[tor-project] OONI Monthly Report: August 2019

Tue Sep 3 15:49:02 UTC 2019

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_censorship_around_the_world

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-digital-en-venezuela/

### 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.

-- 
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

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 819 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/attachments/20190903/816fbb5b/attachment.sig>