- ooni-talk - lists.torproject.org

OONI Monthly Report: April 2022
by Maria Xynou 15 Jul '22

15 Jul '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 April 2022 report shared below. I'll also follow-up to share our May and June 2022 reports. *# OONI Monthly Report: April 2022* Throughout April 2022, the OONI team worked on the following sprints: * Sprint 62 (1st - 10 April 2022) * Sprint 63 (11th - 24th April 2022) * Sprint 64 (25th April - 30th April 2022) Our work can be tracked through the various OONI GitHub repositories: https://github.com/ooni Highlights are shared in this report below. *## Launched the OONI Measurement Aggregation Toolkit (MAT)* We publicly launched OONI’s new Measurement Aggregation Toolkit (MAT): https://explorer.ooni.org/chart/mat The MAT is a tool that enables the public to create their own custom charts based on aggregate views of real-time OONI data collected from around the world. This tool was built for researchers, journalists, and human rights defenders interested in examining internet censorship around the world. When examining cases of internet censorship, it's important to look at many measurements at once ("in aggregate") in order to identify censorship trends and patterns. The MAT incorporates our data analysis techniques, enabling the public to answer such questions without any data analysis skills, and with the click of a button! To provide further details about using the MAT and interpreting MAT charts, we wrote and published a blog post: https://ooni.org/post/2022-ooni-mat/ We hope the internet freedom community finds the MAT useful for investigating and responding to internet censorship events around the world. *### Preparing for the MAT launch* In preparation for the public launch of OONI’s Measurement Aggregation Toolkit (MAT), we: * Improved the interaction between the table and the chart in the multi-axis charts (https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/724) * Added support for exporting data in CSV format and added links to CSVs under the charts (https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/741) * Wrote (and published) “Help” text for the MAT ( https://github.com/ooni/explorer/issues/727) * Worked on several other bug fixes and improvements ( https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/731, https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/732, https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/737, https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/740, https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/741) *## OONI MAT shows social media blocks in Sri Lanka* OONI’s new Measurement Aggregation Toolkit (MAT) was useful for enabling human rights defenders to corroborate the social media blocks that were reported in Sri Lanka between 2nd to 3rd April 2022. The following OONI MAT charts (which we shared with the #KeepItOn community) present aggregate views of OONI data, displaying the temporary blocking of social media services in Sri Lanka on 2nd and 3rd April 2022: * Twitter: https://explorer.ooni.org/experimental/mat?probe_cc=LK&test_name=web_connec… 2022-03-06&until=2022-04-06&axis_x=measurement_start_day * Facebook: https://explorer.ooni.org/experimental/mat?probe_cc=LK&test_name=web_connec… 2022-03-06&until=2022-04-06&axis_x=measurement_start_day * Instagram: https://explorer.ooni.org/experimental/mat?probe_cc=LK&test_name=web_connec… 2022-03-06&until=2022-04-06&axis_x=measurement_start_day * Facebook Messenger: https://explorer.ooni.org/experimental/mat?probe_cc=LK&test_name=facebook_m… 2022-03-06&until=2022-04-06&axis_x=measurement_start_day * Telegram: https://explorer.ooni.org/experimental/mat?probe_cc=LK&test_name=telegram&s… 2022-03-06&until=2022-04-06&axis_x=measurement_start_day * WhatsApp: https://explorer.ooni.org/experimental/mat?probe_cc=LK&test_name=whatsapp&s… 2022-03-06&until=2022-04-06&axis_x=measurement_start_day By clicking on each of these charts, the public can access the raw OONI measurement data, showing details of how the blocks were implemented and how they vary across ISPs in the country. The links to the above charts are automatically updated with real-time OONI data. *## Circumvention Tool Reachability Dashboard* We made some improvements to our new Circumvention Tool Reachability Dashboard, which presents OONI findings from the testing of censorship circumvention tools around the world ( https://explorer.ooni.org/chart/circumvention) In particular, we added copy that highlights a limitation to the dashboard, while also encouraging users to refer to Tor Metrics and the Psiphon Data Engine ( https://github.com/ooni/explorer/issues/726) to gain a more comprehensive understanding of whether circumvention tools work in a country. *## OONI Explorer network-centric views* In April 2022, we worked on implementing network-centric views for OONI Explorer (https://github.com/ooni/explorer/issues/744) The implementation (and subsequent review, feedback, and improvements) is available through the following pull request: https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/750 *## OONI Probe Mobile* We released OONI Probe iOS 3.6.0: https://github.com/ooni/probe-ios/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 iOS 3.6.1 release ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-ios/releases/tag/v3.6.1) with bug fixes and improvements. Notably, we set up a Huawei AppGallery account, where we released the OONI Probe Android app (https://appgallery.huawei.com/app/C105911849) We also worked on: * Adding support for sharing a link to the OONI Probe app ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1997) * Making the OONI Probe VPN check compatible with Netguard firewall ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2039) * Writing an internal design document for