Hello everyone,
Most of my work last month focussed on helping users in regions where Tor is censored, which includes helping users with instructions to download Tor Browser binaries from GetTor and/or official mirrors, verifying Tor Browser's GPG signature, help with using censorship circumvention methods that works best for them and overall troubleshooting. I wrote some documentation[0] about the emergency downgrade for Tor Browser on macOS resulting from the Tor Browser bug#43468[1] and worked on a number of tasks before and after the merge cdr.link instances(ticketing system for our WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram support channels)[2].
Following is a more detailed report about the tickets our user support team worked on last month.
# Frontdesk (email user support channel)
* 535(↓) RT tickets created * 574(↓) RT tickets resolved
Tickets by topics and numbers:
1. 326(↓) RT tickets: instructions to circumvent censorship for Chinese speaking users. 2. 106(↓) RT tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries. 3. 16(↑) RT tickets: help with troubleshooting existing Tor Browser install on Desktop (Windows, macOS and Linux). 4. 5(↑) tickets: bug on Tor Browser for macOS "ScreenCaptureKit framework should be a weak link" (the issue is resolved with Tor Browser 14.0.6)[1]. 5. 4(↓) RT tickets: WebTunnel bridges campaign. 6. 4(↑) RT tickets: reports of a fake apps on iOS AppStore masquerading as official Tor Browser. 7. 3(↓) RT tickets: questions about how Tor works - is my IP visible when using Tor? what application level protections I get when using Tor Browser? what are 'Security Levels' in the Tor Browser etc. 8. 3(↓) RT tickets: questions about setting up a bridge relay or snowflake proxy. 9. 2(-) RT tickets: help with troubleshooting Tor Browser Android. 10. 2(↑) RT tickets: help with instructions to use bridges with Tails. 11. 2(↑) RT tickets: users seeing a "proxy refused" error when visiting websites on Tor Browser[3] 12. 2(↑) RT tickets: issues with Ubuntu packages on deb.torproject.org and its Onion Service[4]. 13. 1(↓) RT ticket: reports of websites blocking Tor connections. 14. 1(↓) RT ticket: help with instructions to verify Tor Browser's GPG signature. 15. 1(↓) RT ticket: questions about how one can contribute to Tor - code, documentation, localization, etc. 16. 1(↑) RT ticket: Universal 2nd Factor (U2F) (i.e. YubiKey) support is disabled in Tor Browser[5]. 17. 1(-) RT ticket: instructions to download Tor Browser 13.5 legacy for legacy operating systems. 18. 1(↑) RT ticket: Windows' built-in on-screen keyboard not working with Tor Browser[6]. 19. 1(↑) RT ticket: video rendering issues on Youtube due to blocking of canvas fingerpriting on Tor Browser[7]. 20. 1(↑) RT ticket: "New Identity" feature not available on Tor Browser for Android[8]. 21. 1(↑) RT ticket: static Captcha when requesting bridges in Tor Browser[9]. 22. 1(↓) RT ticket: reports of anti-virus software blocking Tor Browser. 23. 1(↑) RT ticket: issue with signing up for Tor Weather. 24. 1(↓) RT ticket: question about onion services and how to access them.
# Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal user support channels * 671(↓) tickets resolved
Breakdown:
* 653(↓) tickets on Telegram * 14(↓) tickets on WhatsApp * 4(↑) tickets on Signal
Tickets by topics and numbers:
1. 365(↓) tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries. 2. 28(↓) tickets: instructions to circumvent censorship for Chinese speaking users. 3. 16(↑) tickets: help with troubleshooting Tor Browser Desktop on Windows, macOS and Linux. 4. 12(↓) tickets: helping users on iOS, using Onion Browser or Orbot, to use censorship circumvention methods. 5. 6(↑) tickets: help with troubleshooting Tor Browser Android. 6. 5(↑) tickets: help with using bridges and snowflake with little-t-tor. 7. 5(↑) tickets: help with instructions to use bridges with Tails. 8. 4(↑) tickets: instructions on how to get Tor Browser binaries from GetTor. 9. 3(↓) tickets: questions about onion services and how to access them. 10. 1(↑) ticket: bug on Tor Browser for macOS "ScreenCaptureKit framework should be a weak link" (the issue is resolved with Tor Browser 14.0.6). 11. 1(↑) ticket: issues with Ubuntu packages on deb.torproject.org and its Onion Service. 12. 1(↓) ticket: users seeing a "proxy refused" error when visiting websites on Tor Browser for Android using Samsung devices.
# Highlights from the Tor Forum
1. Download Tor Browser 13.5 legacy on Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 and macOS 10.12, 10.13 and 10.14[10]. 2. "New Identity" and canvas fingerprinting protections in Tor Browser[11]. 3. Tor Browser crashes on Windows 11.[12]
Note: (↑), (↓) and (-) are indicating if the number of tickets we received for these topics have been increasing, decreasing or have been the same from the previous month respectively.
best, e.
[0]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/community/support/-/issues/40183 [1]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/43468 [2]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/community/support/-/issues/40181 [3]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/42714 [4]: https://status.torproject.org/issues/2025-02-25-ubuntu-packages/ [5]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/34193 [6]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/40794 [7]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/43482 [8]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/28800 [9]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/always-the-same-captcha-when-requesting-brige... [10]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/download-tor-browser-13-5-legacy-on-windows-7... [11]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/is-new-identity-enough-to-protect-me-as-i-nev... [12]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/tor-launches-and-the-firefox-browser-quits-im...