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OONI Monthly Report: July 2022
by Maria Xynou 19 Oct '22

19 Oct '22

Hello, These days we're primarily supported by the DRL, which is why we do quarterly reporting. That said, we'd like to share monthly updates from the OONI team with the community, hence our July 2022 report shared below. I'll also follow-up to share our August and September 2022 reports. *# OONI Monthly Report: July 2022* Throughout July 2022, the OONI team worked on the following sprints: * Sprint 69 (1st-17th July 2022) * Sprint 70 (18th-31st July 2022) Our work can be tracked through the various OONI GitHub repositories: https://github.com/ooni Highlights are shared in this report below. *## Launched new Test Lists Editor* In July 2022, OONI launched a new Test Lists Editor: https://test-lists.ooni.org/ The Test Lists Editor enables the public to review and contribute to the Citizen Lab test lists ( https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/tree/master/lists) without a GitHub account. Their contributions automatically end up as pull requests on the Citizen Lab test list repository, which means they'd still be peer-reviewed. We also published a blog post which provides a brief user guide and shares information about the Test Lists Editor: https://ooni.org/post/2022-test-lists-editor/ *## Updated the OONI Data Policy* In preparation for the launch of the new Test Lists Editor ( https://test-lists.ooni.org/) we updated the OONI Data Policy to include a new section ("OONI web services") that mentions that we do not store email addresses (used to send login links for OONI accounts), and which shares the providers (and their data policies) that we use for deploying web services (https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/pull/1198) The updated OONI Data Policy is available here: https://ooni.org/about/data-policy *## OONI Probe Mobile* In July 2022, we released OONI Probe Mobile 3.7.0 for: * Android: https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/releases/tag/v3.7.0 * iOS: https://github.com/ooni/probe-ios/releases/tag/v3.7.0 This release includes: * New Vanila Tor experiment; * Automated testing of experimental tests; * In-app language selection; * Support for sharing a link to the OONI Probe app; * Measurement engine synced with OONI Probe CLI 3.15.2; * Bug fixes and improvements. While working towards the OONI Probe Mobile 3.7.0 release, we also: * Fixed a bug that prevented the VPN warning from appearing when running an OONI Run link (https://github.com/ooni/probe-ios/pull/496) * Worked towards improving the app performance when loading and showing measurements (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2150) * Fixed a bug that affected storage usage ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2149) * Worked towards improving the pagination of test results ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1430) * Updated the measurement-log retention policy ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2162) * Worked on a prototype of the OONI Probe app using flutter, which will allow us to have a shared codebase between the OONI Probe mobile and desktop apps. *## OONI Run* In an attempt to meet community needs (particularly those of researchers performing custom testing), we designed and implemented a minimal version of the next generation version of OONI Run (“OONI Run v2”) that enables community members to run OONI Run links without backend support ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/844) We made this functionality available to miniooni users with the goal of enabling community members to start experimenting with this new OONI Run version ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2184) and share feedback which can support further development and design decisions. Based on community requests, we also introduced a command line flag which enables users to repeat a measurement every given number of seconds (until OONI Run v2 has support for repeating the measurement with a schedule): https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/819 As part of our plan for incrementally releasing a new version of OONI Run ( https://run.ooni.io/) we started updating the specification for the new version of OONI Run based on our experimental miniooni-based deployment ( https://github.com/ooni/spec/pull/249) *## Expanding censorship measurement methodologies* We worked on data quality improvements to OONI measurements. Specifically, we improved the way in which the Web Connectivity test helper works, by using a single, independent HTTP Client per test helper request, to avoid hitting the limit of maximum connections per HTTP Client ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2182) We supported our Google Summer of Code (GSoC) student in developing a TLS middlebox experiment (https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/817) and experimented around improving how we perform DNS resolution to enable the opportunistic measurement of DoH endpoints ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/846) We also reviewed the work of an OTF Information Controls Research Fellow that we’re currently