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OONI Monthly Report: August 2023
by Maria Xynou 16 Oct '23

16 Oct '23

Hello, This email shares OONI's monthly report for August 2023. *# OONI Monthly Report: August 2023* Throughout August 2023, the OONI team worked on the following sprints: * Sprint 97 (1st - 13th August 2023) * Sprint 98 (14th -27th August 2023) Our work can be tracked through the various OONI GitHub repositories: https://github.com/ooni Highlights are shared in this report below. *## New Project Manager* In August 2023, we hired an OONI Project Manager! We are thrilled that Jessie Bonisteel has joined our team. As OONI's new Project Manager, Jessie will help ensure that our projects are on track, supporting a global community measuring and fighting internet censorship. *## New partnerships* We are excited to have formed new partnerships! In August 2023, we formed partnerships with: * Computech Institute (Senegal): https://ooni.org/partners/computech/ * Internet Freedom Kazakhstan (IFKZ): https://ooni.org/partners/ifkz/ *## Published research report on censorship events in Senegal* In collaboration with Cloudflare, Access Now and Laura Schwartz-Henderson, we published a research report documenting the social media blocks and network outages in Senegal over the past 2 months. Our report is available here: https://ooni.org/post/2023-senegal-social-media-blocks/ Amid political unrest in Senegal, OONI data shows: * Blocking of WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube between 1st-7th June 2023 * Temporary blocking of TikTok between 5th-7th June 2023 * Ongoing blocking of Telegram Web (since 1st June 2023) *## Published blog post about IMC hackathon* In collaboration with Internet Society (ISOC), M-Lab and Censored Planet, we’ll be hosting a hackathon on “Network Interference using Open Data” at the upcoming Internet Measurement Conference (IMC) in Montreal, Canada, in October 2023. To encourage participation, we published a blog post about the hackathon: https://ooni.org/post/2023-imc-hackathon/ *## OONI Probe Mobile* In August 2023, we released OONI Probe Android 3.8.3 ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/releases/tag/v3.8.3) This release includes the latest version of OONI Probe CLI, bug fixes, and a setting that enables users to easily enable and disable all website categories (which was a community feature request). We also continued to make updates and improvements to the “News Media Scan” Android app that we have been developing in collaboration with Deutsche Welle (DW). *## OONI Probe Desktop* In August 2023, we worked on dependency upgrades and subsequent refactoring of the OONI Probe desktop app. The changes involve updated notarization process, and the use of contextBridge which improves the app’s security and UI component updates (https://github.com/ooni/probe-desktop/pull/330) *## Published OONI Probe user guides in Turkish* Thanks to Kaya Zeren, the OONI Probe user guides are now available in Turkish! The Turkish user guides are available below: * OONI Probe Mobile: https://ooni.org/tr/support/ooni-probe-mobile * OONI Probe Desktop: https://ooni.org/tr/support/ooni-probe-desktop *## OONI Run* As part of our work on creating the next generation version of OONI Run (“OONI Run v.2”), we continued working on adding UI support to OONI Probe Android for displaying OONI Run v.2 link descriptors based on the API ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/pull/582) Specifically, we worked on UI support for translations, the measurement result screen, automated testing of OONI Run v.2 links, and OONI Run link icons ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/pull/601) On the backend side, we continued to improve upon the localization versioning of OONI Run v2 by adding an archived flag ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/pull/699) and we changed the fields type ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/pull/702) We also wrote internal documentation illustrating the interactions between the UI and the API. *## OONI Probe CLI* In August 2023, we started working towards upgrading users from Web Connectivity v0.4 to v0.5 (also known as “Web Connectivity LTE”: https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/tree/2051a2d330a63cd39d3eb44707f86378de1b…) Web Connectivity LTE attempts to discover more ways in which the tested website is blocked. The two main changes are in the measurement algorithm and in the algorithm used to determine inside OONI Probe whether the tested website was blocked. However, Web Connectivity LTE is still part of the Web Connectivity family of tests and produces a compatible JSON measurement result. The differences between these two implementations call for drafting a plan for comparing the two implementations and ensuring that Web Connectivity LTE does not introduce regressions under the same censorship conditions. We wrote this plan, which consists of two distinct actions: 1) We will write an A/B testing tool based on netem that allows us to compare the two implementations under the same censorship conditions ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2525) 2) We will more actively use the richer testing input functionality implemented in the previous months to ensure that users use Web Connectivity LTE for limited periods of time, following up with what we did in July 2023 for users in Pakistan when investigating measurement failures occurring with Web Connectivity v0.4 ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/pull/695, https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2499) By switching users to Web Connectivity LTE for limited periods of time, we aim to collect data that is useful for comparing with similar measurements collected by Web Connectivity v0.4. The results of this analysis, in turn, would inform the development of further A/B tests using netem. Once we drafted this plan, we started implementing it. The initial work consisted of migrating existing tests using Jafar (the previous QA framework based on iptables) to using netem. We started working towards this direction by splitting and landing a previous prototype, and then converting individual Jafar-based tests to use netem instead. Our progress in this area is available here: https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/compare/a040ad9a4185ba5d104fd2b88f9e69582…. We continued to prepare for OONI Probe CLI v3.18.2 and v3.19.0 releases by upgrading the C dependencies (https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1194) and specifically upgrading OpenSSL ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1191) We also triaged, mitigated and started planning to fix an issue