- ooni-talk - lists.torproject.org

PT community meetup June [28/06/2022]
by Vasilis 24 Jun '22

24 Jun '22

Dear all, This month Pluggable Transports meetup will take place on Tuesday, June 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://pluggabletransports.info/blog/pt-meetup-jun2022/ 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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Measuring DoT/DoH Blocking Using OONI Probe: A Preliminary Study
by Maria Xynou 17 Jun '22

17 Jun '22

Hello, Last year, OONI wrote a research paper ("*Measuring DoT/DoH Blocking Using OONI Probe: A Preliminary Study*") which was presented at the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS'21) as part of the DNS Privacy Workshop. You can read this paper here: https://www.ndss-symposium.org/wp-content/uploads/dnspriv21-02-paper.pdf This study involves an *investigation of encrypted DNS (DoT & DoH) blocking in Kazakhstan, Iran, and China* with a new OONI Probe experiment (DNSCheck). Today, we're publishing a blog post with a *summary of findings* (and video presentation): https://ooni.org/post/2022-doh-dot-paper-dnsprivacy21/ You can also find a summary of findings through this Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1537764247442268161 You can help contribute measurements on encrypted DNS blocking by running OONI Probe: https://ooni.org/install Huge thanks to community members who supported this study! Thanks, Maria.

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Research: A Quick Look at QUIC Censorship
by Maria Xynou 16 Jun '22

16 Jun '22

Hello, In previous months, OONI had the great pleasure to serve as the host organization for Kathrin Elmenhorst's Open Technology Fund (OTF) Information Controls Fellowship. As part of her fellowship with us, Kathrin investigated QUIC blocking & QUIC's potential for censorship resistance. Her findings reveal *QUIC censorship in China, India, Russia and Uganda*, and she shares approaches for QUIC censorship evasion. Learn more about her amazing research through her blog post ("*A Quick Look at QUIC Censorship*"): https://ooni.org/post/2022-quick-look-quic-censorship/ Thanks, Maria.

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OONI submission for OHCHR Report on Internet Shutdowns
by Maria Xynou 15 Jun '22

15 Jun '22

Hello, Currently the 50th session of the UN Human Rights Council is taking place. In response to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’s call for submissions in support of the OHCHR report on internet shutdowns and human rights to the 50th session of the Human Rights Council in June 2022, the OONI team provided a submission with relevant information on the occurrence of mandated disruptions of access to social media and messaging platforms over the past 5 years based on empirical OONI network measurement data. Read our submission here: https://ooni.org/documents/2022-ooni-submission-ohchr-report-internet-shutd… We share *OONI data on social media blocks during elections and protests over the last 5 years*. Thanks, Maria.

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Job Opening: OONI Community Coordinator
by Maria Xynou 06 Jun '22

06 Jun '22

Hello, I'm excited to share that we're hiring! The OONI team (a non-profit fighting internet censorship) is looking for a dedicated *community coordinator* to help grow and support the OONI community around the world. *Information about the job description, qualification requirements, and how to apply* is available here: https://ooni.org/post/2022-job-opening-ooni-community-coordinator/ 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 support our partners and global community of human rights defenders to measure and fight internet censorship. Our community is at the heart of our work, and you will play an important role in helping to ensure that our tools meet the needs of our community. 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! The application deadline is *Sunday, 12th June 2022.* Please spread the word ( https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1525110440153559040) and help us find someone who can best serve the internet freedom community! Thank you, OONI team.

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PT community meetup April [31/05/2022]
by Vasilis 27 May '22

27 May '22

Dear all, This month Pluggable Transports meetup will take place on Tuesday, May 31. 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-may2022/ 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: Tuesday, 31st May 2022
by Maria Xynou 26 May '22

26 May '22

Hello, The OONI team warmly welcomes you to join us next Tuesday for our monthly community meeting. *=> Where? *OONI Slack channel: https://slack.ooni.org/ (bridged with IRC: ircs://irc.oftc.net:6697/#ooni) *=> When?* Tuesday, *31st May 2022 at 15:00 UTC* (for 1 hour) Please add topics that you'd like to discuss during the meeting in this pad: https://pad.riseup.net/p/ooni-community-meeting-keep The monthly OONI community meetings aim to: * Collect community feedback on OONI tools & methodologies * Address questions in relation to the use of OONI tools and OONI data * Foster discussions on internet censorship issues * Receive updates from the community We hope you can join us! All the best, ~ OONI team

