research report on censorship events in Iran ( https://ooni.org/post/2022-iran-technical-multistakeholder-report/) to EU Member States at the morning session (open stakeholder session) of the High Level Group on Internet Governance (HLIG). As part of this presentation, Maria shared OONI censorship findings involving the blocking of encrypted DNS, instant messaging and social media platforms, app stores, browser extension repositories, and circumvention tools in Iran. *### OONI hackathon at Internet Without Borders conference in Berlin* Between 28th-30th April 2023, the Internet Without Borders conference was held in Berlin (https://internetborders.net/blog/2023/05/01/berlin-report/). As part of this event, Ain Ghazal (OONI research fellow) facilitated an OONI hackathon that involved developing a VPN measurement research methodology for Russia and the occupied territories of Ukraine. *### OONI Community Meeting* On 25th April 2023, we hosted the monthly OONI Community Meeting on our Slack channel (https://slack.ooni.org/), during which we discussed the following topics: 1. Updates from the OONI team. 2. Community feedback for improving OONI tools (such as OONI Probe feature requests). 3. Using OONI Probe to measure internet connectivity shutdowns. 4. Recording automated testing as a signal for identifying internet outages. *## Measurement coverage* In April 2023, 53,140,981 OONI Probe measurements were collected from 3,003 networks in 166 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/ ~ OONI team.

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Installation on Debian + F-Droid Changelog
by Marek Küthe 05 Jul '23

05 Jul '23

Hello, I have a question and two comment: 1) The installation instructions for Debian could be considered outdated. Meanwhile it is - as far as I have noticed - considered good if the key is not included in the keyring, but is specified as a seperate file and in the source. ``` $ cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ooni.list deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/ooni.gpg] http://deb.ooni.org/ unstable main $ gpg /usr/share/keyrings/ooni.gpg gpg: WARNING: no command supplied. Trying to guess what you mean ... pub ed25519 2021-03-29 [SC] [expires: 2041-03-24] B5A08F01796E7F521861B449372D1FF271F2DD50 uid OONI package signing <contact(a)openobservatory.org> sub cv25519 2021-03-29 [E] [expires: 2041-03-24] ``` 2) Why is OONI Probe CLI not in the Debian package sources, but must be obtained from external package sources? 3) I find it nice that OONI is in F-Droid. I saw that there is a link to the changelog. However, F-Droid also has the feature of not only linking to the changelog, but also displaying it when an update is made. Maybe it would be worth a thought if OONI Probe would like to do that as well. Greetings Marek Küthe -- Marek Küthe m.k(a)mk16.de er/ihm he/him

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Opportunity: Internet Shutdowns Activism Fellowship
by Maria Xynou 04 Jul '23

04 Jul '23

Hi friends, I'm touching base to share a new fellowship opportunity by Advocacy Assembly ("Internet Shutdowns Activism Fellowship") for those of you interested in carrying out advocacy activities in response to internet shutdowns. Learn all about the *fellowship* opportunity here: https://advocacyassembly.org/en/news/236 The deadline to submit applications is *15th July 2023*. Please help share this with your networks! Thanks, Maria.

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OONI Explorer localization
by Elizaveta Yachmeneva 26 Jun '23

26 Jun '23

Hi folks! We are happy to announce that thanks to Localization Lab and our community members, OONI Explorer and MAT are now available in 8 languages: Chinese: https://explorer.ooni.org/zh-cn <https://explorer.ooni.org/zh-cn> Farsi: https://explorer.ooni.org/fa <https://explorer.ooni.org/fa> French: https://explorer.ooni.org/fr <https://explorer.ooni.org/fr> German: https://explorer.ooni.org/de <https://explorer.ooni.org/de> Russian: https://explorer.ooni.org/ru <https://explorer.ooni.org/ru> Spanish: https://explorer.ooni.org/es <https://explorer.ooni.org/es> Thai: https://explorer.ooni.org/th <https://explorer.ooni.org/th> Turkish: https://explorer.ooni.org/tr <https://explorer.ooni.org/tr> We hope that this update will allow more people to have access to OONI data and give local communities an opportunity to independently investigate internet censorship. Please encourage your partners and colleagues to use localized versions of the tools and let us know if you see any typos or inconsistencies, or if you want to help us translate it into some more languages! Best wishes, ~OONI Team

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OONI Community Meeting: 27th June 2023
by Elizaveta Yachmeneva 22 Jun '23

22 Jun '23

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/ <https://slack.ooni.org/> (bridged with IRC: ircs://irc.oftc.net:6697/#ooni <ircs://irc.oftc.net:6697/#ooni>) => When? Tuesday, 27th June 2023 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 <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

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New OONI Explorer features for investigating internet censorship through open data
by Maria Xynou 30 May '23

30 May '23

Hello friends, We're excited to share that OONI Explorer (open dataset on internet censorship) includes the following new features: * *Domain-centric* pages: https://explorer.ooni.org/domains * *Network-centric* pages: https://explorer.ooni.org/networks * *Charts on internet outages* (integrating IODA, Google traffic, and Cloudflare Radar data), available in each country-specific ( https://explorer.ooni.org/countries) and network-specific ( https://explorer.ooni.org/networks) page * *Mechanism for verifying OONI measurements* (available in each OONI measurement page) You can learn all about the above features through our blog post: https://ooni.org/post/2023-new-explorer-features/ We hope these new features help with monitoring and responding to censorship events worldwide. We thank each and every OONI Probe user who has contributed measurements from 2012 to date! Thanks to our global community, new measurements from around the world are published as open data on OONI Explorer in real-time: https://explorer.ooni.org/ We're happy to address any questions you may have, and we welcome your feedback. Thanks, OONI team.