introduced in OONI Probe CLI v3.18.0 that affects the Tor Snowflake experiment on Android devices. The gist of the issue is that upgraded dependencies negatively impacted Snowflake ability to bootstrap on new Android 11+. Further information about this issue is documented here: https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2529 *## OONI Explorer* In August 2023, we released OONI Explorer in Vietnamese: https://explorer.ooni.org/vi We thank the Localization Lab community (https://www.localizationlab.org/) for making OONI Explorer available in many languages, and for their ongoing OONI Explorer localization efforts ( https://explore.transifex.com/otf/ooni-explorer/) We also fixed a bug that prevented users from selecting countries on the OONI Explorer Circumvention Dashboard ( https://github.com/ooni/explorer/commit/e38c58aff54ae4418194891e9dcd742e228… ). *## Published screencast for OONI Explorer Search Tool* To enable researchers and human rights defenders to make use of OONI data, we published a screencast for the OONI Explorer Search Tool ( https://explorer.ooni.org/search) The screencast (published on our YouTube channel) is available here: https://youtu.be/7jNFqHH43x8 This screencast provides visual, step-by-step guidance on how to use the OONI Explorer Search Tool to filter OONI measurements and uncover cases of blocking. *## Creating a Censorship Incident Reporting Platform* In August 2023, we continued to work towards building a (new) Censorship Incident Reporting Platform. Specifically, we improved the field validation of the platform (https://github.com/ooni/backend/pull/710, https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/707) and we added backend support for a new "short_description" field ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/pull/711, https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/708) We now have a testing version of the Censorship Incident Reporting Platform, which we tested internally in an attempt to identify issues and opportunities for improvement. We also worked towards collecting information (and relevant OONI data) for all the censorship reports that we aim to publish with the launch of the platform. *## OONI backend* Following the release of OONI Probe Android 3.8.3, we noticed issues with the Tor Snowflake experiment (causing the app to crash). We therefore added backend support to annotate such measurements as “failed” ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/pull/704, https://github.com/ooni/backend/pull/705) and we reprocessed old measurements. We annotated Signal experiment measurements from outdated probes (which were resulting in false positives) as “failed” ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/679) and we created an internal dashboard to investigate other possible cases that may be affecting OONI data quality. We also fixed a bug affecting the scoring of vanilla Tor measurements (https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/608, https://github.com/ooni/backend/pull/706) We ran a set of tests on the fastpath to measure performance improvements obtained by buffering writes to the database and, notably, we reached a 25x speedup during measurement reprocessing. Based on community feedback, we added backend support to the API for filtering measurements by different experiment versions ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/615) as well as by software version and engine version (https://github.com/ooni/backend/pull/703) *## Automating censorship detection and characterization based on OONI measurements* As part of our participation at the Chaos Communication Camp 2023 ( https://events.ccc.de/camp/2023/infos/index.html) we organized and hosted an OONI hackathon where participants were given access to the database used by the OONI data analysis tool (https://github.com/ooni/data) During the hackathon, participants were able to run queries against the database to produce novel analysis of OONI measurements ( https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1aCmjqKOVKi2AUe1ZqOljyao9LkAo97CT5I5…) This resulted in the collection of feedback and suggestions on how we can improve our analysis (https://pad.riseup.net/p/hack-ooni-ccc2023-keep) *## OONI data support for Freedom on the Net 2023 reports* Over the last years, we have collaborated with Freedom House researchers on providing relevant OONI data in support of their annual Freedom on the Net reports (https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net) In August 2023, we received multiple questions and data requests from Freedom House researchers, and we responded by providing relevant OONI data for various country-specific Freedom on the Net 2023 reports. *## Localization of the OONI Outreach Kit* In March 2023, we published the OONI Outreach Kit ( https://ooni.org/support/ooni-outreach-kit/) to share OONI resources and materials that can be used as part of OONI community engagement efforts. In August 2023, we started working towards the localization of the OONI Outreach Kit to enable its use by more communities around the world. We drafted guidelines for the localization of the OONI Outreach Kit, which we shared with translators. In addition to coordinating with translators, we also coordinated with designers to ensure that the design of the Outreach Kit supports RTL layout. *## OONI Community Interviews* We have an “OONI Community Interviews” series on our YouTube channel ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pam2UQoZ1qM&list=PL1sH9kYR-16nlPlFT-RDBs8O0…) where we publish video interviews with OONI community members to highlight their important work, and the ways through which they use OONI tools and data. In August 2023, we worked on creating several new video interviews with OONI community members. This involved drafting relevant interview questions, filming the interviews, and working with a videographer to edit the footage. *## Planning the OONI Partner Gathering 2024* We are planning to host a 2-day event (“OONI Partner Gathering”) in May 2024, which would bring our international network of partners together to share skills and knowledge around censorship measurement. We had already done extensive research and planning in previous months, developing a script for a data-driven approach for identifying what could be the best city for the event based on various parameters (visa requirements, cost, travel time, safety index, etc.), researching related logistics, creating a participant list and related budgets. In August 2023, we made adjustments to our logistical planning and we wrote 2 versions of a Concept Note for the OONI Partner Gathering 2024 as part of our fundraising efforts. *## Planning the OONI Team Meeting 