[tor-bugs] #25137 [Obfuscation/Censorship analysis]: Tor blocked in UAE

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#25137: Tor blocked in UAE
---------------------------------------------+---------------------
 Reporter:  mwolfe                           |          Owner:  dcf
     Type:  defect                           |         Status:  new
 Priority:  Medium                           |      Milestone:
Component:  Obfuscation/Censorship analysis  |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal                           |     Resolution:
 Keywords:  censorship block ae              |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:                                   |         Points:
 Reviewer:                                   |        Sponsor:
---------------------------------------------+---------------------
Changes (by dcf):

 * keywords:   => censorship block ae


Comment:

 This is a small bump in bridge users, mostly obfs4, in the past few days.

 [[Image(userstats-relay-country-
 ae-2017-11-08-2018-02-06-off.png,width=600)]]
 [https://metrics.torproject.org/userstats-relay-
 country.html?start=2017-11-08&end=2018-02-06&country=ae&events=off link]

 [[Image(userstats-bridge-country-ae-2017-11-08-2018-02-06.png,width=600)]]
 [https://metrics.torproject.org/userstats-bridge-
 country.html?start=2017-11-08&end=2018-02-06&country=ae link]

 [[Image(userstats-bridge-combined-
 ae-2017-11-08-2018-02-06.png,width=600)]] [https://metrics.torproject.org
 /userstats-bridge-combined.html?start=2017-11-08&end=2018-02-06&country=ae
 link]

 However that bump needs to put in context. I don't think the stats from
 the UAE are completely reliable, because of anomalies that began in 2017.
 (See the entries with places=ae at [[doc/MetricsTimeline#Unknown]]. I'm
 pretty sure that the relay users graph is bogus, and that there are not
 really 300,000 users. The bridge user count has been messed up in the past
 as well.

 [[Image(userstats-relay-country-
 ae-2017-01-01-2018-02-06-off.png,width=600)]]
 [https://metrics.torproject.org/userstats-relay-
 country.html?start=2017-01-01&end=2018-02-06&country=ae&events=off link]

 [[Image(userstats-bridge-country-ae-2017-01-01-2018-02-06.png,width=600)]]
 [https://metrics.torproject.org/userstats-bridge-
 country.html?start=2017-01-01&end=2018-02-06&country=ae link]

 [[Image(userstats-bridge-combined-
 ae-2017-01-01-2018-02-06.png,width=600)]] [https://metrics.torproject.org
 /userstats-bridge-combined.html?start=2017-01-01&end=2018-02-06&country=ae
 link]

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/25137#comment:5>
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