improving the architecture of OONI Probe apps for shared codebases; * Adding support for paginating test results ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1430) * Fixing a bug involving the re-run of failed tests ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2048) * Fixing a bug affecting a link on the test details page ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2075) * Other improvements (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1252, https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/910) *## Expanding censorship measurement methodologies* Our goal is to ensure that our new experiments (particularly Websteps, our new experiment for measuring website blocking) are effective in some of the most censored environments and meet community needs. Following several rounds of community feedback, we developed our latest prototype (“Websteps winter edition”) in March 2022. In April 2022, we started discussing the “Websteps winter edition” ( https://github.com/bassosimone/websteps-illustrated/) prototype with community members, we collected their feedback, and we drafted plans for incorporating changes developed in this prototype inside of ooniprobe. We also read the “Understanding the Practices of Global Censorship through Accurate, End-to-End Measurements” paper ( https://shhaos.github.io/papers/sigmetrics22.pdf) and we started experimenting with its methodologies to understand how to integrate them into ooniprobe (https://github.com/bassosimone/websteps-illustrated/pull/2) *## Building a web platform for updating test lists* We continued to make progress towards launching our new web platform for updating test lists (https://test-lists.ooni.org/) Specifically, we made improvements related to: * Validating the login form (https://github.com/ooni/test-lists-ui/pull/28 ); * Setting the default source field ( https://github.com/ooni/test-lists-ui/pull/21) * Upgrading to the latest versions of next.js ( https://github.com/ooni/test-lists-ui/pull/31) We also discussed some approaches that would allow us to support multiple edits after the changes have been submitted, and we documented how this can be implemented in the backend (https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/588) *## OONI backend### Migration to the Clickhouse database* We continued to work on various tasks related to the ongoing migration to an OLAP database that delivers much better performance and enables new functionalities like the MAT. We migrated multiple API calls to the host running the new database and we improved monitoring. This is a long-running process. *### Reprocessing legacy measurements* OONI measurements collected before 2021 have been reprocessed to improve data quality and to ensure all measurements are now reachable from OONI Explorer. This is also a long-running process. *### URL prioritization* The "reactive" URL prioritization system is designed to ensure acceptable and fair coverage of URLs over time. But based on community feedback ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/582) we realized that the existing implementation could allow a manually-run probe to over-measure a given URL and prevent other probes from measuring this URL at all on a national level. We therefore investigated how we can change the implementation of our URL prioritization algorithm to ensure that per-ASN testing coverage does not impact countrywide testing coverage of a URL. Based on our research, we wrote an internal design document for improving our URL prioritization system. *### Other operations* We added support for STUN reachability tests in the API search function. We improved NTP dashboards and monitoring, fixed IPv6 and ICMP filtering on backend hosts, and we moved the test-helper rotation tool to use Debian 11 and fixed a bug. We also looked into the price/performance ratio on new hosts. *## OONI data analysis tool* To enable the analysis of raw OONI measurements, we built a tool (“oonidata”) which supports downloading raw OONI data in batch ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/581) In April 2022, we published a version of oonidata on pypi (https://pypi.org/project/oonidata/) *## Preparing a security audit* We aim to receive a security audit for several OONI software components: OONI API accounts, OONI Probe Web, OONI Probe engine. To this end, we coordinated with several security companies to discuss audit requirements and receive quotes. *## Filmed OONI training course for Advocacy Assembly project* In previous months, we completed the creation of all materials for the online OONI training course for Small Media’s Advocacy Assembly project ( https://www.advocacyassembly.org/) In April 2022, OONI’s Maria traveled to London to record 8 direct-to-camera videos at a studio (with Small Media staff) for the online OONI training course. In particular, this involved the filming of the following videos: * Introduction to 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 Small Media aims to launch the online OONI training course over the next months. *## 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) We created OONI reports (including OONI data, charts, and relevant interpretation of the findings) for the following 4 “content blocking” entries listed in the ISOC Pulse shutdown timeline: * April 2022 - Sri Lanka ( https://pulse.internetsociety.org/shutdowns/social-media-disruption-in -sri-lanka) * February 2022 - Russia ( https://pulse.internetsociety.org/shutdowns/incremental-service-limitation- in-russia) * January 2022 - Burkina Faso ( https://pulse.internetsociety.org/shutdowns/second-shutdown-in-a-month-in -burkina-faso) * August 2021 - Zambia ( https://pulse.internetsociety.org/shutdowns/social-media-limitations-in -zambia) We shared our reports with ISOC to be listed under the “Data