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OONI Monthly Report: October 2021
by Maria Xynou 14 Jan '22

14 Jan '22

Hello, Happy new year! Hope you're all doing well. 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 October 2021 report shared below. I'll also follow-up to share our November and December 2021 reports. *# OONI Monthly Report: October 2021* Throughout October 2021, the OONI team worked on the following sprints: * Sprint 49 - Humpback whale (1st - 10th October 2021) * Sprint 50 - Amphipoda (11th - 24th October 2021) Our work can be tracked through the various OONI GitHub repositories: https://github.com/ooni Highlights are shared in this report below. *## Published research report on the blocking of the Signal Private Messenger App* We published a research report which shares OONI data and analysis on the blocking of the Signal Private Messenger App in Iran, China, Cuba, and Uzbekistan. This report is available here: https://ooni.org/post/2021-how-signal-private-messenger-blocked-around-the-… In April 2021, we released a new OONI Probe test for measuring the blocking of the Signal Private Messenger App (https://ooni.org/nettest/signal). Since then, OONI community members tested Signal worldwide every day, contributing measurements as open data: https://explorer.ooni.org/search?until=2021-10-23&since=2021-09-23&test_nam… As part of this study, we analyzed all Signal measurements collected from around the world between April 2021 to September 2021. During this period, we found that the testing of Signal primarily presented signs of blocking in Iran, China, Cuba, and Uzbekistan. Further information and findings are available in our research report. *## OONI Probe Mobile* We released OONI Probe Mobile 3.3.1 for Android ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/releases/tag/v3.3.1) which includes bug fixes and optimizations. In particular, we: * Fixed an Android bug related to our RiseupVPN test: https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1787 * Fixed an Android bug related to automated runs: https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1789 * Fixed an Android bug related to our use of Sentry for crash reports: https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1788 We also worked on: * Adding support for detecting if an OONI Probe user is behind a VPN: https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/954 * Adding support for a VPN label and modal: https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/pull/453 * Deleting logs weekly (instead of immediately): https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1800 *## OONI Probe Desktop* We released OONI Probe Desktop 3.6.0: https://github.com/ooni/probe-desktop/releases/tag/v3.6.0 This release includes our new Experimental card, which currently features our STUN reachability test. We plan to release new experimental tests as part of this new card. OONI Probe Desktop 3.6.0 also includes support for 2 new languages: Swahili and Dutch. We thank the Localization Lab community for ongoing OONI Probe translations, and we are particularly grateful to Tanzania’s Zaina Foundation for leading efforts related to translating OONI Probe to Swahili (and increasing the reach of our app in East Africa). We also released OONI Probe Desktop 3.6.1 ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-desktop/releases/tag/v3.6.1) with bug fixes and further improvements. Moreover, we worked on improvements towards a new OONI Probe CLI release ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1843). *## Expanding censorship measurement methodologies* Shipping our new Websteps experiment ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1733) requires deploying the new Websteps test helper in production. To this end, we worked on comparing the old with the new OONI Probe test helper ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1707). This required extensive testing and investigation to ensure that no issues emerge when we deploy the