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[Event] Pop Up PTIM Session: Gamer Games Unblocked
by Vasilis 16 May '22

16 May '22

Dear all, Internews announced the next Pop Up PTIM Sessions! These are stand alone sessions, allowing the community to discuss PT related topics and stay up to date on the progress of this community. The second session will be presented by the Dr. Richard Brooks of Clemson University. They will share the work they have been doing for the past few years on the usage of PTs in the context of a VPN application. Read more about it here: https://www.pluggabletransports.info/blog/popup-ptim-minecruft-announcement/ This session will take place on May 19th at 13:00 UTC/9:00 ET. Session Title: Gamer Games Unblocked Registration: https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/GdwbPhD-Cpctzu8WAvVCSdH+G-KMawkttEag… Code of Conduct: https://www.pluggabletransports.info/code-of-conduct/ Announcement post: https://www.pluggabletransports.info/blog/popup-ptim-minecruft-announcement/ Please feel free to share this event announcement. Hope to see you there! --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 Monthly Report: March 2022
by Maria Xynou 18 Apr '22

18 Apr '22

Hello, OONI's March 2022 status report is shared below. *# OONI Monthly Report: March 2022* Throughout March 2022, the OONI team worked on the following sprints: * Sprint 60 (1st - 13th March 2022) * Sprint 61 (14th - 31st March 2022) 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 new blocks in Russia amid war in Ukraine* We published a research report on new censorship events in Russia amid the war in Ukraine, based on OONI data analysis. You can read the report here: https://ooni.org/post/2022-russia-blocks-amid-ru-ua-conflict/ Below we share some key findings: * Media censorship. Russia recently started blocking access to independent Russian news media websites (such as Dozhd and New Times) and foreign news media websites (such as BBC, Deutsche Welle, Russian version of Voice of America, and RFE/RL service websites). * Blocking of a website about captured and killed Russian soldiers. Russia blocked access to 200rf.com, which was created by representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine to share information about captured and killed Russian soldiers in Ukraine. * Centralized throttling of Twitter. OONI data suggests that access to twitter.com was throttled in Russia between 26th February 2022 to 4th March 2022. As the throttling of twitter.com seems to have stopped across all ISPs in Russia at the same time (~08:00 on 4th March 2022 UTC), it appears to have been centralized. Moreover, interference to twitter.com appears to have changed from throttling to blocking (through the injection of a RST packet) on 4th March 2022. * Blocking of Facebook and Twitter. OONI data shows that access to facebook.com and twitter.com was blocked in Russia by 4th March 2022 (primarily through the injection of RST packets). * Decentralized censorship. Every Internet Service Provider (ISP) in Russia is responsible for implementing government-mandated blocks independently. As a result, we observe variance in how internet censorship is implemented across Russia, as blocks are not implemented on all networks in the country, and different ISPs adopt different censorship techniques. Some ISPs implement blocks through the use of multiple techniques at the same time, making circumvention harder. * Different censorship techniques. To block websites, OONI data shows that Russian ISPs adopt the following censorship techniques (beyond throttling): * DNS manipulation, redirecting in some cases to blockpages * HTTP man-in-the-middle, serving blockpages * TLS man-in-the-middle * Injection of a RST packet after the ClientHello during the TLS handshake (most prevalent) * Timing out the session after the ClientHello during the TLS handshake * Closing the connection after the ClientHello during the TLS handshake These findings received press coverage from Wired ( https://www.wired.com/story/russia-splinternet-censorship/) Business Insider ( https://www.businessinsider.com/splinternet-in-pictures-what-russian-intern…) VPNCompare (https://www.vpncompare.co.uk/ooni-russia-censorship-propaganda/) and Protocol (https://www.protocol.com/russian-internet-crackdown) This research report also resulted in a donation to OONI from Pantheon, who (along with several other open web leaders) published a statement in support of OONI’s mission: https://pantheon.io/blog/pantheon-rises-support-open-web *## OONI Probe Mobile* We released OONI Probe Android 3.6.0: https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/releases/tag/v3.6.0 This release includes the following improvements: * New Tor Snowflake experiment * New DNS Check experiment * RiseupVPN test temporarily disabled * Links to OONI blog posts and research reports * User-initiated tests start off minimized * Improved progress bar and test runtime counter * Measurement engine synced with OONI Probe CLI 3.14 * Bug fixes and improvements We followed-up with an OONI Probe Android 3.6.1 release ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/releases/tag/v3.6.1) with a bug fix. On OONI Probe Android, we also worked on: * Enabling users to disable the VPN warning ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2015) * Exploring how to make the VPN check compatible with Netguard firewall ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1697) * Fixing a bug affecting the re-run button ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2043) * Adding support for in-app language selection ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1933) On OONI Probe iOS, we worked on: * Marking measurements coming from a VPN with a special annotation ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1901) * Ensuring that tests start minimized ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1976) * Changing the styling of the proxy