hosting ( https://github.com/ooni/minivpn/pull/10, https://github.com/ooni/minivpn/pull/12) *## OONI Explorer* As part of our work on improving OONI Explorer, we worked on: * Adding support for localization (https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/705 ); * Implementing domain-centric pages ( https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/762) * Maintenance, package upgrades, and fixing security vulnerabilities; * Improving the SEO of the Measurement Aggregation Toolkit (MAT). *## OONI backend* In July 2022, we continued to work on the migration to the Clickhouse database. This involved a series of backend tasks including the testing and switching to more API entry points, numerous configuration changes, and end-to-end testing of the processing of measurements. We fixed various bugs in the fastpath, including the handling of the measurement start time. We worked on the reprocessing of legacy measurements, which involved the deletion of old legacy measurements from the fastpath pipeline table, fixing a bug and adding metrics for the fetching of measurements across API hosts, and improving upon JSONL tables, among many other backend tasks ( https://github.com/ooni/api/pull/297) We improved the API performance by enabling gzip compression of measurements. We created internal dashboards to monitor and test the new ASN-based URL prioritization system (https://github.com/ooni/api/pull/293) We also worked on improvements to the new test helper ( https://github.com/ooni/pipeline/pull/392) and performed security updates to the infrastructure. *## Interviewing Community Coordinator candidates* In July 2022, we carried out and completed the second (and final) round of interviews for the OONI Community Coordinator position ( https://ooni.org/post/2022-job-opening-ooni-community-coordinator/) We were thrilled to have received applications from (and to have the opportunity to meet) many strong candidates. Based on both rounds of interviews, we decided to hire Elizaveta Yachmeneva for the OONI Community Coordinator position (who joined the OONI team in August 2022). *## Test list updates* In July 2022, we updated the test list for the Philippines to include websites that were reportedly blocked ( https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1022) *## New blocks emerged in Indonesia* On 29th July 2022, new blocks emerged in Indonesia. We shared relevant OONI data (and findings) with the #KeepItOn advocacy community. Specifically, the blocked services included: * PayPal: https://explorer.ooni.org/chart/mat?probe_cc=ID&test_name=web_connectivity&… * Yahoo: https://explorer.ooni.org/chart/mat?probe_cc=ID&test_name=web_connectivity&… * Steam: https://explorer.ooni.org/chart/mat?probe_cc=ID&test_name=web_connectivity&… * Origin: https://explorer.ooni.org/chart/mat?probe_cc=ID&test_name=web_connectivity&… * Epic Games: https://explorer.ooni.org/chart/mat?probe_cc=ID&test_name=web_connectivity&… * Dota2: https://explorer.ooni.org/chart/mat?probe_cc=ID&test_name=web_connectivity&… In many of the above cases, we were able to automatically confirm the blocks based on the IP returned from DNS resolution. In other cases, we were able to confirm the blocks because they were implemented through an HTTP middlebox serving a blockpage ( https://explorer.ooni.org/measurement/20220731T055038Z_webconnectivity_ID_4…) To encourage further testing of the blocked services, we shared an OONI Run link with the #KeepItOn community. *## OONI citations### Digital Defenders Partnership publication* Digital Defenders Partnership published a guide (in Spanish) describing how to document internet blockages and circumvent internet censorship. This publication, which cites OONI and describes OONI tools, is available here: https://www.digitaldefenders.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/2207-ISG_final-… *### OPTIMA report on the impact of internet shutdowns on women in Uganda* Sandra Aceng published a research report (as part of Internews’ OPTIMA project) which documents the impact of internet shutdowns on women in Uganda. This study makes use of OONI data collected from Uganda around the country’s 2021 elections. The report is available here: https://preparepreventresist.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Impact-of-Shutd… *## Community activities### OONI training session for journalists in Kenya* On 28th July 2022, OONI’s Maria facilitated an OONI training session for journalists in Kenya. The workshop involved introducing participants to OONI tools and data for investigating internet censorship in Kenya and around the world. *### OONI Community Meeting* On 26th July 2022, we hosted the monthly OONI Community Meeting on our Slack channel (https://slack.ooni.org/) during which we discussed the following topics: 1) Using OONI Explorer to group measurements by region 2) Request for community feedback: Do users want to have the option to delete specific measurements manually or automatically? 3) Request for community feedback on write/erase cycle limits *## Userbase* In July 2022, 47,752,189 OONI Probe measurements were collected from 2,892 ASNs 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/ ~ OONI team.