new test helper. We now have some TLS parroting capabilities in our miniooni research tool ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli#miniooni), and we started investigating TLS parroting and interference (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1812). *## OONI Explorer* We deployed recently merged OONI Explorer pull requests to production, and we ensured that anomaly search is included for all supported tests (including the Signal and RiseupVPN tests). We also worked towards addressing issues that result in failed measurements not being displayed correctly (https://github.com/ooni/explorer/issues/611). Moreover, we refactored OONI Explorer pages to remove the need for a custom server (https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/619), and we upgraded core dependencies (react, next) to the latest versions ( https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/620, https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/621). *## OONI Measurement Aggregation Toolkit (MAT)* We made several improvements to the OONI Measurement Aggregation Toolkit (MAT). Specifically, we improved the MAT table view by adjusting the tooltip UI, sorting labels alphabetically, and deploying progress to production. To add interactivity features to the MAT table view, we made filtered table rows the source for charts, and we fixed the link from the tooltip link to the search page (https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/618), among several other improvements. To improve the performance of the MAT, we switched to the Clickhouse-based backend for the MAT pages ( https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/622). *## Building a web platform for test list updates* We continued to make progress on the web platform that we’re building to enable community contributions to the Citizen Lab test lists ( https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists). In particular, we made a series of UI improvements based on initial community feedback (from the testing of the private beta version of the platform). We added an onboarding section to guide users through the process of using the test list web platform ( https://github.com/ooni/test-lists-ui/issues/5, https://github.com/ooni/test-lists-ui/pull/11). We reduced the ambiguity between the “notes” and “comment” sections of the web platform ( https://github.com/ooni/test-lists-ui/issues/7, https://github.com/ooni/test-lists-ui/pull/9). We also improved upon error messages (https://github.com/ooni/test-lists-ui/pull/8) and added support for displaying website category descriptions ( https://github.com/ooni/test-lists-ui/pull/10). *## OONI backend* In October 2021, we worked on the following OONI backend activities: * Deployed the new monitoring host; * Created a set of benchmark queries, and tested BigQuery (as a potential alternative database) by running benchmark queries against the whole dataset; * Continued to investigate alternative database solutions to boost the performance of our services by comparing Clickhouse, DuckDB, PostgreSQL 13, and BigQuery; * Implemented an experimental PG to Clickhouse feeder; * Added backend support to the Measurement Aggregation Toolkit (MAT) using the Clickhouse-based backend; * Continued to monitor OONI measurement coverage from unattended runs on OONI Probe Mobile and Desktop; * Updated DNS handling in ansible and added graphs; * Continued to investigate missing jsonl files from the s3 bucket ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/538). *## Partnership with Internet Society (ISOC)* In July 2021, we established a new partnership with Internet Society (ISOC) to collaborate on the ISOC Pulse project: https://pulse.internetsociety.org/shutdowns In particular, OONI is now a data partner ( https://pulse.internetsociety.org/partners) for ISOC’s Pulse project on internet shutdowns. Our goal is to provide relevant OONI data and analysis that can help support the project’s timeline on blocking events around the world. In