2023* In August 2023, we started working towards organizing our annual OONI Team Meeting: a 3-day event which brings the OONI team together to have in-depth discussions about projects, strategic priorities, team health, and improving roadmaps. This annual meeting is important for our team, given that we do not have a physical office and work remotely from different countries (and continents) throughout the year. Last year we hosted the 2022 OONI Team Meeting in Rome, but unfortunately some of our team members were not able to join in person due to visa issues. We have therefore decided to host the 2023 OONI Team Meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, which has looser visa requirements for all our team members (and which was identified as one of the top “visa-free” locations based on the script that we developed as part of our related research for the OONI Partner Gathering). In August 2023, we finalized the logistical planning for the 2023 OONI Team Meeting and we started collecting team feedback for the sessions of the meeting. *## Rapid response efforts### TikTok blocking in Senegal* Following protests over the sentencing of opposition leader Ousmake Sonko, the Senegalese government ordered the blocking of TikTok on 2nd August 2023 (https://twitter.com/AbdouJCisse/status/1686748294888685570) In response, we shared OONI Probe testing instructions (to ensure the testing of TikTok endpoints) with Senegalese partners, our broader community, and on Twitter ( https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1686775778455830531) To help boost the testing of TikTok, we also boosted the testing priority for TikTok in Senegal (based on our smart URL list system) and we sent a push notification to OONI Probe users in Senegal (encouraging them to run an OONI Run link for the testing of TikTok endpoints). As a result, we immediately collected and published data documenting the blocking of TikTok in Senegal on the same day (with a large spike in measurement coverage): https://explorer.ooni.org/chart/mat?probe_cc=SN&since=2023-07-03&until=2023… Similarly to the previous blocking of other social media platforms ( https://ooni.org/post/2023-senegal-social-media-blocks/) OONI data shows that access to TikTok was blocked by means of TLS interference. *### Telegram blocking in Iraq* On 5th August 2023, Iraq started blocking access to Telegram over personal data concerns. We shared relevant OONI data on Twitter ( https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1688576131157434368) as well as further information with the #KeepItOn advocacy mailing list. Specifically, OONI data shows that the Telegram block was implemented on several networks in Iraq ( https://explorer.ooni.org/chart/mat?probe_cc=IQ&since=2023-07-05&until=2023…) and that they blocked access to both the Telegram mobile app and to Telegram Web. The block appeared to be IP-based, as attempted connections to Telegram endpoints consistently failed. Kentik published a relevant blog post, citing OONI data: https://www.kentik.com/blog/iraq-blocks-telegram-leaks-blackhole-bgp-routes/ *### Grindr blocking in Jordan* On 8th August 2023, Jordan started blocking access to Grindr. We responded by sharing relevant OONI data on the block on Twitter ( https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1689674923520794627) OONI data shows that access to Grindr was blockhttps:// twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1689674923520794627ed by means of TLS interference on at least 5 networks in Jordan. *### OONI Run testing of The Intercept in Pakistan* Following reports that access to The Intercept may have been blocked in Pakistan, Micah Lee (The Intercept's Director of Information Security) shared an OONI Run link on Mastodon, encouraging the testing of theintercept.com in Pakistan ( https://infosec.exchange/@micahflee/110861931459869851) We also boosted the testing priority of the website in our backend to help increase relevant measurement coverage. No signs of censorship have been detected so far ( https://explorer.ooni.org/chart/mat?probe_cc=PK&since=2023-07-11&until=2023…) *## Community use of OONI data### Sinar Project report on censorship monitoring during Malaysia’s 2023 state elections* Our partner, Sinar Project (https://ooni.org/partners/sinar-project) published a report providing an update on their censorship monitoring efforts during Malaysia’s 2023 state elections. Their report (which is based on OONI data) is available here: https://imap.sinarproject.org/news/internet-censorship-update-internet-cens… *### Press statement on news media censorship in Malaysia* In August 2023, Geramm (a press freedom movement from Malaysian) published a press statement calling on the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to explain the Internet regulator’s decision to block news websites. This followed the recent blocking of yet another news media website (utusantv.com) in Malaysia. Their press statement (which cites the use of OONI tools and data) is available here: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid029QVYcUmLt6s8je5zJctUpGfG… *## Community activities### Chaos Communication Camp 2023* Between 15th-19th August 2023, OONI’s Arturo and Maria traveled to Germany to attend the Chaos Communication Camp 2023 (CCCamp 2023), one of the largest hacker camps in the world with a digital rights focus. Information about CCCamp 2023 is available here: https://events.ccc.de/camp/2023/infos/index.html On 18th August 2023, we presented OONI and facilitated an OONI hackathon at CCCamp 2023. Below we share: * Information about the OONI presentation and hackathon: https://events.ccc.de/camp/2023/hub/camp23/de/event/internet-measurement-da… * Slides used for the presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1aCmjqKOVKi2AUe1ZqOljyao9LkAo97CT5I5… * Pad with the hackathon challenges and participant feedback: https://pad.riseup.net/p/hack-ooni-ccc2023-keep *### MAT live demo as part of OCF’s Internet Freedom Meetup webinar* On 23rd August 2023, OONI’s Maria participated in the Open Culture Foundation’s (OCF) monthly Internet Freedom Meetup webinar ( https://ocf.tw/en/p/issues/coffeeandcircumventionen) As part of her participation, Maria provided a live demo on how to use OONI’s Measurement Aggregation Toolkit (MAT). *### OONI Community Meeting* On 29th August 2023, 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 2) Community feedback on push notifications (continuation of discussion from July 2023 community meeting) *## Measurement coverage* In August 2023, 62,887,269 OONI Probe measurements were collected from 3,061 networks in 174 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: July 2023
by Maria Xynou 16 Oct '23