indicator ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1919) * Ensuring that the VPN modal is only displayed before tests start running ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1982) * Addressing a bug that resulted in the minimized running test indicator from missing in the measurement list view ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1981) * Ensuring that VPN warnings are not displayed when the VPN warning option is disabled (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2015, https://github.com/ooni/probe-ios/pull/478) * Fixing the background color in the experimental test group animation ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2038) * Improving the progress bar of tests ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2021, https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1936) *## OONI Probe Desktop* We released OONI Probe Desktop 3.7.0: Leading up to this release, we made several release candidates for extensive testing and quality assurance ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-desktop/releases) Notably, OONI Probe Desktop 3.7.0 includes the following improvements: * New Tor integration (https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/issues/761) * New Tor Snowflake experiment ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-desktop/pull/271) * New auto-scrolling container for logs when running tests ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-desktop/pull/288) * RiseupVPN test temporarily disabled ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2002) * Bug fix affecting the custom website editor ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-desktop/pull/273) * Bug fix ensuring fallback to English for unsupported languages ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-desktop/pull/274) * Electron upgraded to v12 (https://github.com/ooni/probe-desktop/pull/278) *## Expanding censorship measurement methodologies* We wrote the third prototype of Websteps (codenamed “winter 2022”), our new experiment for measuring the blocking of websites. Rather than modifying the existing implementation, we chose to fork relevant packages of the probe-cli repository into a separate repository ( https://github.com/bassosimone/websteps-illustrated/) which allowed us to iterate faster and perform more changes without the risk of breaking the existing codebase or splitting each change into easy-to-review, small patches. We achieved quite a lot of progress in this fork, ranging from improvements to the underlying libraries to significant progress in terms of the final version of Websteps. The repository itself contains extensive documentation about what changed. Here we only provide some highlights: * We wrote a complete specification of Websteps that not only describes the measurement methodology, but also the analysis algorithms; * We tested this Webstep implementation on a few networks in China, Iran, and Italy; * We improved the conceptual model of Websteps, which now allows us to easily express what we are measuring, with more clarify with regards to the measurement algorithm; * We developed a new integration testing framework for Websteps that (rather than relying on simulating censorship using Linux networking capabilities as we currently do) is based on re-running actual measurements collected on censored networks; * We significantly improved the DNS implementation by adding support for PTR, CNAME, and NS records, fixing bugs and adding performance improvements; * We implemented a DNS Ping extension for Websteps that only runs after specific DNS measurements to collect extra information (e.g. multiple DNS replies) that is rather useful to collect evidence of DNS-based censorship; * We wrote a Websteps measurement library in Python that allows us to process and visualize measurements and manage integration test cases. As a next step, we are engaging external researchers for an additional round of review of the experiment. Following this review (and any further changes based on feedback), we will start the process of integrating the changes into the OONI Probe CLI repository. *## Launch of Circumvention Tool Reachability Dashboard* We launched a new dashboard (https://explorer.ooni.org/chart/circumvention) that presents findings from all censorship circumvention tool test results (including the new Snowflake test) on OONI Explorer. This new Circumvention Tool Reachability Dashboard presents aggregate views of real-time OONI data collected from the reachability testing of circumvention tools around the world. Through this interactive dashboard, users can check whether circumvention tools work and monitor their potential blocking around the world based on real-time OONI data. As the dashboard presents charts based on aggregate views of OONI data, these charts can potentially support relevant outreach and advocacy efforts. *## OONI Measurement Aggregation Toolkit (MAT)* Throughout March 2022, we made significant progress on the Measurement Aggregation Toolkit (MAT) in preparation for the public launch in April 2022. Based on community feedback and extensive testing, we worked on making several improvements ( https://github.com/ooni/explorer/issues?q=is%3Aissue+label%3AMAT+is%3Aopen) Notably, we added support (to both OONI Explorer Search and the MAT) for filtering Web Connectivity measurements based on website categories ( https://github.com/ooni/explorer/issues/288) This enables OONI Explorer and MAT users to filter measurements based on website categories (such as news media) and to easily discover thematic website censorship, such as the blocking of news media websites, human rights websites, and many other categories of websites (we use the Citizen Lab test list category codes). To ensure compatibility between the MAT and the OONI Explorer Search Tool, we added support for domain-based filtering ( https://github.com/ooni/explorer/issues/664) in the MAT (as opposed to