October 2021, ISOC published a blog post which announced OONI as a new data partner for their Pulse project, and which explained why OONI data will support their project. Their blog post is available here: https://pulse.internetsociety.org/blog/welcome-cloudflare-ooni-and-w3techs We also updated the OONI Partners page on our website to feature ISOC as one of our new partners and to highlight their work: https://ooni.org/partners/internet-society *## Collaboration with Netalitica* Netalitica researchers continued to do excellent work in reviewing and updating the Citizen Lab test lists. Based on our feedback, they made further improvements to the test lists for India and Burundi, and we opened a pull request for both test list updates: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/829 *## Community use of OONI data### Report on social media blocks in Sudan* Community members from Sudan published a report which documents the blocking of social networking sites in Sudan based on OONI data ( https://twitter.com/ga800l/status/1449385940175265792). Their report is available here: https://www.beamreports.com/2021/10/16/%D9%85%D8%A7-%D8%AD%D9%82%D9%8A%D9%8… *## Community activities### DIG Festival 2021* On 3rd October 2021, OONI’s Arturo participated in a panel discussion at the DIG Festival for investigative journalism in Modena, Italy ( https://dig-awards.org/en/dig-festival-2021-english-only/). As part of this panel, Arturo discussed OONI’s censorship measurement approach and algorithmic censorship. *### Bachchao Project test list event* On 9th and 10th October 2021, OONI’s Maria participated in the Bachchao Project’s 2-day event (organized for communities in India), titled “India, Let’s Build the List”. As part of her participation, Maria gave a 1-hour presentation (“Introduction to Internet censorship”) on Day 1 to introduce participants to basic concepts around internet censorship. On Day 2 of the event, Maria demoed OONI’s new web platform for updating test lists, and helped facilitate the hands-on sessions for updating the Citizen Lab’s test list for India. Information about the 2-day event is available via the Bachchao Project’s relevant blog post: https://thebachchaoproject.org/event-report-india-lets-build-the-list/ *### OPTIMA 2.0 Network Measurement Training* On 21st and 28th October 2021, OONI’s Maria attended Internews’ live sessions for the “Introduction to Network Measurement” and “OONI” training modules of the OPTIMA 2.0 training program, where she addressed participant questions pertaining to the training modules. Information about Internews’ OPTIMA Network Measurement Training program is available here: https://internews.org/resource/optima-network-measurement-training/ *### Swahilipot Hub event for HacktoberFest Mombasa* On 22nd October 2021, OONI’s Maria facilitated an OONI workshop (titled “How to measure Internet censorship”) for Kenyan civil society as part of the Swahilipot Hub event for HacktoberFest Mombasa ( https://swahilipothub.co.ke/). *### Ford Foundation Retreat Webinar* On 28th October 2021, OONI’s Maria participated as a speaker on the Ford Foundation’s Retreat webinar titled “Designing the Internet We Want”. As part of her participation, Maria highlighted the importance of censorship measurement for a free and open internet. *### OONI Community Meeting* On 26th October 2021, we hosted the monthly OONI Community Meeting on our Slack channel (https://slack.ooni.org/), during which we discussed the following topics: 1. OONI’s research report on the blocking of the Signal app in China, Cuba, Iran, and Uzbekistan. 2. Improving the OONI Probe sharing button. 3. Featuring latest censorship events and issues (such as those tracked on GitHub) through the OONI Probe app. *## Userbase* In October 2021, 24,910,212 OONI Probe measurements were collected from 2,410 AS networks in 165 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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Year in Review: OONI in 2021
by Maria Xynou 27 Dec '21