16 Oct '23

Hello, This email shares OONI's monthly report for July 2023. *# OONI Monthly Report: July 2023* Throughout July 2023, the OONI team worked on the following sprints: * Sprint 95 (3rd - 16th July 2023) * Sprint 96 (17th - 30th July 2023) Our work can be tracked through the various OONI GitHub repositories: https://github.com/ooni Highlights are shared in this report below. *## New partnership* We are excited to have formed a new partnership with Digital Rights Lab Sudan (https://twitter.com/DRLab_Sudan) The goal of the partnership is to collaborate on the study of internet censorship in Sudan. We published a dedicated partner page for Digital Rights Lab Sudan, highlighting their important work: https://ooni.org/partners/drlab/ *## Published report on China blocking OONI* In July 2023, China started blocking access to our website (ooni.org) and censorship measurement app (OONI Probe). We published a report documenting the blocking of OONI in China with OONI data: https://ooni.org/post/2023-china-blocks-ooni/ The block appears to be implemented by means of DNS injection and TLS interference. This is the first time that we're observing a large and persistent drop in OONI measurement coverage as a result of OONI Probe blocking. The report also includes advice for circumventing the blocking of OONI Probe in China. However, running OONI Probe in China is now probably riskier. *## OONI Probe Mobile* Throughout July 2023, we worked towards the release of OONI Probe Mobile 3.8.3. As part of this, we worked on extensive QA testing for both Android ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2504) and iOS ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2509) Based on community feedback, we worked on adding functionality to OONI Probe Android to automatically test new networks ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/900) We also worked on improvements to a new Android app (“News Media Scan”) that we have been developing in collaboration with Deutsche Welle over the past months. *## OONI Probe Desktop* In July 2023, we released OONI Probe Desktop 3.9.1 ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-desktop/releases/tag/v3.9.1) with the latest version of OONI Probe CLI and updated dependencies. *## OONI Run### Building OONI Run v.2* In July 2023, we added experimental support to the OONI Probe Engine for invoking the fetch API allowing a client to obtain OONI Run v2 descriptors ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1176) This functionality allows the OONI Probe mobile app to start implementing OONI Run v2 ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/pull/582) We then worked towards adding support for running OONI Run v2 links in the OONI Probe mobile app ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2474) The general idea for this first iteration is to implement minimal functionality into the Engine and let the app do most of the work. Notably, we reached a first milestone where we have an experimental version of the OONI Probe Android app where it is possible to: * Inspect and install an OONI Run v2 link into the OONI Probe Android app dashboard; * Run such a link directly or together with other nettests; * See the results it produced reusing the view used for experimental nettests. Subsequent development milestones will focus on implementing the missing functionality (e.g., updating OONI Run v2 links) and on optimizing the implementation. We continued working on the UI improvements for the OONI Run v2 web editor ( https://github.com/ooni/run/pull/131) We also added backend support for separating the versioning of the copy (included in translations) from the nettest data (https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/694) and we added localization support to OONI Run v.2 ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/pull/699) To enable the development of the OONI Run platform, we allowed login redirection for more domains on the API (https://github.com/ooni/backend/pull/697) *### Launch of OONI Run supporting localization* In July 2023, we launched OONI Run (https://run.ooni.io/) with support for 9 languages (beyond English): Farsi, Russian, Thai, Turkish, Chinese (Taiwan), Chinese (China), German, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish. This work is available here: https://github.com/ooni/run/pull/132/files We thank the Localization Lab community (https://www.localizationlab.org/) for making OONI Run available in so many languages, and for their ongoing OONI Run localization efforts (https://explore.transifex.com/otf/ooni-run/) *## OONI Probe CLI* We started preparing the release of OONI Probe CLI 3.18.1, which should include (a) better support for measuring throttling with Web Connectivity LTE; (b) updated dependencies and assets. We also continued to make progress towards OONI Probe CLI v3.19.0. Following up from the work done in previous sprints, we have continued to take advantage of the netem QA framework and we have started migrating some nettests to use it for QA purposes. By using netem, we are able to exercise more censorship conditions in an easier way compared to the previous framework we used (Jafar, based on Linux and iptables). For now, we have migrated the following experiments to netem: * dnsping (https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1177) * facebook_messenger (https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1178) * sniblocking (https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1179) * whatsapp (https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1181) * telegram (https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1182) As a result, the availability of better QA tests opens up the possibility of being more confident in rewriting these experiments to use the DSL introduced as part of the richer input error. *## Expanding OONI’s testing model to support richer testing input* We continued to work on supporting richer testing input ( https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/issues/1291) In previous months, we worked towards writing a DSL ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain-specific_language) to support richer testing input (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2494) in the context of our richer testing prototype (https://github.com/ooni/2023-05-richer-input) We completed this task in early July 2023 ( https://github.com/ooni/2023-05-richer-input/pull/7, https://github.com/ooni/2023-05-richer-input/pull/8) We now have a DSL that is both external and internal. The internal DSL is executable code but can also be serialized to JSON. We can read the JSON and execute it as an external DSL. We basically use the same code for both DSLs. The internal DSL