Hello,

This email shares OONI's monthly report for December 2024.

*# OONI Monthly Report: December 2024*

Throughout December 2024, the OONI team’s work can be tracked through the various OONI GitHub repositories: https://github.com/ooni

Highlights are shared in this report below.

*## Published new research report on independent media censorship in Russia*

On 9th December 2024, in collaboration with RKS Global (https://rks.global/), we co-published a new research report on the systematic suppression of independent media in Russia.

Our report is available in both: * English: https://ooni.org/post/2024-russia-report/ * Russian: https://ooni.org/ru/post/2024-russia-report/

RKS Global published a summary of the findings (along with recommendations) in both: * English: https://rks.global/en/research/chronicles/ * Russian: https://rks.global/research/chronicles/

Our findings are based on OONI data analysis and interviews with 15 independent Russian news media organizations.

Our analysis of OONI data from Russia shows pervasive levels of news media censorship. We automatically confirmed the blocking of 279 news media domains -- including foreign and numerous independent Russian news media websites.

Most blocks are implemented by means of TLS interference. As we observe the same pattern of TLS level interference in the vast majority of measurements collected from numerous networks during the same date range, OONI data suggests that these news media blocks are likely centrally managed by Roskomnadzor through the use of TSPU.

Through interviews, independent Russian media organizations shared the following main challenges: * Financial and security challenges * Reduced ability to cover events in Russia * Partial loss of Russian audiences * Growing self-censorship * Closure of media organizations

Despite the challenges, independent Russian media organizations remain resilient. The increased threats strengthened solidarity and cooperation among media outlets, and they have demonstrated a high level of adaptation to circumvent blocks and reach their audiences. Yet, international support is needed to strengthen the fight for press freedom in Russia.

Our report received the following coverage: https://therecord.media/russia-doubles-blocking-access-independent-media-sit... https://roskomsvoboda.org/ru/post/russia-censorship-pressure-independent-med...

Our report was also shared widely on Telegram channels by Russian communities: https://t.me/roskomsvoboda/13149 https://t.me/ru_tech_talk/624 https://t.me/cybersarik/1428 https://t.me/airfield1972/3746 https://t.me/chertamedia/6974 https://t.me/zatelecom/29370

*## Presenting thematic censorship findings on OONI Explorer*

Notably, we have completed the core development work for the new OONI Explorer thematic censorship findings pages and we have started internal testing and polishing of the pages in preparation for the upcoming launch.

Based on internal testing of the new pages, we discussed and reviewed the initial feedback, and created additional mockups to improve the UX for several sections (“Reports” and “Findings”) of these new pages. We also worked towards implementing several other improvements based on feedback that emerged from internal testing in preparation for the launch.

*## Automating censorship detection and characterization based on OONI measurements*

In December 2024, we made steady progress on getting the new pipeline deployed into production. As part of this, we decided to switch from temporal to airflow for orchestration. Eventually, airflow will also be useful for replacing the scheduling of all other periodic tasks (which currently are done through systemd timers). We added support for deploying airflow here: https://github.com/ooni/devops/pull/132

*## Activities supported by OTF FOSS### OONI Explorer*

We fixed a bug that was impacting the search feature on the OONI Explorer country pages, preventing users from searching in languages other than English: https://github.com/ooni/explorer/issues/975

*### OONI Probe Engine*

In the days leading up to the 2nd Open Measurement Gathering in Atlanta, we held an OONI developer meeting to brainstorm and discuss efforts around simplifying the OONI Probe measurement engine.

The goals of this work are: * Simplify or eliminate the forks of go/crypto and go/http * Make it possible to not have to release engine versions so often by externalize the geoIP dependencies outside of the engine * Expose an API that’s more “useful” to mobile developers * Merge OONI Run v2 with richer testing input related work * Solve the integration of rust libraries (such as arti) * Reduce the overall OONI Probe engine codebase * Reduce the number of ways we write OONI Probe experiments

As part of this, we outlined the work necessary to separate pieces of the engine that are related to speaking to our backend services from those that are related to running experiments.

*### OONI Probe Mobile*

We shipped OONI Probe Android 4.0.2 which fixed a bug that involved performance tests being included in autoruns ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2831).

As part of our ongoing work on our multi-platform project that aims to refactor the OONI Probe mobile applications, we fixed a bug where the app would get “stuck” after a manual upload ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-multiplatform/issues/334), and we made some small UX tweaks to ensure consistency between the current and future versions of the OONI probe applications ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-multiplatform/issues/323, https://github.com/ooni/probe-multiplatform/issues/321).

