Hello everyone, This is the report from user support team for the month of August. 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 - Farsi-speaking user support - Russian-speaking user support - General user support - Frontdesk (email user support channel) - Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal user support channels - Topics from the Tor Forum - Highlights from Google Play Store # Summary of updates from user support * With our Telegram Bridge Distributor (@GetBridgesBot) now sharing WebTunnel bridges[1] and bridges with WebTunnel pluggable transport working most reliably in censored regions like Russia and China, newer Telegram accounts[2] are unable to request these bridges directly from the bot. Users with new accounts are therefore encouraged to contact us on our support channels. As a result, last month alone we responded to 224 users with this issue. We have opened a ticket for the anti-censorship team[3] reporting this urgent issue. * We also provided feedback[4] and worked with anti-censorship team to improve the workflow for users interacting with the Telegram Bridge distributor, including some adjustments[5] to the user interface. ## Farsi-speaking user support * 91 tickets in total (↑8 as compared to July) * 89 tickets on Telegram * 2 tickets on Email ## Russian-speaking user support * 2279 tickets in total (↑24 as compared to July) * 2082 tickets on Telegram * 191 tickets on Email * 3 tickets on WhatsApp * 3 tickets on Signal * August marked a record high in user support requests coming from Russian-speaking users. Among Russian users, the main problem is that obfs4 is blocked on certain mobile networks. The recommended workaround - using WebTunnel bridges - has also been impacted, as since June these have been blocked through SNI filtering, and other bridges have likewise been affected by DPI rules targeting OVH, Hetzner, and Linode/DigitalOcean infrastructure. The difficulty of finding an unblocked bridge to access Tor has become a major pain point for Russian users and is significantly increasing the load on our support channels. ## General user support * 1086 tickets in total (↑365 as compared to July) * 461 tickets on Email * 606 tickets on Telegram * 8 tickets on WhatsApp * 11 tickets on Signal * Massive uptick in user support requests from users trying to connect to Tor from Chinese-speaking users on our Telegram user support channel. This can be attributed to the fact that with WebTunnel working most reliably in China, users with newer Telegram accounts are unable to get WebTunnel bridges and reaching out on the support channels. That's it for the summary, following is a more detailed report about the tickets our user support team worked on last month. # Frontdesk (email user support channel) * 728(↓) RT tickets created * 654(↑) RT tickets resolved Tickets by topics and numbers: 1. 377(↓) tickets: instructions to circumvent censorship for Chinese speaking users. 2. 191(↓) tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries. 3. 47(↓) tickets: help with troubleshooting existing Tor Browser install on Desktop (Windows, macOS and Linux). 4. 5(-) tickets: help with troubleshooting existing Tor Browser install on Android. 5. 4(↑) tickets: questions about which Tor app to install on iOS (i.e. Onion Browser or Orbot) 6. 2(↓) tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi. 7. 2(↑) tickets: question about onion services and how to access them. 8. 2(↑) tickets: help with instructions to download and install Tor Browser. 9. 2(↑) tickets: instructions on how to get Tor Browser binaries from GetTor. 10. 1(↓) ticket: help with installing Tor Browser on Desktop on Linux. 11. 1(↓) ticket: reports of fake apps on iOS AppStore masquerading as official Tor Browser. 12. 1(↑) ticket: question about what are "Bridges" in Tor Browser and what purpose they serve. # Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal user support channels * 2796(↑) tickets resolved Breakdown: * 2771(↑) tickets on Telegram * 11(-) tickets on WhatsApp * 14(↑) tickets on Signal Tickets by topics and numbers: 1. 2082(↑) tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries. 2. 224(↑) tickets: WebTunnel bridge requests from users with newer Telegram accounts and unable to receive one from the @GetBridgesBot on Telegram. 3. 221(↑) tickets: instructions to circumvent censorship for Chinese speaking users. 4. 89(↑) tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi. 5. 27(↑) tickets: helping users on iOS, using Onion Browser or Orbot, to use censorship circumvention methods. 6. 18(↑) tickets: help with troubleshooting Tor Browser Android. 7. 17(-) tickets: help with troubleshooting Tor Browser Desktop on Windows, macOS and Linux. 8. 17(↑) tickets: instructions on how to get Tor Browser binaries from GetTor. 9. 8(↑) tickets: help with using Snowflake with Tor to circumvent censorship. 10. 7(↑) tickets: help with instructions to use bridges with Tails. 11. 6(↑) tickets: help with instructions to use bridges with Orbot on Android. 12. 4(↑) tickets: users seeing a "proxy refused" error when visiting websites on Tor Browser for Android using Samsung devices. 13. 4(↑) tickets: instructions to verify Tor Browser's GPG signature. 14. 2(↓) tickets: questions about onion services and how to access them. 15. 1(↓) ticket: instructions to download Tor Browser 13.5 legacy for legacy operating systems. # Topics from the Tor Forum * Web Authentication (WebAuthn) and Universal 2nd Factor (U2F) (i.e. YubiKey) support is disabled in Tor Browser.[6] Couple of discussions about installing/running Tor Browser on Linux which we sometimes get asked about on our other user support channels as well: * Folder access permissions after installing Tor Browser on Linux.[7] * Executable permission error when installing Tor Browser on Linux.[8] # Highlights from Google Play Store * Tor Browser for Android (TBA) had a Google Play rating of 4.392 (↑0.009) stars in August, which is higher as compared to in July. * Tor Browser for Android (TBA) got 770 (↓6) new reviews. The total count of reviews for the app stands at 64,625. * Tor Browser for Android Alpha (TBA Alpha) app had a rating of 4.18 (↑0.002) which is higher as compared to in July. * In August, Tor Browser for Android (TBA Alpha) got 30 (↓2) new reviews. The total count of reviews for the app stands at 8,649. The major complaints we are receiving in the comments are about Tor Browser for Android being slow to browse. We are actively investigating[9] this issue for instances where it's clear that it's not a censorship-circumvention related issue and when the user has already tried some basic steps like refreshing the Tor circuit. We are also receiving a lot of comments from Russian-speaking users experiencing issues connecting to Tor. We are sharing instructions that will work for them and directing them to our user support channels. Thanks! -- ebanam [1]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/the-telegram-bot-getbridgesbot-now-supports-w... [2]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/rdsys/-/issues/271 [3]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/rdsys/-/issues/283 [4]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/rdsys/-/issues/279 [5]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/rdsys/-/issues/276 [6]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/i-cant-use-google-passkey/20523 [7]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/i-cant-access-files-in-my-home-directory-from... [8]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/tor-browser-linux-tar-xz-for-tor-browser-does... [9]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/43841