27 Dec '21

Hello, We published a post, "*Year in Review: OONI in 2021*", which shares: * OONI highlights from 2021 * Exciting OONI activities by community members in 2021 * Upcoming OONI projects in 2022 You can read this post here: https://ooni.org/post/ooni-in-2021/ Warm thanks to our amazing community for making our work possible! We thank every OONI Probe user out there, and we're excited for 2022! Happy holidays! Hope you stay safe and healthy. Warmly, OONI team.

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[Blog post] iThena integration of OONI Probe boosts censorship measurement coverage
by Maria Xynou 20 Dec '21

20 Dec '21

Hello, We just published a blog post titled "*iThena integration of OONI Probe boosts censorship measurement coverage worldwide*": https://ooni.org/post/2021-ithena-boosts-ooni-measurement-coverage/ In this blog post, we’re excited to introduce you to the iThena project and discuss how they helped support censorship measurement worldwide. Thanks to iThena's integration of OONI Probe, OONI measurement coverage has increased significantly! Over the last months, iThena has contributed OONI measurements from 38 countries, covering 172 AS networks. Thank you, iThena! <3 Cheers, Maria.

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[Report] Russia started blocking Tor
by Maria Xynou 20 Dec '21

20 Dec '21

Hello, We published a report documenting the *blocking of Tor in Russia*. Read the report here: https://ooni.org/post/2021-russia-blocks-tor/ Our report shares OONI data and analysis on the blocking of the Tor network and Tor Project website on some AS networks in Russia. *# Blocking of Tor* On 1st December 2021, some ISPs in Russia started blocking access to the Tor network by means of IP blocking. Out of (more than) 65 tested AS networks, OONI data only shows signs of Tor blocking on 15 AS networks in Russia. Russia also blocks obfs4 addresses, which means that Tor users in Russia may need to use private Tor bridges to circumvent the block: https://forum.torproject.net/t/tor-blocked-in-russia-how-to-circumvent-cens… Tor blocking differs from ISP to ISP in Russia. However, not all users on the same AS network experience Tor blocking. *# Blocking of torproject.org <http://torproject.org>* OONI data suggests that some ISPs in Russia have been blocking access to torproject.org since September 2021. Censorship techniques across ISPs differ. On some networks, a block page is served for torproject.org, enabling us to automatically confirm the block. On other networks, OONI data suggests that access to torproject.org is being interfered with by means of a TLS man-in-the-middle attack. In other cases, we observe that the connection is reset once the TLS handshake has been initiated, suggesting the use of DPI. Despite these blocks, OONI data suggests that both the Tor network & torproject.org are still accessible on most networks in Russia. *# What you can do * To help more Russians stay connected to the Tor network, please run a Tor bridge: https://forum.torproject.net/t/help-censored-users-run-a-tor-bridge/704 To circumvent Tor blocking in Russia, you can use a private Tor bridge: https://forum.torproject.net/t/tor-blocked-in-russia-how-to-circumvent-cens… We also recommend keeping an eye out for (and updating to) the next Tor Browser version, and configuring Tor Browser to use Snowflake. If access to torproject.org is blocked on your network, you can: * Circumvent this block by visiting the Tor Project’s website mirror: https://tor.eff.org * Get Tor Browser by sending an email to gettor(a)torproject.org We thank OONI Probe users in Russia who contributed measurements, supporting this study. <3 We also thank the Tor Project for their tireless efforts in building an online world that defends human rights. <3 Best, OONI team.

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Update to OONI Probe Mobile 3.5.0
by Maria Xynou 20 Dec '21

20 Dec '21

Hi friends, OONI Probe Mobile 3.5.0 is released! :) Please update your OONI Probe: https://ooni.org/install/mobile With the latest version, you can enable "automated testing" (in the settings) to *run the following tests automatically*: * Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger app tests * Tor, Psiphon, RiseupVPN app tests * Websites test Please ensure your VPN is turned off when running OONI Probe (automated tests will not work if your VPN is turned on). Your test results from automated runs will automatically be published on OONI Explorer: https://explorer.ooni.org/search Thanks for contributing measurements! Cheers, Maria.

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PT community meetup December [02/12/2021]
by Vasilis 27 Nov '21

27 Nov '21

Dear all, This Thursday on 02/12/2021 December's PT community meetup will take place. Time: 9am EST / 1:00 PM UTC Where: IFF Square on IFF Mattermost More info and details on how to join: https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/December_2_2021_GM 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, 30th November 2021
by Maria Xynou 25 Nov '21

25 Nov '21

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, *30th November 2021 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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Research paper on Internet censorship in Myanmar
by Maria Xynou 11 Nov '21

11 Nov '21

Hello, A few months ago, the OONI team collaborated with researchers at *IODA, Kentik, UC San Diego, and University of Michigan / Censored Planet* on a research paper examining censorship events in Myanmar (through diverse measurement datasets) following the military coup. The paper, titled "*A multi-perspective view of Internet censorship in Myanmar*", was published by FOCI 2021 here: https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3473604.3474562 Today, we published a blog post which *summarizes the research paper findings*, and which links to IODA's amazing YouTube video (discussing the findings): https://ooni.org/post/2021-multiperspective-view-internet-censorship-myanma… Best, Maria.

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New Report: Investigating Internet Shutdowns through Mozilla Telemetry
by Maria Xynou 09 Nov '21

