[tor-project] OONI Monthly Report: September 2018

Wed Oct 10 11:51:21 UTC 2018

Hello Tor world,

In September 2018, the OONI team released a beta of the OONI Probe
desktop apps for Windows and macOS, established a new partnership with
Paraguay's TEDIC and updated a number of test lists.

## Beta of OONI Probe desktop app

We have released a beta of the OONI Probe desktop apps for Windows and
macOS: https://github.com/ooni/probe-desktop/releases/tag/v3.0.0-beta.1

The aim of this beta release is mostly to sort out stability issues
related with shipping measurement-kit and the new OONI Probe CLI on
macOS and Linux. We are therefore currently limiting the testing to more
tech-savvy users. As the UI of the desktop app has yet to be finalized,
the most useful feedback currently pertains to the functionality of the
app and any bugs (rather than the UI).

That said, the application is feature complete and supports the same
functionality shipped as part of the mobile apps. Namely it supports:

* Running the websites, instant messagging, middleboxes and performance
tests
* Viewing the test results for all the above tests
* An onboarding wizard with our informed consent procedure
* Changing some of the most basic app settings

Help in testing the apps is greatly appreciated! If you run into any
issues, please report them to bugs at openobservatory.org.

You should also use the "Hard reset" button in the About of the app
before installing the stable version of the app. If you run into any
issues, that button may be a viable workaround (note: it will delete all
your measurements and settings).

## Established new partnership

We are excited to have formally established a new partnership with
Paraguay's TEDIC!

As part of our new partnership, we aim to collaborate on the study of
internet censorship in Paraguay through the collection and analysis of
OONI Probe network measurements.

Social media announcement:
https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1042760192197373952

## Updated test lists

We carried out research to update the following test lists:

1. Nigeria: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/387

2. Jordan: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/388

3. Argentina: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/390

4. Colombia: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/393

In previous months, we also updated the South Sudan test list:
https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/366

We also updated the Ugandan and global test lists
(https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/391), and created new
test lists for Cameroon
(https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/392) and Greece
(https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/394).

## Community use of OONI data

### Berkman report on Telegram blocking in Iran

The Berkman Centre for Internet and Society published a research report
examining the blocking of Telegram in Iran:
https://thenetmonitor.org/bulletins/censorship-and-collateral-damage-analyzing-the-telegram-ban-in-iran

OONI data on the blocking of Telegram was used as part of this research.

### Digital Security Lab Ukraine reports

Through the use of OONI Probe, Digital Security Lab Ukraine has been
investigating internet censorship in occupied territories of Ukraine.

In September 2018, they published two research reports based on OONI data:

1. Blocking of websites in Crimea (that aren't included in the Russian
blocklist):
https://medium.com/@cyberlabukraine/crimea-has-a-website-ban-list-additional-to-russia-wide-list-a-research-proves-4f20fa6fc762

Digital Security Lab Ukraine uncovered the blocking of at least eight
Ukrainian websites in Crimea that aren't included in Russia's official
blocklist.

This research was covered by RosKomSvoboda (a public organization aimed
at countering internet censorship): https://roskomsvoboda.org/41726/

2. Blocking of at least 56 Ukrainian websites in Luhansk:
https://medium.com/@cyberlabukraine/at-least-56-ukrainian-websites-are-blocked-in-luhansk-and-almost-nothing-in-donetsk-a-research-c01577830b8e

Digital Security Lab Ukraine uncovered the blocking of at least 56
Ukrainian websites in Luhansk, many of which include media websites and
human rights sites. It's worth noting though that they did not find
evidence of internet censorship in Donetsk.

## Community activities

### Community meeting

We held a community meeting on Slack
(https://slack.openobservatory.org/) on Tuesday, 25th September 2018.

As part of our September community meeting, we discussed updating test
lists and digging through OONI data.

### OONI presentation at CryptoInstallFest

OONI's Leonid gave a presentation in Moscow at CryptoInstallFest on his
findings regarding recent internet censorship events in Russia.

* Slides: https://slides.ooni.io/2018/CIF

* Summary of new findings: https://usher2.club/articles/mt-free-pre-block/

* Information about the event: https://cryptofest.ru/agenda

Relevant media coverage:

* (en)
https://en.crimerussia.com/gromkie-dela/wi-fi-in-moscow-underground-used-for-blocking-telegram/
*
https://www.the-village.ru/village/city/news-city/326087-maxima-vs-telegram
*
https://www.the-village.ru/village/city/news-city/326091-maxima-vs-telegram-2
*
https://roem.ru/28-09-2018/273997/fil-kulin-opisal-mehanizm-dobavleniya-v-neoficialnyj-chyornyj-spisok-socks-proksi-telegram/
*
https://tjournal.ru/77024-ekspert-maksimatelekom-pomogaet-roskomnadzoru-blokirovat-socks5-proksi-telegram-v-moskovskom-metro

### Tor Meeting & OONI Team Meeting

The OONI team traveled to Mexico City to participate in the bi-annual
Tor Meeting between 29th September 2018 to 3rd October 2018:
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/org/meetings/2018MexicoCity

As part of the invite-only days of the Tor Meeting, OONI facilitated the
following sessions:

* Censorship Rapid Response: Brainstorming on collaboration between OONI
and Tor and determining next steps
* Future and next steps for BridgeDB
* OONI data format pain management
* Tor anti-censorship strategy brainstorming and next steps

As part of the public days, we facilitated an OONI session that aimed to
introduce locals to OONI Probe and engage them with censorship
measurement research. We also had a UX review of the revamped OONI Probe
for Android mockups with the Tor UX Team, where we gathered valuable
feedback. You can see the mockups here:
http://design.ooni.io/mockups/probe-android

Following the Tor Meeting, the OONI team hosted its internal team
meeting in Mexico City on 4th & 5th October 2018. As part of our 2-day
internal meeting, we had the following sessions:

* Roadmap for the next 12 months (with more detailed roadmapping for the
next 6 months)
* Revamping OONI Probe mobile apps: Determining next steps towards
stable release
* Revamping OONI Explorer: Detailed roadmap & discussion of issues and
next steps
* OONI Probe desktop apps: Next steps
* Brainstorming on new nettests
* Probe Orchestration: Next Steps
* OONI Partnership Program & community needs
* Improving OONI Run & enabling automatic daily testing (until probe
orchestration is rolled out)
* Measurement-Kit: Future directions
* Brainstorming on automating test list methodologies
* Fundraising

## Userbase

In September 2018, OONI Probe was run 257,139 times from 4,661 different
vantage points in 211 countries around the world.

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

~ The OONI team.

-- 
Maria Xynou
Research & Partnerships Director
Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI)
https://ooni.torproject.org/
PGP Key Fingerprint: 2DC8 AFB6 CA11 B552 1081 FBDE 2131 B3BE 70CA 417E

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