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OONI Community Meeting + OONI Probe Android release
by Elizaveta Yachmeneva 29 May '23

29 May '23

Hello everyone! This is a reminder that the monthly OONI Community Meeting is taking place tomorrow. => Where? https://slack.ooni.org/ <https://slack.ooni.org/> (OONI Slack channel, bridged with IRC: ircs://irc.oftc.net:6697/#ooni <ircs://irc.oftc.net:6697/#ooni>) => When? Tuesday, 30th May 2023 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 <https://pad.riseup.net/p/ooni-community-meeting-keep> On a separate note, we would like to share that we released OONI Probe Mobile 3.8.2 on Android! This release fixes the Signal false-positive measurements <https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2477> which many of our community members and partners noticed in the past weeks. If you are an Android user, please update your OONI Probe app as soon as possible to update the Signal test in your app. Please update to the latest version on: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.openobservatory.ooniprobe <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.openobservatory.ooniprobe> Thanks, Elizaveta.

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OONI Community Meeting: 30th May 2023
by Elizaveta Yachmeneva 25 May '23

25 May '23

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/ <https://slack.ooni.org/> (bridged with IRC: ircs://irc.oftc.net:6697/#ooni <ircs://irc.oftc.net:6697/#ooni>) => When? Tuesday, 30th May 2023 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 <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

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OONI sessions at RightsCon, Costa Rica, 5-8th June
by Elizaveta Yachmeneva 24 May '23

24 May '23

Hi everyone! We are happy to share that part of our team, Maria, Arturo and Elizaveta, will be attending RightsCon <https://www.rightscon.org/> in Costa Rica! We compiled a list of sessions related to OONI, where we and our partners will be discussing OONI tools and sharing our latest projects and findings. Some of the sessions are online and hybrid, so please feel encouraged to join us at any of these events even if you do not plan to come to the RightsCon in person. If you plan to host other sessions or events during RightsCon and want to invite OONI Community, please feel free to share the info about the sessions (or events) in #ooni channel on Slack <https://slack.ooni.org/>. Please find here the sessions our team will be attending as speakers, all time is UTC +4 zone: KeepItOn in 2022: successes, opportunities, struggles, and lessons learned in the fight against election-related shutdowns Host: Access Now | Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) Time and location: June 6, 2023, 7 - 8pm +04, Room: Central 2 Tools to tackle internet shutdowns and censorship: What’s going on online? Building an internet shutdown early warning system Host: Measurement Lab | Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) | Georgia Institute of Technology, Internet Outage Detection and Analysis (IODA) Time and location: June 6, 2023, 8:15 - 9:15pm +04, Room: Colibri Data and action: using data analysis for incident response and threat prevention Host institution: Center for Digital Resilience Time and location: June 7, 2023, 8:15 - 9:15pm +04, Room: Tortuga Learn to investigate internet shutdowns through an Iran 2022 case study Host: Access Now | Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) | Georgia Institute of Technology, Internet Outage Detection and Analysis (IODA) Time and location: June 7, 2023, 10:45 - 11:45pm +04, Room: Tucan Internet blocking and the consequences for human rights? Host institution: Cloudflare Time and location: June 8, 2023, 10:45 - 11:45pm +04, online These are some other sessions featuring OONI, all time is UTC +4 zone: Election monitoring and internet shutdowns: reaching new communities for network measurement and activism before elections Host institution: National Democratic Institute (NDI) Time and location: June 7, 2023, 8:15 - 9:15pm +04, online Censorship circumvention: how to dodge Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) – Just plug in: an appliance approach to measure internet censorship Host institution: Venezuela Inteligente Time and location: June 8, 2023, 5:45 - 6:45pm +04, online Shutting down the shutdown: mainstreaming proactive civil society responses to internet disruptions Host institution: International Republican Institute (IRI) | Google (Jigsaw) Time and location: June 9, 2023, 12 - 1am +04, Room: Central 3 Warmly, OONI Team

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Job Opening: OONI Project Manager
by Maria Xynou 03 May '23

03 May '23

Hello, I'm excited to share that we're hiring! The OONI team (a non-profit fighting internet censorship) is looking for a dedicated *project manager* to help us manage our software development work. *Information about the job description, qualification requirements, and how to apply* is available here: https://ooni.org/post/2023-job-opening-ooni-project-manager/ Born in 2012, OONI builds free software (OONI Probe) that enables anyone to detect and collect evidence of internet censorship. With more than 100k installs, OONI Probe is run in more than 160 countries every month. To increase transparency of internet censorship, we publish censorship measurements as open data in near real-time. This data supports research and advocacy efforts investigating and fighting internet censorship worldwide. By joining our team, you will help manage our software development work, supporting a global community measuring internet censorship. This is a *full-time 12-month contract position* (which may be extended), starting ASAP. This is a *fully remote position*. We encourage applications from anywhere in the world! Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Please spread the word ( https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1653444903462895631) and help us find someone who can best serve the internet freedom community! Thank you, OONI team.

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