09 Nov '21

Hello, In collaboration with IODA, we published a *new research report* which analyzes *Mozilla telemetry* to investigate *internet shutdowns in Myanmar, Uganda, Belarus, and Iran *over the last year. Read our research report here: https://ooni.org/post/2021-investigating-internet-shutdowns-mozilla-telemet… The folks from Mozilla also published a blog post about our report here: https://blog.mozilla.org/data/2021/11/08/detecting-internet-outages-with-mo… Below we share information about the research and some key findings. *# About the research* Given how widespread Firefox usage is worldwide, could Mozilla telemetry be a valuable resource for the Internet freedom community to investigate Internet shutdowns? To explore this question, we analyzed an aggregated dataset of network activity based on Firefox web browser usage worldwide (access to which was provided to us by Mozilla). To evaluate how useful Mozilla telemetry is for researching Internet shutdowns, we: * Selected case studies (known shutdown events from January 2020 onwards) * Analyzed Mozilla telemetry * Compared Mozilla telemetry with other public datasets We checked whether Mozilla telemetry provides signals for: * Myanmar -> Internet outages following February 2021 military coup * Uganda -> Nationwide internet outage amid 2021 elections * Belarus -> Internet outages amid 2020 elections * Iran -> Internet outages following 2020 elections *# Summary of key findings* We provide detailed analysis and findings for Myanmar, Uganda, Belarus, and Iran in our report: https://ooni.org/post/2021-investigating-internet-shutdowns-mozilla-telemet… Overall, based on our analysis for these 4 countries, we found: 1) *Mozilla telemetry provides strong signals for high impact internet shutdowns* -> When access to the internet was shut down entirely (such as in Uganda and Myanmar earlier this year), we observed a complete absence of Mozilla telemetry. This corroborates the absence of metrics that we also observe in other public datasets (such as IODA, Google traffic data, etc.) that are used to investigate internet shutdowns. 2) *Mozilla telemetry can also be used to infer lower impact internet shutdowns* -> When an internet shutdown is not "total" (when an internet shutdown doesn't impact all networks and/or regions in a country), it can still be possible to potentially infer that there is some internet disruption from the high percentage of connection timeouts and unreachable connections that are visible through Mozilla telemetry. We observed this, for example, for "lower impact" internet shutdowns in Belarus and Myanmar. Of course, it's important to cross-reference this data with other public datasets (such as IODA and Google traffic data). 3) *The geographical granularity of Mozilla telemetry provides new research opportunities* -> In Belarus, Mozilla telemetry showed a spike in connection timeouts and unreachable connections from multiple locations, suggesting that there may have been some reshaping of the network topology during the August 2020 Internet outage. 4) *Mozilla telemetry does not seem to provide signals for short-lived internet shutdowns (lasting less than 1 hour)* -> In Iran, Mozilla telemetry did not provide signals of the two short-lived internet outages that occurred on 3rd and 11th March 2020 (both of which lasted for less than an hour, and which were visible through IODA data). This is likely due to the fact that Mozilla telemetry is aggregated in hourly buckets, therefore missing short-lived internet outages. Overall, our analysis demonstrates that *Mozilla telemetry is a valuable resource for investigating Internet shutdowns worldwide*, providing novel insights through geographical data granularity. We encourage Mozilla to *publish aggregated Mozilla telemetry as open data* to support research & advocacy efforts investigating Internet shutdowns worldwide. We also share further recommendations in our report: https://ooni.org/post/2021-investigating-internet-shutdowns-mozilla-telemet… We thank Mozilla for providing us access to Mozilla telemetry for this research, and for considering our recommendations. Best, OONI team.

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Job Opening: Mobile Developer for OONI Probe
by Maria Xynou 27 Oct '21

27 Oct '21

Hello, I'm excited to share that we're hiring! The OONI team (a non-profit fighting internet censorship) is looking for a dedicated *mobile developer to work on OONI Probe*: a free software app designed to measure internet censorship and network performance. *Information about the job description, qualification requirements, and how to apply* are available here: https://ooni.org/post/2021-job-opening-ooni-mobile-developer/ This is a very exciting job opening because (if accepted) you will lead the development of the OONI Probe mobile app, supporting human rights defenders worldwide to investigate and fight internet censorship. Launched in 2017, the OONI Probe mobile app has more than 100k installs, and is run by tens of thousands of users in around 200 countries and territories every month. OONI Probe provides human rights defenders a user-friendly way to detect and collect evidence of internet censorship. This is a *full-time 12-month contract position* (which may be extended), starting ASAP. This is a *fully remote position*. We encourage applications from anywhere in the world! The application deadline is *Sunday, 31st October 2021*. Please help spread the word and help us find someone who can best serve the internet freedom community! Thank you, OONI team.

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