filtering by URL). This enables users to get aggregate views of all measurements pertaining to a domain, rather than having to explore measurements separately for each URL corresponding to a domain. We made a series of improvements to the tables and charts generated through the MAT, and we improved the labels and copy used in various features (such as buttons and drop-down menus) of the platform. We also worked on adding code-level documentation to highlight critical parts of the codebase. Following all the improvements, we created a preview link for further testing leading up to the launch. *## OONI backend* During March 2022, OONI backend activities mainly involved the reprocessing of legacy OONI measurements to improve data quality. As part of this, we are working on improving the measurement re-processor ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/569) To monitor the progress, we developed new dashboards on Jupyter. As part of the migration to Clickhouse, we implemented fetching measurements from the spool directory served by Nginx and developed speed improvements for the API's get_measurement. We benchmarked ways to upload database tables from Clickhouse to S3. This could be used in the future to automatically publish database tables to external researchers. We made improvements to our URL prioritization algorithm ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/562) to ensure that popular social media URLs (which are frequently blocked around the world) are always prioritized for testing globally. As part of our work to move probes to the new test helper, we created a monitoring dashboard, we added performance metrics to the API, and we forwarded some of the production traffic to the new hosts. *## Improving OONI data analysis capabilities* As part of our efforts to consolidate block page fingerprints that we find with those collected by the Citizen Lab ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/516) we opened a pull request on the Citizen Lab repository for filtering annotations with DNS signatures from Russia (https://github.com/citizenlab/filtering-annotations/pull/1) These were extracted as part of our OONI data analysis efforts when investigating the emergence of new blocks in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. *## Creating an online OONI Training Course for Advocacy Assembly* During March 2022, we worked on completing all the materials for the online OONI training course that we are creating for Small Media’s Advocacy Assembly project (https://www.advocacyassembly.org/) In particular, we: * Created 11 screencasts for various OONI tools; * Wrote copy for 10 training slides (which are included in several chapters of the course); * Created quizzes for 3 training chapters; * Coordinated with partners on creating case study videos. *## Test list updates* In response to censorship events, we contributed updates to the following Citizen Lab test lists: * Russia: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/929, https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/930, https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/934 * Ukraine: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/935 * Egypt: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/939 * Global: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/938, https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/947, https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/948 We also reviewed and merged several test list pull requests contributed by community members. *## Notable community use of OONI Probe and OONI data* *### ISOC blog posts on blocks in Russia* As part of their “Internet Perspectives: Ukraine and Russia” blog series ( https://pulse.internetsociety.org/blog/internet-perspectives-ukraine-and-ru…) Internet Society (ISOC) published the following 2 blog posts based on OONI data: * OONI Data: Looking For Anomalies and Blocks: https://pulse.internetsociety.org/blog/internet-perspectives-ukraine-and-ru… * Top Categories for New Russian Internet blocks (OONI Anomalies): https://pulse.internetsociety.org/blog/internet-perspectives-ukraine-and-ru… *### Article on network congestion and blocks in Iran* Digiato (an Iranian technology news portal) published an article discussing network congestion in Iran, where Iranian experts discuss intermittent blocks in the country, citing OONI data ( https://digiato.com/article/2022/02/23/why-iran-internet-is-congested) The article also features a screenshot of a chart generated from OONI’s Measurement Aggregation Toolkit (to demonstrate the intermittent blocks). *## Community activities### OONI presentation at Spacemesh Meetup* Spacemesh is a cryptocurrency organization that also has a social causes program (https://spacemesh.io/blog/spacemesh-social-causes-program/) As part of this program, they focused on “Fighting Censorship” and engaged their global community with using OONI Probe ( https://spacemesh.io/blog/winning_together-raise-the-flag/#challenge-overvi…) In particular, they encouraged their community to install and run OONI Probe, and to practice several OONI Probe hands-on exercises (“challenges”) that we shared with them. We were also invited to give an OONI presentation for Spacemesh. On 8th March 2022, OONI’s Maria presented OONI at a Spacemesh meetup. The presentation can be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/688867593 Spacemesh subsequently wrote about OONI in their weekly newsletter: https://smesher.substack.com/p/weekly-inspiration-for-humans-in *### OONI Community Meeting* On 29th March 2022, 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 (new research and OONI Probe releases) 2) Cambodia’s National Internet Gateway 3) Addressing false positives in OONI measurements 4) Simplifying the OONI FAQ *## Userbase* In March 2022, 40,833,632 OONI Probe measurements were collected from 3,155 AS 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/ ~ OONI team.