uses Go generics and each stage in the measurement pipelines has specific input and output types. The external DSL wraps each internal DSL stage with a stage that performs type checking at runtime. The final DSL ( https://github.com/ooni/2023-05-richer-input/releases/tag/v0.3.0) is not Turing complete and only supports stage composition. We have primitive stages (e.g., DNS lookups, TCP connect, TLS handshake, QUIC handshake, HTTP transactions). We have stages for composing together measurement pipelines (e.g., we can compose a TCP connect operation and a TLS handshake operation). And we have primitives to compose pipelines that perform DNS lookups with pipelines that perform endpoint measurements (e.g., TCP connect, TLS handshake). Now that we have finished researching, we have also reached a better degree of clarity on what we can potentially achieve by expressing richer input using this DSL: 1) We can run code directly (internal DSL) or we can generate JSON that we can serve to OONI Probes (external DSL). By serving code to probes, we can update the definition of nettests. So, in the future, we would need less emergency releases when IM apps (such as Signal) change their testing requirements (e.g., they change the CA they use). 2) We can incrementally roll out better implementations of experiments without making new OONI Probe releases. For example, we can (easily!) add support for TLS handshakes to the Facebook Messenger nettest and run this extended version of the nettest only in a subset of probes, closely monitoring whether everything is working as intended, ready to back out the changes in case of issues, or roll out the functionality more extensively if all looks good. 3) We can support the use case of using OONI Probe for research. We (or anyone else concerned) will potentially be able to feed a specific measurement DSL pipeline to OONI Probe consisting of the operations that matter for research. For example, we can imagine serving extra follow-up tests that would run as part of the experimental suite on an opt-in basis in case there is a need to further investigate some censorship findings. To investigate the suitability of the DSL, we reimplemented the Facebook Messenger (https://github.com/ooni/2023-05-richer-input/pull/7) and RiseupVPN (https://github.com/ooni/2023-05-richer-input/pull/12) experiments. The latter, in particular, seems a good candidate to start upgrading production code to use the DSL since it is currently disabled due to concerns involving false positives. For this reason, we also sketched out an initial plan to upgrade it to use the DSL ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2502) In subsequent months, we will continue to investigate this topic, refine our implementation, engage in internal discussions, work on streamlining possible use cases and on defining a path to start rolling this feature out in production. In the meanwhile, we have started to feel more confident about the DSL implementation, as we started adding integration testing using netem (https://github.com/ooni/netem) to it ( https://github.com/ooni/2023-05-richer-input/pull/7, https://github.com/ooni/2023-05-richer-input/pull/9) *## Creating a throttling measurement methodology* Regarding measuring throttling (https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/issues/1296) we finished improving support for measuring the download speed ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2493) As Web Connectivity LTE now implements collecting download speed samples during a download, we started preparing for making it the default Web Connectivity implementation and for retiring version v0.4. To this end, we started adding support for netem-based integration testing (https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1170) and we backported the patch to collect download speed samples ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1166) to the release/3.18 branch so that we can include this functionality in the upcoming 3.18.1 OONI Probe release. *## OONI Explorer* In July 2023, we released OONI Explorer in the following 2 additional languages: * Swahili: https://explorer.ooni.org/sw * Traditional Chinese: https://explorer.ooni.org/zh-Hant Beyond English, OONI Explorer now supports 10 languages! We thank the Localization Lab (https://www.localizationlab.org/) community for making OONI Explorer – and real-time open data on internet censorship worldwide – available in additional languages! *## Creating a Social Media Censorship Alert System* We continued to make progress towards building a Social Media Censorship Alert System (https://github.com/ooni/backend/pull/651) Based on internal review of the code, we updated the internal design document for further review. We added support for real-time notifications on Slack in the Social Media blocking event detector, along with a summary HTML page. We also created a dedicated Jupyter notebook to show a summary of recent events flagged as social media blocking alerts by our system. *## Creating a Censorship Incident Reporting Platform* In July 2023, we continued working on the UI implementation of the (new) Censorship Incident Reporting Platform ( https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/862) Specifically, we added form validations, we improved the layouts (also) by further expanding our component library (https://github.com/ooni/design-system/pull/163) and we added the report index view. *## Automating censorship detection and characterization based on OONI measurements* Improvements were made to how errors are handled while writing observations to the database. Specifically, support was added to dump failing rows to file and retry writing the affected row in the event of a failure ( https://github.com/ooni/data/pull/33) Through this we were able to identify some bugs in the processing of certain types of measurements and implement fixes for them. We started reaching out to third party researchers interested in using this new observation database and training them on how to use it. As part of this, we came up with a setup that allows independent researchers to connect to the database used by the OONI data analysis tool ( https://github.com/ooni/data) and run queries on the platform. *## OONI backend* We improved our Jupyter notebook that tracks test helper failures grouped by datacenter location. It detected a 1-hour long event impacting 0.th.ooni.org. The event was investigated and found to be benign. We continued ongoing work to predict the amount of incoming measurements on a per-country basis using basic machine learning in order to send alarms to the team in the event of a sudden loss of measurements. *## Published OONI Outreach Kit printing materials* In July 2023, we