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New OONI Code of Conduct
by Elizaveta Yachmeneva 18 Oct '22

18 Oct '22

Hello all! Today OONI published the updated version of the OONI Code of Conduct: https://ooni.org/get-involved/code-of-conduct/ <https://ooni.org/get-involved/code-of-conduct/> This version of the Code of Conduct is a result of the incredible work of our community members, who initiated the discussion and provided numerous suggestions and insights, and of the Incident Response Committee members, who drafted and thoroughly reviewed the whole document together with our team. This document is an ongoing effort, so if you have any suggestions or ideas of how it should be changed to better meet the needs of our community, please get in touch with our Incident Response Committee by sending an email to coc(a)openobservatory.org. Please read the new version of the Code of Conduct <https://ooni.org/get-involved/code-of-conduct/> carefully and follow its guidelines. We believe that this set of rules will help us to keep our community spaces safe and welcoming for people of all backgrounds and to create a supportive environment for everyone. I hope you enjoy the reading and please let us know if you have any feedback or suggestions for this document! <3 Best wishes, Elizaveta

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New online OONI training course launched by Advocacy Assembly
by Maria Xynou 03 Oct '22

03 Oct '22

Hello friends, We are excited to share that a *free, online OONI training course* (“Measuring Internet Censorship with OONI tools”) has been launched on Small Media’s Advocacy Assembly platform! The OONI course is available in: * English: https://advocacyassembly.org/en/courses/63/#/chapter/1/lesson/1 * Farsi: https://advocacyassembly.org/fa/courses/63/#/chapter/1/lesson/1 * Arabic: https://advocacyassembly.org/ar/courses/63/#/chapter/1/lesson/1 * Spanish: https://advocacyassembly.org/es/courses/63/#/chapter/1/lesson/1 Through the above links, you can sign up with Advocacy Assembly and enroll for free! The course is estimated to take around *90 minutes*, and it includes a variety of *videos, screencasts, slides, quizzes and hands-on exercises*. No technical knowledge is required, as the course was designed for human rights defenders, journalists, and researchers. The online OONI training course covers: * Introduction to internet censorship * Measuring internet censorship with OONI Probe * Understanding OONI censorship measurement data * OONI Explorer: Accessing real-time censorship measurement data Notably, the course also includes 2 case study videos by the amazing *Zaituni Njovu* (Zaina Foundation) and *Felicia Anthonio* (Access Now), who discuss measuring internet censorship in Tanzania and as part of the #KeepItOn campaign. Learn more about the course through our blog post: https://ooni.org/post/2022-ooni-training-course-advocacy-assembly/ We have also tweeted about it here: https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1576888851934892038 We thank Advocacy Assembly for providing us with this amazing opportunity to create an OONI training course for their platform. We also thank translators and everyone else behind the scenes who helped with the creation of the OONI training course. <3 We hope you enroll and find the course useful! Cheers, Maria.

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PT community meetup September [29/09/2022]
by Vasilis 27 Sep '22

27 Sep '22

Dear all, This month Pluggable Transports meetup will take place on Tuesday, September 29. Time: 10:00 AM EDT / 2:00 PM UTC / 16:00 PM CEST Where: Pluggable Transports channel * [Matrix](https://matrix.to/#/#pluggable-transports:matrix.org) * [IRC (no account required)](https://webchat.oftc.net/?channels=pluggable-transports) * [Slack](https://openobservatory.slack.com/messages/pluggable-transports/) * [Mattermost](https://community.internetfreedomfestival.org/community/channel… Please add any topics you would like to discuss during the meeting here: https://pad.riseup.net/p/pt-meetup-keep More info and details on how to join: https://pluggabletransports.info/blog/pt-meetup-sep2022/ Hope to see many of you there. Best, ~Vasilis -- PGP Fingerprint: 8FD5 CF5F 39FC 03EB B382 7470 5FBF 70B1 D126 0162 PGP Public Key: https://keys.openpgp.org/vks/v1/by-fingerprint/8FD5CF5F39FC03EBB38274705FBF…