Here is a list of all issues closed in December 2024: https://github.com/ooni/probe-multiplatform/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aclosed+...

*### OONI Backend Maintenance & DevOps* We handled an issue related to incorrect handling of X-Forwarded-For headers in the api.ooni.org endpoint ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/901). This was causing issues to users that were using particular browser extensions when attempting to access certain pages on OONI Explorer.

*## Hiring process for a backend developer*

We completed the hiring process for a backend developer ( https://ooni.org/post/2024-job-opening-ooni-backend-developer/) and we made offers to 2 backend developers.

*## Launched News Media Scan app with Deutsche Welle on iOS*

In collaboration with Deutsche Welle (DW), we developed an OONI Probe-based app (“News Media Scan”) designed to measure the blocking of news media websites. Similarly to OONI Probe, News Media Scan app test results are published by OONI as open data in real-time.

We previously launched the Android version of the News Media Scan app in October 2023 (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dw.ooniprobe ).

In December 2024, we launched the News Media Scan app on iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/news-media-scan/id6738992797

This is our first multi-platform application in production.

*## Test list updates*

We updated the Global test list to include targets related to measuring the DNSSEC root key rollover (https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1883), and we reviewed and merged several pull requests contributed by community members ( https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Aclosed+).

*## Research and data analysis for upcoming research reports*

We worked on the data analysis required for an upcoming research report on internet censorship in Bangladesh: https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/848

We also coordinated with our partner, Miaan Group, who contributed more websites to the Iranian and Global test lists: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1884

*## Community use of OONI data### Internet shutdown tracking system developed by ISOC Pulse Research Fellow*

An ISOC Pulse Research Fellow has developed a new Internet shutdown tracking system that retrieves data from several sources, including OONI, IODA, Cloudflare Radar, and the Google Transparency Report.

Learn more here: https://pulse.internetsociety.org/blog/developing-a-holistic-approach-to-mea...

*## Community-led presentations### Presentation on web censorship in France*

On 4th December 2024, community members Etienne Maynier and taziden presented their research on internet censorship in France, through which they presented results from their analysis of OONI data.

Information about this presentation is available here: https://censxres.fr/blog/pr%C3%A9sentation-sur-la-censure-le-4-d%C3%A9cembre...

*## Community activities### SplinterCon Berlin 2024*

Between 9th to 11th December 2024, OONI’s Elizaveta traveled to Berlin, Germany, to attend SplinterCon (https://splintercon.net/berlin/). As part of her participation, Elizaveta presented OONI’s latest report on media censorship in Russia (https://ooni.org/post/2024-russia-report/) and participated in multiple discussions about censorship in the region.

*### 2nd Open Measurement Gathering*

Between 10th-12th December 2024, OONI’s Arturo, Mehul, Jessie, and Maria attended the 2nd Open Measurement Gathering (OMG) at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, USA (https://x.com/OpenObservatory/status/1869829395701215334).

This event brought together internet measurement projects (OONI, IODA, Censored Planet, M-Lab) to exchange skills and knowledge. We also had the opportunity to have guest participants from Sinar Project ( https://sinarproject.org/), Access Now (https://www.accessnow.org/), and internet measurement expert, Jim Cowie.

As part of our participation, we: * Presented OONI highlights from 2024 and OONI plans for 2025 * Shared OONI data workflows based on case studies from Cuba * Presented OONI’s methodology for measuring throttling * Presented OONI’s latest data processing pipeline (OONI Pipeline v5) to collect feedback from internet measurement experts * Facilitated a session comparing the pipelines of different internet measurement projects * Facilitated a session on anomaly detection and shared OONI’s work on building a Social Media Censorship Alert System * Facilitated a session on GeoIP/AS database consolidation and discussion of next steps * Shared OONI’s partnership experience and lessons learned during a session on “partner structures”

In the days leading up to the Open Measurement Gathering, we had a team “hackathon” on work related to the OONI backend and measurement engine, which helped with improving our related roadmaps and plans. On 13th December 2024, following the Open Measurement Gathering, we worked out of Georgia Tech to brainstorm on and discuss some of our upcoming projects.

*## Measurement coverage*

In December 2024, 47,018,051 OONI Probe measurements were collected from 2,742 networks in 169 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.