updated the OONI Outreach Kit to include materials designed for printing (https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/pull/1394) The updated OONI Outreach Kit (including printing materials) is available here: https://ooni.org/support/ooni-outreach-kit/ *## Interviewed Project Manager candidates* In July 2023, we reviewed the final applications and we completed the second round of interviews for the OONI Project Manager position ( https://ooni.org/post/2023-job-opening-ooni-project-manager/) Based on these interviews, we reached a hiring decision and followed up with candidates. *## FOCI 2023 Community Award* On 10th July 2023, OONI’s Maria received the Free and Open Communications on the Internet (FOCI) 2023 Community Award, recognizing the impact of her work in the field of Internet freedom on the wider community. We dedicate this award to the whole OONI community, without whom this work would not be possible ( https://twitter.com/agrabeli_/status/1678722087953760256) *## Community use of OONI data### Report of the Tehran Electronic Commerce Association* In July 2023, the Tehran Electronic Commerce Association published a report on the low quality of the Internet in Iran, citing OONI in many pages (pages 4, 5, 6, 16, 20, 35, 37). Their report is available here: https://etchamber.ir/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Iran-Internet-v0.9.pdf OONI was also cited in an article by Peivast (one of Iran’s largest tech outlets), discussing the findings of the report of the Tehran Electronic Commerce Association: https://peivast.com/p/170337 *### Blocking of satirical news website in Jordan* Our partner, JOSA (https://ooni.org/partners/josa/) reported on the blocking of a satirical news media website (AlHudood) in Jordan, citing OONI data: https://twitter.com/jo_osa/status/1677041740107198465 *### TEDIC’s research report examining internet shutdowns in Northern Paraguay* Our partner, TEDIC (https://ooni.org/partners/tedic/) published a new research report investigating potential disruptions to internet access in the northern zone of Paraguay. We supported this study by providing relevant OONI data analysis. Their report was published in: * Spanish: https://www.tedic.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Informe-Apagones-de-Intern… * English: https://www.tedic.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Internet-Shutdowns-Report-… TEDIC also published a blog post about the study in: * Spanish: https://www.tedic.org/apagones-de-internet-en-paraguay/ * English: https://www.tedic.org/en/internet-shutdowns-in-paraguay/ *### Sinar Project’s report on the blocking of MalaysiaNow* Our partner, Sinar Project, published a report documenting the blocking of MalaysiaNow in Malaysia, through the use of OONI tools and data. Their report is available here: https://imap.sinarproject.org/news/blocking-of-malaysianow-website *### Sinar Project’s report on the blocking of a website of a former Malaysian MP* Sinar Project published a report documenting the blocking of a website ( weechookeong.com) which belongs to a former Malaysian Member of Parliament. Their report makes use of OONI data, and is available here: https://imap.sinarproject.org/news/internet-censorship-update-blocking-of-w… This report received press coverage from MalaysiaNow: https://www.malaysianow.com/news/2023/07/28/online-freedom-monitor-confirms… *### EngageMedia’s Advocacy Toolkit for Civil Society Organizations* In July 2023, EngageMedia published “Addressing Internet Censorship and Content Filtering: An Advocacy Toolkit for Civil Society Organizations” which features OONI tools and resources ( https://engagemedia.org/2023/toolkit-internet-censorship/) Their toolkit is available here: https://engagemedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/GIF-Regional-Toolkit-Add… *### PhD thesis on modeling and characterizing internet censorship technologies* In July 2023, a PhD thesis (titled “Modeling and Characterization of Internet Censorship Technologies”) by Alexander Master was published (making use of OONI data): https://www.doi.org/10.25394/PGS.23666784 *### FOCI 2023 academic paper studying worldwide view of nation-state Internet censorship* In July 2023, an academic paper studying a worldwide view of nation-state Internet censorship was published and presented at FOCI 2023. This paper makes use of OONI data for its analysis. The paper is available here: https://www.petsymposium.org/foci/2023/foci-2023-0008.pdf *### Other FOCI 2023 papers citing OONI* OONI was also cited in the following FOCI 2023 papers: * “Crowdsourcing the Discovery of Server-side Censorship Evasion Strategies”: https://www.petsymposium.org/foci/2023/foci-2023-0016.pdf * "Towards a Comprehensive Understanding of Russian Transit Censorship": https://www.petsymposium.org/foci/2023/foci-2023-0012.pdf * "Detecting Network Interference Without Endpoint Participation": https://www.petsymposium.org/foci/2023/foci-2023-0010.pdf *## Community activities### FOCI 2023* On 10th July 2023, OONI’s Arturo attended the Free and Open Communications on the Internet (FOCI) 2023 in Lausanne, Switzerland. Information about the workshop is available here: https://foci.community/ *### Keynote at HotPETs 2023* On 14th July 2023, OONI’s Maria delivered a keynote (titled “The Power of Community Participation in Shaping Digital Rights Tech”) at HotPETs 2023 in Lausanne, Switzerland. Information about the workshop is available here: https://petsymposium.org/2023/hotpets.php *### OONI workshop for Legal Resource Center in South Africa * On 24th July 2023, OONI’s Elizaveta facilitated an online OONI workshop for the team members of South Africa’s Legal Resource Center ( https://lrc.org.za/) The goal of the workshop was to introduce lawyers to the use of OONI tools and data. *### OONI workshop for civil society in Zimbabwe* On 31st July 2023, OONI’s Elizaveta facilitated an online OONI workshop for civil society groups in Zimbabwe, in preparation for the country’s upcoming elections (which may trigger censorship events). *### OONI Community Meeting* On 25th July 2023, 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 2) IODA Update: Design Standards and Outage Severity Map ( https://ioda.inetintel.cc.gatech.edu/reports/ioda-update-designstandards-ou…) 3) Community feedback on the thematic presentation of censorship findings on OONI Explorer 4) Community feedback on push notifications: How should OONI utilize them going forward? What would be most useful? *## Measurement coverage* In July 2023, 62,256,645 OONI Probe measurements were collected from 3,135 networks in 172 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 Community Interview with Siti Nurliza, Sinar Project
by Elizaveta Yachmeneva 16 Oct '23

