[tor-bugs] #30636 [Metrics/Analysis]: Something funky is going in Iran: numbers of relay users flies off to 400K

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#30636: Something funky is going in Iran: numbers of relay users flies off to 400K
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 Reporter:  cypherpunks       |          Owner:  metrics-team
     Type:  task              |         Status:  new
 Priority:  Medium            |      Milestone:
Component:  Metrics/Analysis  |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal            |     Resolution:
 Keywords:  ir                |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:                    |         Points:
 Reviewer:                    |        Sponsor:
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Comment (by arma):

 It now seems that 1/4 of the users in the Tor network are in Iran:
 https://metrics.torproject.org/userstats-relay-
 table.html?start=2019-05-30&end=2019-06-03

 I looked at some relay extrainfo descriptors, to see if this is a fluke or
 what, and it looks like many relays are seeing not just a huge number of
 v3 consensus fetches from Iran, but also a huge variety of IP addresses
 fetching these consensus documents. So my current thought is that these
 really are a bunch of different Tor clients running in different places in
 Iran.

 The shape of the growth makes me think it isn't many hundreds of thousands
 of people each one at a time deciding to install Tor Browser though. I
 wonder if Tor is now bundled in some software that many of them already
 had, and when it upgraded, they became Tor users? See for example how this
 happened in Ukraine two years ago, where the FreeU browser bundled a Tor
 client: #22369.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/30636#comment:8>
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