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OONI Community Meeting: Tomorrow, 27th September 2022
by Maria Xynou 26 Sep '22

26 Sep '22

Hello, The OONI team warmly welcomes you to join us tomorrow for our monthly community meeting. *=> Where? *OONI Slack channel: https://slack.ooni.org/ (bridged with IRC: ircs://irc.oftc.net:6697/#ooni) *=> When?* Tomorrow, *27th September 2022 at 14:00 UTC* (for 1 hour) As part of the meeting, we'll be discussing the *improved version of OONI's Code of Conduct* and we'll be requesting your feedback for further improvements. Please add any additional topics that you'd like to discuss during the meeting in this pad: https://pad.riseup.net/p/ooni-community-meeting-keep We hope you can join us! Thanks, ~ OONI team

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New Report: Iran blocks social media, app stores and encrypted DNS amid protests
by Maria Xynou 25 Sep '22

25 Sep '22

Hello, Today OONI published a new report documenting the latest censorship events in Iran amid the ongoing protests. Read the report here: https://ooni.org/post/2022-iran-blocks-social-media-mahsa-amini-protests/ *# Key Findings* OONI data shows new blocking events in Iran amid ongoing protests: ** Increased blocking of encrypted DNS. *As of 20th September 2022, OONI data shows that ISPs in Iran started blocking DNS over HTTPS (DoH) endpoints by means of DNS based tampering (returning bogons), in addition to implementing TLS level interference. Previously reachable DoH endpoints (such as cloudflare-dns.com) are now blocked. ** Blocking of WhatsApp and Instagram. *As of 21st September 2022, OONI data shows that many ISPs in Iran started blocking access to WhatsApp endpoints, web.whatsapp.com, and www.instagram.com. We mostly observe TCP/IP blocking, with additional DNS and TLS blocking. ** Blocking of Google Play Store and Apple App Store. *As of 22nd September 2022, OONI data shows that multiple ISPs in Iran started blocking access to Google Play Store and Apple App Store domains. ** Blocking of Skype and Linkedin. *As of 23rd September 2022, OONI data shows the blocking of Skype, while the blocking of Linkedin is automatically confirmed on at least 10 networks in Iran. In addition to the above blocks (and many other long-term blocks), Iran experienced *5 major outages affecting mobile networks* over the past week, which are visible in the IODA, Cloudflare Radar and Kentik datasets. OONI data suggests that Psiphon and Tor Snowflake work in Iran, and can potentially be used for censorship circumvention. We also share the key findings of our study in this Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1574108767226155008 You can continue to monitor censorship events in Iran through real-time OONI data: https://explorer.ooni.org/chart/mat?probe_cc=IR&test_name=web_connectivity&… We thank OONI Probe users in Iran who contributed measurements, supporting this study. <3 ~ OONI team.

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New Report: Azerbaijan and Armenia block TikTok amid border clashes
by Maria Xynou 16 Sep '22

16 Sep '22

Hello, Today OONI and Azerbaijan Internet Watch published a new research report which shares *OONI data on the* *blocking of TikTok in Armenia and Azerbaijan* during the border clashes over the last days. Read our report here: https://ooni.org/post/2022-azerbaijan-and-armenia-blocks-tiktok/ In *Azerbaijan*, OONI data shows: * TikTok website & endpoints blocked on at least 3 networks; * TLS level interference by dropping packets after noticing a disallowed server_name; * ISPs block TikTok based on different lists of TikTok endpoint domains. In *Armenia*, OONI data shows: * TikTok blocked on at least 2 networks; * On most networks, TikTok interference observed at the DNS level by returning an NXDOMAIN error, an IP address associated with www.google.com, or a set of unrelated IP addresses which contain an expired certificate for the server_name it.domain.name; * Not all tested networks in Armenia implemented the TikTok block and censorship techniques varied from network to network; * Several endpoints used by the TikTok app and website are also blocked on at least one network in Armenia. Overall, OONI data shows that Azerbaijan blocked TikTok by means of TLS level interference, while Armenia implemented both DNS level blocks and TLS level interference. Learn more through our report: https://ooni.org/post/2022-azerbaijan-and-armenia-blocks-tiktok/ We thank OONI Probe users in Armenia and Azerbaijan who contributed measurements, supporting this study. You can continue to monitor the reachability of TikTok (and other platforms) in Armenia and Azerbaijan through OONI data: https://explorer.ooni.org/chart/mat Thanks, Maria.