16 Oct '23

Hi everyone! We just published a new OONI Community Interview with Siti Nurliza. Siti is an absolutely amazing, and very talented technologist with Sinar Project <https://sinarproject.org/>, who leads OONI censorship measurement efforts in Southeast Asia! https:// <https://ooni.org/post/2023-interview-with-Siti-Nurliza/>ooni.org/post/2023-interview-with-Siti-Nurliza/ <http://ooni.org/post/2023-interview-with-Siti-Nurliza/> If you had a chance to read iMAP reports <https://imap.sinarproject.org/>, you are already familiar with part of her work. And if you haven’t, we encourage you to check them out! Watch the full interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOTjOR7zA2Y <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOTjOR7zA2> As Siti mentioned in the interview, if you have any feedback regarding the reports, or if you want to collaborate with iMAP <https://imap.sinarproject.org/>, please feel free to reach out <https://sinarproject.org/about/team>! Warmly, ~ OONI Team

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[Launch] New Android app for measuring news media censorship
by Maria Xynou 10 Oct '23

10 Oct '23

Hi friends, We're excited to share that we recently launched a new Android app in collaboration with Deutsche Welle (DW): *News Media Scan*! With the News Media Scan app, you can: * Measure the blocking of news media websites * Contribute test results as open data in real-time: https://ooni.org/data/ *Install News Media Scan* here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dw.ooniprobe&pli=1 We are excited about this launch as we expect that it will help boost media censorship tracking worldwide, supporting efforts to defend press freedom around the world. Learn more about News Media Scan through DW's press statement: https://corporate.dw.com/en/news-media-scan-by-dw-deutsche-welle-and-ooni-l… Thanks, OONI team.

