Hello,

Below we share what the OONI team worked on in August 2019.

## Report on censorship events in Ethiopia

We published a research report documenting new censorship events in Ethiopia, titled: "Resurgence of Internet Censorship in Ethiopia: Blocking of WhatsApp, Facebook, and African Arguments".

The report is available here: https://ooni.io/post/resurgence-internet-censorship-ethiopia-2019/

This report is a follow-up to our previous study, which documented the blocking of WhatsApp and Telegram in Ethiopia in mid-June 2019: https://ooni.io/post/ethiopia-whatsapp-telegram/

## Progress on OONI Probe desktop app

We completed the integration of the new golang probe-engine into the OONI Probe CLI that powers the desktop app: https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/46

We also did some more research and testing on auto-update support: https://github.com/ooni/probe-desktop/pull/37.

## Progress on OONI Probe mobile apps

We released the beta of OONI Probe Mobile v.2.2.0 (Android and iOS) for internal testing.

The new version allows users to download JSON files from OONI Explorer, copy OONI Explorer URLs, and it includes support for the auto-deletion of measurement logs and JSON files that have already been uploaded.

Android:

https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/pull/249 https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/pull/250 https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/pull/251 https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/pull/253 https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/pull/254

iOS:

https://github.com/ooni/probe-ios/pull/303 https://github.com/ooni/probe-ios/pull/304 https://github.com/ooni/probe-ios/pull/305

We also started doing a bit of research on integrating react-native which will allow us to maximize code-sharing between the OONI Probe desktop and mobile apps.

## New test development

We implemented the OONI Probe Telegram test using the new golang engine, paving the way to making it easier to implement new tests in go: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/pull/41

## Progress on revamping OONI Explorer

In preparation for the launch of the revamped OONI Explorer, we continued to make a series of improvements to the beta (https://explorer-beta.ooni.io/) throughout August 2019. More specifically, we merged the following pull requests:

https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/234 https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/239 https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/242 https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/244 https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/245 https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/247 https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/254 https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/262 https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/263 https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/265 https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/276

We also opened the following pull requests:

https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/280 https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/279 https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/251

## Pipeline work

We fixed a major bug in the OONI data processing pipeline and ran the backfilling process: https://github.com/ooni/pipeline/issues/214

As part of our work on this, we also improved the quality of end-to-end tests in the pipeline:

https://github.com/ooni/pipeline/pull/216 https://github.com/ooni/pipeline/pull/215 https://github.com/ooni/pipeline/pull/208 https://github.com/ooni/pipeline/pull/220 https://github.com/ooni/pipeline/pull/221     This allows us to have greater confidence in deploying changes to the data processing pipeline as we get ready to deploy the speed improvements and add support for ingesting metadata from new tests.

We made progress in extracting metrics from the Telegram instant messaging test: https://github.com/ooni/pipeline/pull/177

As part of the fast-path branch, we made progress on reducing the time to process measurements and on the creation of events for the RSS feed: https://github.com/ooni/pipeline/pull/213

## Infrastructure work

We did some work on cleaning up old deprecated machines, making it easier to ensure that all our infrastructure is redeployable.

See: https://github.com/ooni/sysadmin/pull/338 & https://github.com/ooni/sysadmin/pull/337

During the Chaos Communication Camp (where we met in person), we brainstormed on strategies to make our infrastructure more available.

## Community activities

### Chaos Communication Camp 2019

OONI's Arturo, Maria, and Federico traveled to Germany to attend the Chaos Communication Camp 2019 (CCCamp) between 21st-25th August 2019: https://events.ccc.de/camp/2019/wiki/Main_Page

At CCCamp, we facilitated an OONI session: https://events.ccc.de/camp/2019/wiki/Session:OONI:_Measuring_internet_censor...

We also held an OONI hackathon: https://events.ccc.de/camp/2019/wiki/Session:OONI_Hackathon

During the hackathon, we engaged participants with OONI data analysis and we discussed the development of new OONI Probe tests.

At CCCamp, we also hosted an OONI village (https://events.ccc.de/camp/2019/wiki/Village:OONI), where we distributed OONI t-shirts and stickers, collected community feedback on OONI tools and methodologies, and otherwise engaged participants with the OONI-verse.

Our village was part of the About:freedom cluster (https://events.ccc.de/camp/2019/wiki/Village:About:freedom), consisting of multiple organizations defending digtial rights and promoting free software.

### OONI workshop in Venezuela

Our partner, IPYS Venezuela, held an OONI workshop in Venezuela for local journalists (see: https://twitter.com/ipysvenezuela/status/1162365664008515585).

As part of the workshop, they explained how to participate in censorship measurement research through the use of OONI Probe and OONI data.

### OONI data presented at the Latin America and Caribbean Internet Governance Forum

Our partner, IPYS Venezuela, presented censorship findings from Venezuela based on OONI data at the Latin America and Caribbean Internet Governance Forum.

Through the use of OONI Probe, IPYS Venezuela documented hundreds of censorship events in Venezuela throughout 2018.

Further information is available via their report: https://ipysvenezuela.org/alerta/reporte-ipysve-la-escalada-de-la-censura-di...

### OONI outreach material for Bolivia

Our partner, Internet Bolivia.org, published outreach material in Spanish to help promote the use of OONI Probe in Bolivia: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IGQCxWDRrpgvNW02T67Aj4mo5emdgHl4/view

## Userbase

In August 2019, OONI Probe was run 375,421 times from 5,272 different vantage points in 214 countries around the world.

This information can also be found through our stats: https://api.ooni.io/stats

~ The OONI team.