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OONI Monthly Report: February 2022
by Maria Xynou 18 Apr '22

18 Apr '22

Hello, OONI's February 2022 status report is shared below. *# OONI Monthly Report: February 2022* Throughout February 2022, the OONI team worked on the following sprints: * Sprint 58 (1st - 13th February 2022) * Sprint 59 (14th - 27th February 2022) Our work can be tracked through the various OONI GitHub repositories: https://github.com/ooni Highlights are shared in this report below. *## OONI submission for the OHCHR report on internet shutdowns* On 10th February 2022, we sent a submission in response to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’s call for submissions in support of OHCHR report on internet shutdowns and human rights to the fiftieth session of the Human Rights Council in June 2022 ( https://www.ohchr.org/en/Issues/CivicSpace/Pages/cfi-report-hrc-50.aspx) In particular, the OONI submission provides information on the occurrence of mandated disruptions of access to social media and messaging platforms over the past 5 years based on empirical OONI network measurement data. Through our submission, we share information on social media blocks that occurred during elections in Uganda, Tanzania, Mali, Benin, Togo, Burundi, and Zambia over the last 5 years (based on OONI data). We also share information on social media blocks that occurred during protests in Pakistan, Jordan, Iran, Zimbabwe, and Cuba. Moreover, we share OONI data and information on social media blocks that emerged during sensitive political time periods in Ethiopia, Myanmar, and Venezuela. In our submission, we also recommend that the OHCHR considers expanding this scope to also report on cases that involve the blocking of websites of marginalized communities. *## OONI Probe Mobile* Throughout February 2022, we worked towards the OONI Probe Android 3.6.0 release. In particular, we worked on the following OONI Probe Android improvements: * Worked on ensuring that the VPN modal is displayed prior to the running of tests (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1982) * Improved the UI for minimizing a running test ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1998) * Fixed a bug affecting the display of the indication that a proxy is being used (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1919) * Fixed a bug affecting Web Connectivity tests ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1328) * Improved the performance of the test startup time ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2012) * Improved the progress bar of tests ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2021, https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1936) * Fixed a bug affecting the OONI backend ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1922) * Disabled the RiseupVPN test from OONI Probe ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2001) We also worked on the following OONI Probe iOS improvements: * Added links to the OONI blog and research reports in OONI Probe iOS ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1850) * Fixed a bug that caused the OONI Probe iOS app to crash with a malformed URL (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1978) In preparation for the upcoming release of our new Tor Snowflake experiment, we wrote a test description, which we published on our website: https://ooni.org/nettest/tor-snowflake/ *## OONI Run* We continued to make incremental improvements to OONI Run based on community feedback. In particular, we fixed a bug affecting the copy-pasting of URLs into the OONI Run platform ( https://github.com/ooni/run/issues/82) *## OONI Probe Desktop* Throughout February 2022, we worked towards the OONI Probe Desktop 3.7.0 release. In late February 2022, we released the release candidate for OONI Probe Desktop 3.7.0: https://github.com/ooni/probe-desktop/releases/tag/v3.7.0-rc.1 In particular, we worked on the following OONI Probe Desktop improvements: * Fixed a bug affecting website testing ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1848) * Fixed a bug affecting the “test duration limit” (following recent OONI Probe CLI changes); * Fixed a bug affecting the RiseupVPN test result screen ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-desktop/pull/272) * Ensured that OONI Probe Desktop defaults to English on unsupported languages (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1914) * Disabled the RiseupVPN test from OONI Probe Desktop ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2002) *## OONI Probe Command Line Interface (CLI)* We released OONI Probe CLI 3.14.1 along with new mobile libraries for Android and iOS. You can read the changelog here: https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/releases/tag/v3.14.1 Some highlights: * We added the DNS Check test to the experimental test suite; * We added the Tor Snowflake test to the experimental test suite; * We made `ooniprobe list` approximately 7 times faster than before; * We fixed our mobile libraries to ensure that all measurements are submitted. Previously, there were cases when the last measurement in a Web Connectivity run would not be submitted when the experiment timeout occurred right before an attempt to submit this measurement (see: https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2037) * We fixed a bug which prevented the NDT test from working on Android 6 phones due to the bundling of a very old certification authority ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2031) * We added a workaround to handle an inconsistency in how Android 10 NXDOMAIN errors are reported which would otherwise cause measurements to be marked as failed. This was done by tweaking our error