Hello everyone, This is the report from user support team for the month of January 2026. 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. - Summary of updates from user support - General user support - Farsi-speaking user support - Russian-speaking user support - Frontdesk (email user support channel) - Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal user support channels - Highlights from the Tor Forum - Highlights from Google Play Store # Summary of updates from user support ## General user support * 587 tickets in total (↑105 as compared to December) * 388 tickets on Email * 192 tickets on Telegram * 7 tickets on Signal * Across our various user support channels we received 14 tickets about Tor VPN Beta, mostly from users trying to configure [Tor VPN Beta with bridges][]. * For Tor Browser, we received a few more reports of Android users getting ["proxy refused" error][] when visiting websites. This is also one of the most reported topics on Google Play Store reviews (see the section '# Highlights from Google Play Store'). [Tor VPN Beta with bridges]: https://support.torproject.org/tor-vpn/circumvention/using-bridges/ ["proxy refused" error]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/42714 ## Chinese-speaking user support * As obfs4 bridges are being enumerated by the Great Firewall, we have been recommending WebTunnel for users. We are considering to update our support entries to make more clear that users can get WebTunnel bridges using our Telegram bot (GetBridgesBot) and the bridges website. ## Farsi-speaking user support * 257 tickets in total (↑228 as compared to December) * 98 tickets on Email * 159 tickets on Telegram * On January 8, Iran experienced a nationwide internet blackout that lasted for nearly two weeks. Even after the blackout ended, internet access remained extremely unstable and operated under a whitelist model, where only a few sites such as Google were accessible. Towards the end of January, conditions gradually began to improve, and [Snowflake started working][] in some cases. All this while we gathered a significant amount of feedback from users who were able to connect to our support channels. As per user reports, the filtering system is still very unpredictable and tends to behave differently across the different ISPs and regions. TCI, one of the prominent ISPs, appears to have the most aggressive filtering, and bridges only worked there in very limited situations. Very surprisingly, we also received a few reports of users being able to connect to Tor Browser without any bridges. We have documented this [censorship event][] together with the anti-censorship team. [Snowflake started working]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/tor-not-working-in-iran/21144/4 [censorship event]:https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/censorship-analysis/-/issu... ## Russian-speaking user support * 776 tickets in total (↓104 as compared to December) * 156 tickets on Email * 620 tickets on Telegram * We have seen a noticeable increase in support requests from Russia via our email channel, likely due to recent news about Telegram potentially being blocked in Russia. * In January, we created new tickets to monitor censorship in Russia: - [Russia] "Whitelist" and ways to deal with them: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/censorship-analysis/-/issu... - [Russia] Blocking Tor resources (2026 edition): https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/censorship-analysis/-/issu... # Frontdesk (email user support channel) * 632(↑) RT tickets created * 642(↑) RT tickets resolved Tickets by topics and numbers: 1. 315(↑) tickets: instructions to circumvent censorship for Chinese speaking users. 2. 156(↑) tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries. 3. 98(↑) tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi. 4. 37(↑) tickets: help with troubleshooting existing Tor Browser install on Desktop (Windows, macOS and Linux). 5. 6(-) tickets: reports of fake apps on iOS AppStore masquerading as official Tor Browser and questions about which Tor app to install on iOS (i.e. Onion Browser or Orbot). 6. 4(↓) tickets: questions, feedback and help with troubleshooting Tor VPN beta. 7. 3(↓) tickets: instructions to download Tor Browser 13.5 legacy for legacy operating systems. 8. 2(↑) tickets: reports of links on the new support portal giving a 404. 9. 2(↓) ticket: report of websites blocking Tor connections or not performing well in Tor Browser. 10. 1(↓) ticket: help with setting up Snowflake proxy. 11. 1(↓) ticket: users seeing a "proxy refused" error when visiting websites on Tor Browser for Android using Samsung devices. 12. 1(↑) ticket: help with post-install steps for running a Tor bridge and configuring a bridge distribution method for Tor bridge. 13. 1(↑) ticket: question about contributing to Tor. 14. 1(-) ticket: instructions on how to get Tor Browser binaries from GetTor. 15. 1(↑) ticket: question about modifying the Tor circuit in Tor Browser. # Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal user support channels * 978(↑) tickets resolved Breakdown: * 971(↑) tickets on Telegram * 7(↓) tickets on Signal * 0(↓) tickets on WhatsApp Tickets by topics and numbers: 1. 620(↓) tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries. 2. 159(↑) tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi. 3. 47(↑) tickets: instructions to circumvent censorship for Chinese speaking users. 4. 40(↑) tickets: instructions to use manually obtained bridges with Tor Browser. 5. 24(↑) tickets: helping users on iOS, using Onion Browser or Orbot, to use censorship circumvention methods. 6. 24(↑) tickets: help with instructions to use bridges with Orbot on Android. 7. 18(↑) tickets: help with troubleshooting existing Tor Browser install on Desktop (Windows, macOS and Linux). 8. 14(↑) tickets: instructions on how to get Tor Browser binaries from GetTor. 9. 10(↓) tickets: questions, feedback and help with troubleshooting Tor VPN beta. 10. 10(↑) tickets: help with troubleshooting existing Tor Browser install on Android. 11. 6(↑) ticket: help with using Snowflake with Tor to circumvent censorship. 12. 6(↑) tickets: instructions to use WebTunnel bridges with Tor Browser. 13. 5(↓) tickets: GetBridgesBot on Telegram freezes and stops sending bridges and users have to clear chat history. 14. 3(-) tickets: users seeing a "proxy refused" error when visiting websites on Tor Browser for Android using Samsung devices. 15. 3(↑) tickets: questions about onion services and how to access them. 16. 2(↓) tickets: help with installing Tor Browser on Desktop on Linux. 17. 2(-) tickets: help with configuring bridges to use with little-t tor (the network daemon). 18. 2(↓) tickets: instructions to download Tor Browser 13.5 legacy for legacy operating systems. # Highlights from the Tor Forum 1. [Internet censorship in Russia][]. 2. [Internet censorship in Iran][]. [Internet censorship in Russia]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/russia-rolled-out-whitelists-and-snowflake-so... [Internet censorship in Iran]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/tor-not-working-in-iran/21144 # Highlights from Google Play Store ## Tor Browser for Android * Tor Browser for Android (TBA) had a Google Play rating of 4.396 (↑0.007) stars in January, which is higher as compared to in December. * Tor Browser for Android (TBA) got 684 (↑29) new reviews. The total count of reviews for the app stands at 67,439. * For Tor Browser, quite similar to last month, the main issues highlighted by the users in their comments and reviews were: - internet censorship in Russia and users looking for ways to bypass it. - Tor Browser for Android has been reported as slow during browsing, with users encountering a “Proxy server refused connection” error. This issue has particularly affected users with Samsung Android devices. - we got multiple comments from Iranian users looking for help with bypassing censorship and a number of kind messages expressing their gratitude to Tor. ## Tor Browser for Android Alpha * Tor Browser for Android Alpha app had a rating of 4.132 (↓0.007) in January which is lower as compared to in December. * In January, Tor Browser for Android Alpha got 27 (↓23) new reviews. The total count of reviews for the app stands at 8,757. * For Tor Browser Alpha, the main issues highlighted by users in their comments and reviews were its similarity to Firefox for Android and the absence of the Tor circuit option. ## Tor VPN Beta * Tor VPN beta was installed almost 71000 (↑32800) times by the end of January. The top 5 countries by the number of installations being (in descending order): Turkmenistan, Iran, Russia, India, and Germany. Thanks! -- ebanam