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Updated OONI user guides and documentation
by Maria Xynou 07 Sep '22

07 Sep '22

Hello friends, Hope you're all doing well. I'm touching base to share updated OONI user guides and documentation, which we hope you will find useful. *# Test Lists* Interested in contributing websites for censorship testing around the world? You can do that through our *Test Lists Editor*: https://test-lists.ooni.org Learn how to use the platform through our *new user guide*: https://ooni.org/support/test-lists-editor We have also updated our documentation for: * Contributing to test lists via GitHub: https://ooni.org/support/github-test-lists * General test list documentation: https://ooni.org/get-involved/contribute-test-lists (which we recommend reading, if you'd like to contribute to test lists) *# OONI Probe user guides* We also recently updated our user guides for: * OONI Probe Mobile: https://ooni.org/support/ooni-probe-mobile * OONI Probe Desktop: https://ooni.org/support/ooni-probe-desktop We're happy to address any questions, or discuss any feedback you may have. Cheers, Maria.

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Launched: New Test Lists Editor
by Maria Xynou 29 Jul '22

29 Jul '22

Hello friends, Today the OONI team is excited to share that we have launched a new platform, the Test Lists Editor, which you can use to *contribute websites for censorship testing*. Access the *Test Lists Editor* here: https://test-lists.ooni.org/ Learn all about the Test Lists Editor through our blog post: https://ooni.org/post/2022-test-lists-editor/ Our post also includes a brief *user guide*: https://ooni.org/post/2022-test-lists-editor/#using-the-test-lists-editor *# What are test lists?* Test lists are lists of websites tested for censorship (by OONI Probe, Censored Planet tools, etc.). Since 2014, the Citizen Lab has publicly hosted these lists on GitHub ( https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/) enabling important community review and contributions. *# Why the Test Lists Editor?* Community members with a social science background (such as political scientists, researchers, journalists, and human rights advocates) are often best-positioned to update test lists. However, test lists have been hosted on GitHub, which is a platform mainly used by developers. The Test Lists Editor is a web platform that enables you to review and contribute to the Citizen Lab test lists, *without a GitHub account*! Your contributions will still be reviewed by the Citizen Lab, OONI, and other experts, but you no longer require a GitHub account to contribute. *# Why contribute?* Discovering cases of website blocking really depends on *which* websites you test. Help the internet freedom community discover website blocks: https://test-lists.ooni.org/ Special thanks to Netalitica researchers for their excellent work on improving numerous test lists over the years! Huge thanks to all community members who contributed to test lists, and who shared feedback for the development of the Test Lists Editor. <3 Please help spread the word: https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1552990167195127809 Thanks, OONI team.

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PT community meetup July [28/07/2022]
by Vasilis 25 Jul '22

25 Jul '22

Dear all, This month Pluggable Transports meetup will take place on Tuesday, July 28. Time: 10:00 AM EDT / 2:00 PM UTC / 16:00 PM CEST Where: Pluggable Transports channel * [Matrix](https://matrix.to/#/#pluggable-transports:matrix.org) * [IRC (no account required)](https://webchat.oftc.net/?channels=pluggable-transports) * [Slack](https://openobservatory.slack.com/messages/pluggable-transports/) * [Mattermost](https://community.internetfreedomfestival.org/community/channel… Please add any topics you would like to discuss during the meeting here: https://pad.riseup.net/p/pt-meetup-keep More info and details on how to join: https://www.pluggabletransports.info/blog/pt-meetup-jul2022/ Hope to see many of you there. Best, ~Vasilis -- PGP Fingerprint: 8FD5 CF5F 39FC 03EB B382 7470 5FBF 70B1 D126 0162 PGP Public Key: https://keys.openpgp.org/vks/v1/by-fingerprint/8FD5CF5F39FC03EBB38274705FBF…

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