classifier for this error condition (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2029) and we started working on a more comprehensive fix for v3.15. *## Expanding censorship measurement methodologies* In preparation for the OONI Probe CLI 3.14 release, we performed extensive QA of the new Tor Snowflake experiment ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1917 and https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2004) where we discussed the proper experiment configuration with Tor Snowflake developers. We eventually settled for a configuration where we allow tor to cache on disk its descriptors to increase the chances that tor could successfully bootstrap using Snowflake. We determined that bootstrapping issues are probably caused by the Snowflake bridge being at capacity, which is a problem being addressed upstream. We started researching how we could use data we already collect to detect cases of heavy throttling. We developed a prototype experiment, called “download”, to explicitly investigate these conditions ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2025) We applied some of the preliminary knowledge we gathered from this new experiment to detect cases of Twitter throttling using data already collected by Web Connectivity in our report on censorship in Russia amid the conflict in Ukraine ( https://ooni.org/post/2022-russia-blocks-amid-ru-ua-conflict/#twitter-throt… ). We discovered and documented issues with the RiseupVPN experiment ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1999) and decided to temporarily disable the experiment from the OONI Probe apps ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2000) until those fundamental issues have been resolved. We also discovered an issue with the tor experiment, where security changes in the upstream obfs4 library caused the NTOR handshake to fail with some of the bridges we are currently testing ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1970 and https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1986) We discussed this issue with the obfs4 maintainer, which helped us understand the extent of the change. We concluded that for the OONI Probe CLI 3.14 release, we would not use the most updated version of the obfs4 library, in order to provide bridge operators some extra time to update obfs4. We aim to upgrade obfs4 in the next OONI Probe release. We helped our OTF Information Controls Research Fellow Kathrin Elmenhorst to implement a QUIC Ping experiment aimed at better characterizing cases of QUIC blocking (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1994) The core idea of the experiment is to initiate a QUIC session using an invalid version number, to elicit a version negotiation message from a server. The message sent to initiate the session does not contain valid TLS data, therefore this experiment helps us to distinguish cases where QUIC is blocked from cases where the blocking depends on the TLS data contained in the initial QUIC datagram. *## OONI Explorer localization* Through collaboration with the Localization Lab, OONI Explorer copy was added to Transifex to enable translation of the platform by the global Localization Lab community. OONI Explorer can now be translated through the following Transifex project: https://www.transifex.com/otf/ooni-explorer/ Thanks to the Localization Lab community, OONI Explorer is being translated to 20 languages, and is already fully translated to Persian, Turkish, and French. *## Circumvention Tool Reachability Dashboard* Leading up to the launch (early March 2022), we worked on final improvements to our new Circumvention Tool Reachability Dashboard ( https://explorer.ooni.org/chart/circumvention) This included a series of UI improvements based on review and testing of the platform ( https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/653#pullrequestreview-877501889) *## OONI Measurement Aggregation Toolkit (MAT)* We continued to make improvements to our new Measurement Aggregation Toolkit (MAT) in preparation for the public launch (early April 2022). These improvements included improvements to the readability of x-axis charts, and layout changes in charts for longer date ranges (expanding beyond 2 months). We also made backend improvements to the aggregation API to improve how anomalous, confirmed, and failed measurements are grouped and counted in the API (https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/486) *## OONI backend* We continued to work on migrating the OONI API to the new Clickhouse-based backend in production (https://github.com/ooni/pipeline/pull/371) This involved testing the new Clickhouse-based API ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/552) re-importing the fastpath table with a domain column, comparing statistics generated by the private API, extensive monitoring, testing API endpoints and migrating them, and fixing the counts inside the aggregation API ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/486) We also continued working on a number of other backend activities, such as improving the Prometheus and Grafana dashboards and alerting to monitor the Clickhouse database and its server. We cleaned up various spurious alerts and alerts that emerged due to limited memory on the ams-pg-test host. We ran an experiment predicting incoming traffic using sklearn's (machine learning library) linear regression. The experiment was successful. We set up log forwarding and ingestion using the monitoring server and created an example dashboard on Jupyter. We implemented a tool to run Jupyter notebooks automatically, which allows us to produce charts on an hourly, daily or weekly basis (https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/564) We created a