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[Event] Obfuscated VPN: Lessons Learned and Future Work
by Vasilis 06 Apr '22

06 Apr '22

Dear all, Internews will be hosting Pop Up PTIM Sessions! This will consist of stand alone sessions, allowing the community to discuss PT related topics and stay up to date on the progress of this community. The first session will be presented by the LEAP Encryption Access Project. 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. This session will take place on April 12th at 14:00 UTC/9:00 ET/16:00 CET. Please use the link below to register for the event. Session Title: Sharing LEAP’s Experience on the usage of PTs in the context of a VPN application. Registration: https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/d5B9a9ZJxBTBXYtbqjbmIeiIyYZ-fC4zDTut… Code of Conduct: https://www.pluggabletransports.info/code-of-conduct/ Announcement post: https://www.pluggabletransports.info/blog/popup-ptim-leap-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 Community Meeting: Tuesday, 29th March 2022
by Maria Xynou 28 Mar '22

28 Mar '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, *29th March 2022 at 14:00 UTC* (for 1 hour) Please add topics that you'd like to discuss during the meeting in this pad: https://pad.riseup.net/p/ooni-community-meeting-keep 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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PT community meetup March [17/03/2022]
by Vasilis 14 Mar '22

14 Mar '22

Dear all, This month Pluggable Transports meetup will take place on Thursday, March 17. Time: 9:00 AM EST / 2:00 PM UTC 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… More info and details on how to join: https://pluggabletransports.info/blog/pt-meetup-mar2022/ 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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New release: OONI Probe Desktop 3.7.0
by Maria Xynou 08 Mar '22

08 Mar '22

Hello friends, I'm reaching out to share that we have released *OONI Probe Desktop 3.7.0. * Please update to the latest version: https://ooni.org/install/desktop OONI Probe Desktop includes our *new Tor Snowflake test* ( https://ooni.org/nettest/tor-snowflake/) along with many other bug fixes and improvements. Please note that we have *temporarily disabled the RiseupVPN test.* We aim to re-enable it once it's improved. Apologies for the inconvenience. Thanks, Maria (on behalf of the OONI team)

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[Report] New blocks emerge in Russia amid war in Ukraine: An OONI network measurement analysis
by Maria Xynou 07 Mar '22

07 Mar '22

Hello, I hope you are all safe and well. My deepest solidarity to all those affected by the war in Ukraine. Today OONI 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/ *# Key Findings* *## Russia* ** 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 *## EU* Following the recent decision of the Council of the European Union to suspend the broadcasting activities of Sputnik and Russia Today (RT) in the EU, some EU countries have started to implement blocks. OONI data shows that EU countries like Greece, France, Romania, Spain, Poland, and Germany have started blocking rt.com. Moreover, we observe the blocking of sputniknews.com in several European countries, such as France, Germany, Spain, and the Czech Republic. Following requests by the European Commission, Google has removed results pertaining to rt.com and sputniknews.com from Google Search for users in the EU. Similarly, Facebook and Twitter are geo-blocking EU users from accessing RTNews. Learn more though our report: https://ooni.org/post/2022-russia-blocks-amid-ru-ua-conflict/ ~ OONI team.

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New release: OONI Probe Android 3.6.0
by Maria Xynou 01 Mar '22

01 Mar '22

Hello friends, I hope all of you are well and safe. My deepest solidarity goes out to all our community members in Ukraine. I'm reaching out to share that we have released *OONI Probe Android 3.6.0*. Please update to the latest version: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.openobservatory.ooniprobe OONI Probe Android 3.6.0 includes: * New *Tor Snowflake test*: https://ooni.org/nettest/tor-snowflake/ * New *DNS Check test*: https://github.com/ooni/spec/blob/master/nettests/ts-028-dnscheck.md * Links to OONI blog posts and research reports * Other app improvements and bug fixes Please note that we have *temporarily disabled the RiseupVPN test.* We aim to re-enable it once it's improved! Apologies for the inconvenience. Apart from measuring Tor Snowflake (which you can do with OONI Probe Android 3.6.0), please consider running a Tor Snowflake proxy to enable activists in Russia, Ukraine, and elsewhere to use Tor (for online privacy and anonymity): https://snowflake.torproject.org/ Thanks, Maria (on behalf of the OONI team).

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PT community meetup February [24/02/2022]
by Vasilis 22 Feb '22

22 Feb '22

Dear all, This month Pluggable Transports meetup will take place on Thursday, February 24. Time: 9:00 AM EST / 2:00 PM UTC Where: IFF Square on IFF Mattermost More info and details on how to join: https://www.pluggabletransports.info/blog/pt-meetup-feb2022/ 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, 22nd February 2022
by Maria Xynou 21 Feb '22

21 Feb '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, *22nd February 2022 at 14:00 UTC* (for 1 hour) Please add topics that you'd like to discuss during the meeting in this pad: https://pad.riseup.net/p/ooni-community-meeting-keep 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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Help translate OONI Explorer
by Maria Xynou 11 Feb '22

11 Feb '22

Hi friends, I'm super excited to share that it is now possible to *translate OONI Explorer* to any language! This is thanks to the amazing Localization Lab, which has created a new project for OONI Explorer on Transifex: https://www.transifex.com/otf/ooni-explorer/ *# About OONI Explorer* OONI Explorer is one of the *largest open datasets on internet censorship* around the world: https://explorer.ooni.org/ Every time you run OONI Probe, your test results get automatically published on OONI Explorer in real-time as open data. By helping to localize OONI Explorer, you will enable researchers and human rights defenders worldwide to learn about (and respond to) censorship events based on real-time open data. *# How to translate OONI Explorer* If you would like to help translate OONI Explorer to your language, you can do so by signing up with Transifex to join the OONI Explorer project: https://www.transifex.com/otf/ooni-explorer/ You can then review existing translations, and/or contribute a new translation (by requesting that that new language gets added through the Transifex platform). Thanks so much for your time and support! <3 Warmly, Maria.

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Research Fellowship opportunity
by Maria Xynou 01 Feb '22

01 Feb '22

Hello friends, Are you an experienced researcher interested in examining information controls (such as internet censorship)? The *Open Technology Fund (OTF) Information Controls Fellowship Program* is now open for applications: https://www.opentech.fund/funds/icfp/ This is a fully-funded fellowship opportunity for experienced researchers. You can apply for a 3-month, 6-month, 9-month, or 12-month fellowship. The *deadline* to apply is *13th March 2022*. Please help spread the word! Thanks, Maria.

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