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RSVP: iMAP 2023 Internet Censorship Report Launch
by Elizaveta Yachmeneva 09 Oct '23

09 Oct '23

Hi everyone, We are very excited to share that our partner organization, The Internet Monitoring Action Project (iMAP) <https://imap.sinarproject.org/>, is releasing a report on internet censorship in 10 countries: Cambodia, Hong Kong (China), India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam. The project was done via coordination of the measurement collection (including curating the local test lists) and analysis of OONI data. The report will be released at https://imap.sinarproject.org/ <https://imap.sinarproject.org/> on 13 October 2023 at UTC 05:00. If you want to learn more about the report and iMAP's work, please join the launch event on Friday, 13 October 2023 at UTC 08:00 (check your local time here <https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=Launch+of+iMAP+20…>): Find out the latest key findings in this 2023 edition of the reports, covering from the period June 2022 to May 2023 in the 10 countries and region, Join interactive discussion with country researchers of the iMAP 2023 Internet Censorship Report, featuring: Divyank Katira, Senior Technologist at the Centre for Internet & Society (India) Fernando A.T. Ximenes, Co-Founder of Timorese Association for Progressive Media and Technology (Timor-Leste) Khairil Zhafri, Specialist (Open and Secure Technology) at EngageMedia (Indonesia & Philippines) Siti Nurliza Samsudin, Technologist at Sinar Project (Hong Kong, Malaysia & Thailand) Please RSVP for the event here: https://streamyard.com/watch/bNnMfVyNgja4 <https://streamyard.com/watch/bNnMfVyNgja4> Please feel free to share this invitation with your colleagues and community. Looking forward to seeing you at the event :) Best wishes, ~OONI Team

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OONI Community Meeting: Tomorrow, 14:00 (UTC)
by Elizaveta Yachmeneva 25 Sep '23

25 Sep '23

Hello folks! This is a reminder that the monthly OONI Community Meeting is taking place tomorrow. Where: https://slack.ooni.org/ <https://slack.ooni.org/> (OONI Slack channel, bridged with IRC: ircs://irc.oftc.net:6697/#ooni) When: Tuesday, 26th September 2023 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 <https://pad.riseup.net/p/ooni-community-meeting-keep> Thanks, Elizaveta

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OONI Community Meeting: 26th September 2023
by Elizaveta Yachmeneva 21 Sep '23

21 Sep '23

Hello, This is a kind reminder that OONI will host a monthly community meeting next Tuesday. => Where? OONI Slack channel: https://slack.ooni.org/ <https://slack.ooni.org/> (bridged with IRC: ircs://irc.oftc.net:6697/#ooni) => When? Tuesday, 26th September 2023 at 14:00 UTC (for 1 hour) This is a meeting that we host each last Tuesday of the month, and it is an opportunity to: * Share your feedback on OONI tools & methodologies * Ask questions about OONI tools and OONI data * Discuss internet censorship issues, or share the issues you are facing in your country * Share updates about your work or projects Please add topics that you'd like to discuss during the meeting in this pad: https://pad.riseup.net/p/ooni-community-meeting-keep <https://pad.riseup.net/p/ooni-community-meeting-keep> We hope you can join us! All the best, ~ OONI team

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[Report] Grindr blocked in Jordan
by Maria Xynou 20 Sep '23

20 Sep '23

Hello, Today OONI, in collaboration with My Kali Magazine, published a *new report on the blocking of Grindr in Jordan* ("Grindr blocked in Jordan: Shrinking LGBTQ spaces"). Read the report here: https://ooni.org/post/2023-jordan-blocks-grindr/ Our report shares OONI data on the ongoing blocking of Grindr in Jordan. As of 8th August 2023, OONI data shows that access to Grindr (both the website and app) is blocked by means of TLS interference. According to Grindr, the block impacts their public health strategy as their Grindr for Equality program has played an important role in addressing the HIV epidemic in Jordan. Meanwhile, OONI data shows that Grindr is also blocked in several other countries, including Iran, Turkey, Indonesia, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Lebanon, Pakistan, and China: https://explorer.ooni.org/chart/mat?test_name=web_connectivity&axis_x=measu… We thank OONI Probe users in Jordan who contributed measurements, supporting this study. We also thank Grindr and LGBTQ communities in Jordan for discussing the impact of this block and sharing their experience with us. Learn more through our report: https://ooni.org/post/2023-jordan-blocks-grindr/ Thanks, Maria.

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OONI at the Global Gathering this week
by Maria Xynou 12 Sep '23

12 Sep '23

Hi friends, Are you attending Team CommUNITY's *Global Gathering* in Portugal this week? If so, we'd love to meet with you! Two OONI team members (Arturo and myself) will be attending the Global Gathering between 15th-17th September 2023. We'll be hosting an *OONI booth* at the Feira on Sunday, *17th September* between 2pm-6pm. Come find us to say hello, learn all about OONI (or ask questions and share feedback), and get OONI swag! Information about the Global Gathering is available here: https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=Global_Gathering We hope to see many of you in person soon! Cheers, Maria.

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Join us at the IMC 2023 Hackathon on Network Interference using Open Data
by Maria Xynou 28 Aug '23

28 Aug '23

Hello, Are you attending the Internet Measurement Conference (IMC) 2023? Join us at the *IMC Hackathon* on Network Interference using Open Data! * When: Monday, *23rd October 2023* * Where: *Montreal*, Canada * *Learn more and register*: https://ooni.org/post/2023-imc-hackathon/ We're excited to host this hackathon in collaboration with Internet Society (ISOC), Measurement Lab (M-Lab), and Censored Planet. We hope to see you there! Cheers, OONI team.

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