dashboard to monitor API check-ins. We also worked on adding support to the check-in API for returning geolocation information ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/555) We started a thorough review of measurements that were not processed successfully in the past due to unsupported formats or parsing errors ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/538) As part of this, we also created Jupyter dashboards and started a design document to plan the reprocessing of measurements. We also investigated a bug impacting RiseupVPN measurements ( https://github.com/ooni/pipeline/pull/379) In preparation for a security audit, we also continued to work on extensive threat modeling ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/556) *## Improving OONI data analysis capabilities* We worked on data analysis and research related to extracting per website metrics (https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/330) As part of this, we wrote an internal design document that outlines the features of various OONI measurements that are useful for performing data analysis tasks ( https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/issues/1112) This document will support our efforts in extracting data from OONI measurements that is useful for characterizing different forms of internet censorship. We also worked towards consolidating our block page fingerprint collection efforts with the Citizen Lab filtering annotations ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/516) This will enhance our ability to automatically detect and confirm more cases of website blocking around the world. *## Improving third party usage of OONI data* To enable third parties (such as researchers) to make use of OONI data, we worked on implementing a tool for third party download of OONI data. To avoid drifting out of sync, we determined in our design goals that this tool should use the same codebase as the OONI data processing pipeline. Initial work on this new tool was published as a branch of the OONI pipeline repository: https://github.com/ooni/pipeline/pull/377 We also created an internal design document, which outlines some of the current challenges in third party OONI data consumption and shared it for feedback with some key users of OONI data. *## Creating an online OONI Training Course for Advocacy Assembly* Small Media has provided us the opportunity to create an online OONI Training Course for their Advocacy Assembly project ( https://www.advocacyassembly.org/) which features a variety of training courses for human rights defenders. In February 2022, we started working on creating the online OONI training course. We started off by reviewing several past Advocacy Assembly training course scripts and videos in order to better understand how these courses are structured. Based on this, we finalized the structure for the OONI training course. Structurally, the online OONI training course will entail the following 7 chapters: * Introduction to the course * Introduction to internet censorship * Measuring internet censorship * Measuring internet censorship with OONI Probe * Understanding OONI censorship measurement data * OONI Explorer: Accessing real-time censorship measurement data * Conclusion Each chapter will dive into each topic in depth, providing participants with videos, screencasts, slides, quizzes, and hands-on exercises. Throughout February 2022, we created several hands-on exercises for the course, and we wrote the scripts for 8 direct-to-camera videos for the following (sub-)chapters: * Introduction to the course * What is internet censorship? * The problem of internet censorship * What is OONI Probe? * Interpreting OONI data * What is OONI Explorer? * Looking at OONI data in aggregate * Conclusion In April 2022, we will travel to London to record the above videos (based on the scripts we wrote) at a studio with Small Media. *## ISOC Pulse project on Internet shutdowns* OONI is a data partner for the Internet Society (ISOC) Pulse project on Internet shutdowns (https://pulse.internetsociety.org/partners) We aim to contribute OONI data (along with relevant charts and information) for all the “content blocking” events listed on the ISOC Pulse shutdowns timeline ( https://pulse.internetsociety.org/shutdowns) To this end, we started off by creating an inventory of all ISOC Pulse “content blocking” entries listed per year in their timeline (which span from 2018 to date). We then created content for the “content blocking” entries listed for 2022, including relevant OONI data, charts, and interpretation, which we shared with ISOC (to include in their timeline). We also started creating content (short reports) for the 2021 entries listed in the ISOC Pulse shutdown timeline. *## OTF Information Controls Research Fellows* In February 2022, OONI started serving as the host organization for OTF Information Controls Research Fellow, Ain Ghazal. Throughout their 1-year fellowship, Ain will study censorship resistance systems in global VPN infrastructure. Further information about their research fellowship is available here: https://www.opentech.fund/about/people/ain-ghazal/ As of February 2022, OONI is excited to serve as the host organization for a total of 3 OTF Information Controls Research Fellows. We are also hosting: * Kathrin Elmenhorst (investigating HTTP/3 censorship): https://www.opentech.fund/about/people/kathrin-elmenhorst/ * Gurshabad Grover (investigating the role of private ISPs in exacerbating or minimizing the effects of state-ordered censorship): https://www.opentech.fund/about/people/gurshabad-grover/ *## Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2022 OONI project ideas* Over the past years, we have submitted Google Summer of Code (GSoC) project