and Analysis” section of relevant ISOC Pulse shutdown entries. *## Report for Azerbaijan Internet Watch* In support of our partner, Azerbaijan Internet Watch ( https://ooni.org/partners/azerbaijan-internet-watch/) we analyzed OONI measurements collected from Azerbaijan between January 2022 to March 2022. Based on our analysis, we produced charts and wrote a report interpreting the findings, which we shared with Azerbaijan Internet Watch. *## Test list updates* In April 2022, we contributed a few updates to the Citizen Lab test lists ( https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/956, https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/962, https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/957) and we reviewed and merged several test list pull requests opened by community members ( https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/issues?page=3&q=is%3Aclosed) *## Job opening for bookkeeper* In collaboration with the Hermes Center (OONI’s current fiscal sponsor), we published a job opening for hiring a new bookkeeper: https://www.hermescenter.org/it/cerchiamo-un-una-consulente-contabile-e-amm… Throughout April 2022, we worked on managing and reviewing applications, following up with candidates, and interviewing shortlisted candidates for the position. *## OONI featured in Dataplane.org newsletter* OONI was among the measurement platforms (along with Censored Planet, RIPE Atlas, and NLNOG Ring) discussed in Dataplane.org’s April 2022 newsletter: https://dataplane.substack.com/p/sensor-strategy-monitoring-platforms *## Notable community use of OONI Probe and OONI data### Access Now’s 2021 Annual KeepItOn Report* Access Now published their 2021 Annual #KeepItOn campaign Report (“The Return Of Digital Authoritarianism: Internet shutdowns in 2021”): https://www.accessnow.org/cms/assets/uploads/2022 /04/2021-KeepItOn-Report-1.pdf This report makes use of OONI data, citing OONI research reports ( https://ooni.org/reports) and OONI data from OONI Explorer ( https://explorer.ooni.org/) *### VEsinFiltro’s 2021 Annual Report* In April 2022, our Venezuelan partner, VEsinFiltro, published their 2021 Annual Report on digital rights and internet censorship in Venezuela: https://vesinfiltro.com/noticias/2021_annual_report/ In the Methodology section of their report, VEsinFiltro describe that they measured internet blocks in Venezuela through the use of OONI Probe and OONI data. *## Community activities### Mozilla Twitter Space on network outages* On 5th April 2022, OONI’s Maria participated as a speaker on Mozilla’s Twitter Space discussion on network outages: https://twitter.com/mozilla/status/1511091238774190085 As part of her participation, Maria explained OONI’s methods and discussed how OONI had previously analyzed Mozilla telemetry (in collaboration with IODA) to investigate internet shutdowns ( https://ooni.org/post/2021-investigating-internet-shutdowns-mozilla-telemet…) The recording was available here: https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1MnxnkayOXEKO *### OONI data analysis lecture for Georgia Tech students* On 12th April 2022, OONI’s Arturo was invited by IODA ( https://ioda.inetintel.cc.gatech.edu/) to give a lecture to Georgia Tech computer science students on analyzing OONI data to investigate internet censorship. In preparation for this lecture, Arturo prepared a Jupyter notebook with exercises for the students. *### OONI Community Meeting* On 19th April 2022, we hosted the monthly OONI Community Meeting on our Slack channel (https://slack.ooni.org/) during which we discussed the following topics: 1) New launch: OONI Measurement Aggregation Toolkit (MAT) 2) New test list web platform (https://test-lists.ooni.org/) Community feedback and next steps 3) Tweaking OONI’s URL prioritization algorithm to ensure counts per ASN ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/582) 4) Inconsistent measurement counts returned by API endpoints ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/583) *## Userbase* In April 2022, 41,200,730 OONI Probe measurements were collected from 3,372 AS networks in 162 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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[Event] Pop Up PTIM Session: VPN censorship, Probes and Resilience - Building Feedback Loops with Open Data
by Vasilis 09 Jul '22

09 Jul '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 third session will be presented by members of the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI). This presentation will cover the ongoing efforts to incorporate protocol-aware VPN probes into the OONI ecosystem. Read more about it here: https://www.pluggabletransports.info/blog/popup-ptim-ooni-announcement-july… This session will take place on July 13th at 16:00 UTC/12:00 ET/18:00 CEST. Registration: https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/dWaOQCbEqzgIlAmPh8JhprzllYl+bHCt7NZ5… Code of Conduct: https://www.pluggabletransports.info/code-of-conduct/ Announcement post: https://www.pluggabletransports.info/blog/popup-ptim-ooni-announcement-july… 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 Community Meeting: Tuesday, 28th June 2022
by Maria Xynou 27 Jun '22

27 Jun '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, *28th June 2022 at 13:00 UTC* (for 1 hour) As part of this month's community meeting, we'd like to receive *your feedback on how we can improve OONI's Code of Conduct *( https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/blob/master/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md#ooni-code-o… ). 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! All the best, ~ OONI team

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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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