ideas for OONI via the Tor Project ( https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/programs/2022/organizations/the-tor-pro…) For the summer of 2022, we submitted the following OONI project ideas for GSoC students: OONI Probe Network Experiments OONI Probe CLI Improvements OONI Explorer Improvements Further information is available here: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/team/-/wikis/GSoC *## Collaboration with Netalitica* Netalitica researchers continued to do excellent work in reviewing and updating the Citizen Lab test lists. In February 2022, we reviewed their updates to the test lists for Hungary ( https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/892) and Poland. *## Test list updates* In response to (potential) censorship events, we contributed updates to the following Citizen Lab test lists: * Global: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/889, https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/890, https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/915 * South Korea: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/891 * Turkey: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/911 We also reviewed and merged several test list pull requests contributed by community members. *## Emerging censorship events### New censorship events in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine* Following the invasion of Ukraine, Russia ramped up its censorship. Real-time OONI data collected from Russia shed light on these new censorship events as they emerged. Starting from 26th February 2022, Russia started to throttle access to Twitter and to block access to several independent news media websites. We started off by sharing OONI findings on social media ( https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1497951299593281538) and with mailing lists, while performing more extensive data analysis as new blocks emerged. Based on our analysis, we wrote a research report, which we published in early March 2022. *### Twitch blocked in Iran* Twitch was temporarily blocked in Iran on 27th and 28th February 2022. This was detected and reported by community members in Iran who shared relevant OONI data (https://twitter.com/xhdix/status/1497961275225214980/) OONI data involving the block can be accessed and viewed through the following MAT chart: https://explorer.ooni.org/experimental/mat?probe_cc=IR&test_name=web_connec… *## Notable community use of OONI Probe and OONI data### VEsinFiltro report on the blocking of news media websites in Venezuela* On 1st February 2022, our Venezuelan partner, VEsinFiltro, published a report documenting the blocking of news media websites in Venezuela: https://vesinfiltro.com/noticias/2022-02-01-bloqueo-Noticias/ Their report makes use of OONI data, as well as network measurement data collected from their own custom tools. *### VEsinFiltro report on the blocking of circumvention tools in Venezuela* On 7th February 2022, VEsinFiltro published a report documenting the blocking of circumvention tools in Venezuela: https://vesinfiltro.com/noticias/2022-02-07-restriction-circumvention-tools/ Their report makes use of OONI data, involving the analysis of measurements collected from the OONI Probe Tor and Web Connectivity experiments. *### ECOWAS court ruling on internet shutdown in Togo* Togo’s internet shutdown amid protests in September 2017 was challenged in the “Amnesty International Togo and Ors v. The Togolese Republic” case ( https://globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/cases/amnesty-international-…) brought to the Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). In preparation for this case, the OONI team was asked to share relevant technical expertise, along with other experts. We analyzed the internet shutdown and shared a technical analysis in support of the court case ( https://twitter.com/FrancoisPatuel/status/1494030238388563968) As an outcome, the Community Court of Justice of ECOWAS held that the Togolese government violated the applicants’ right to freedom of expression by shutting down the internet during protests in September 2017, and ordered the Respondent State of Togo to take measures to guarantee the “non-occurrence” of a future similar situation. The ECOWAS court ruling on the September 2017 internet shutdown in Togo won the Columbia University Global Freedom of Expression 2022 Significant Legal Ruling Award ( https://globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/prizewinners2022/) *## Community activities### OONI workshop in Tanzania by Zaina Foundation* On 28th February 2022, Zaina Foundation (our partner in Tanzania) facilitated an OONI workshop as part of their broader Digital Security Training for women journalists in Dar es Salaam ( https://twitter.com/ZainaFoundation/status/1498330087258742789) *### OONI FAQ translated to Khmer by DigitalHub101* Cambodian civil society group, DigitalHub101, published a version of the OONI FAQ (https://ooni.org/support/faq/) in Khmer: https://digitalhub101.com/ooni/ This new page features information in Khmer about OONI, OONI Probe, OONI Explorer, and OONI research reports. We linked to their translated version in the main OONI FAQ page to enable more community members to benefit from the translation. *### OONI Community Meeting* On 22nd February 2022, we hosted the monthly OONI Community Meeting on our Slack channel (https://slack.ooni.org/) during which we discussed the following topics: 1) “Internet Protection Bill” in Iran 2) OONI measurement coverage from Zimbabwe *## Userbase* In February 2022, 36,927,939 OONI Probe measurements were collected from 2,556 AS networks in 158 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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