[tor-project] OONI Monthly Report: January 2021

Fri Mar 19 17:44:39 UTC 2021

Hello,

Apologies for sharing this late.

Throughout January 2021, the OONI team worked on the following sprints:

* Sprint 30 - Rough Shark (4 - 17 January, 2021)
* Sprint 31 - Rhincodon (18 - 31 January, 2021)

Our work can be tracked through the various OONI GitHub repositories:
https://github.com/ooni

Highlights are shared in this report below.

## Report on internet blocks and outages in Uganda amid 2021 general
election

In collaboration with DefendDefenders, Defenders Protection Initiative,
and CAIDA, we published a new research report documenting the internet
disruptions in Uganda amid its 2021 general election.

Our report is available here:
https://ooni.org/post/2021-uganda-general-election-blocks-and-outage/

We based our investigation on:

* OONI measurements collected from Uganda:
https://explorer.ooni.org/search?until=2021-01-23&since=2020-12-23&probe_cc=UG

* OONI experiments using the `miniooni` research client (which we plan
to eventually integrate into the OONI Probe apps)

* Public data sources monitoring internet outages (IODA data, Google
traffic data, Oracle Internet Intelligence data, and CloudFlare Radar data)

In the days leading up to Uganda’s 2021 general election, ISPs blocked
access to the Google Play Store (hampering people’s ability to download
apps), as well as to a number of social media apps (including WhatsApp,
Facebook Messenger, and Telegram) and websites (such as facebook.com) –
regardless of OTT tax payment.

Access to certain circumvention tool websites (such as protonvpn.com)
was blocked as well, though both Tor and Psiphon worked throughout the
election period.

Starting from the eve of Uganda’s 2021 general election (in the evening
of 13th January 2021), Uganda was disconnected from the internet entirely.

The country experienced a 4-day internet outage (which included election
day), as shown through several public data sources: Internet Outage
Detection and Analysis (IODA), Oracle’s Internet Intelligence Map,
Cloudflare Radar, and Google traffic data. In our report, we also share
network-level analysis of the internet outage based on IODA data.

The internet outage is further corroborated by the absence of OONI
measurements from Uganda during this time period (since OONI Probe
requires internet connectivity to perform tests), as well as by the
drastic drop in Tor users and Psiphon users during this period.

Even though internet connectivity in Uganda was restored on 18th January
2021, access to social media and circumvention platforms remained blocked.

Notably, Ugandan ISPs only appear to have started blocking access to
YouTube on 18th January 2021, even though the platform is not included
on the OTT list of taxed platforms.

Further details are available through our report.

## Blocking of Signal in Iran

On 25th January 2021, Iran started blocking access to the Signal
messaging app.

Thanks to OONI Probe users in Iran (who contributed relevant
measurements), we were able to detect the blocking of signal.org within
a few hours since the blocking started. We reported this through OONI’s
Twitter account (sharing relevant OONI measurements):
https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1353637360727109633

OONI measurements on the blocking of signal.org were also shared by
Zoomit, an Iranian technology media outlet:
https://twitter.com/TheZoomit/status/1353636089647558656

Recent OONI measurements show that signal.org remains blocked on several
networks in Iran:
https://explorer.ooni.org/search?until=2021-03-20&since=2021-02-18&domain=signal.org&probe_cc=IR

## OONI Probe Mobile

In January 2021, we released OONI Probe mobile 2.9.0 and 2.9.1 on:

* Android: https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/releases/tag/v2.9.0 &
https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/releases/tag/v2.9.1
* iOS: https://github.com/ooni/probe-ios/releases/tag/v2.9.0 &
https://github.com/ooni/probe-ios/releases/tag/v2.9.1

With these new releases, we shipped a new OONI Probe test for RiseupVPN
(which was developed by the LEAP collective).

We also:

* Completed UI tests: https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1272
* Made various code quality improvements:
https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/pull/402
* Completed the implementation of the check-in API in the OONI Probe
engine and wrote wrappers and integration tests for this implementation:
https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/pull/1158 
* Wrote a script to facilitate mobile app releases:
https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1287
* Worked on adding support for dark mode on iOS:
https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/925
* Improved the crash reporting system:
https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1332

## OONI Run

We added localization support to OONI Run (https://run.ooni.io/) to
accommodate translations: https://github.com/ooni/run/pull/50

We prioritized adding localization support to OONI Run in response to
community requests to translate the platform to Chinese (Taiwan).

## OONI Probe Desktop

Throughout January 2021, we worked towards the OONI Probe Desktop 3.2.2
release. This involved development work towards ensuring feature parity
with the OONI Probe mobile app: creating a new Dashboard (with the same
UI as the OONI Probe mobile app), adding support for running all tests
with a single button, and adding the “Choose websites” button for custom
URL testing (similarly to the OONI Probe mobile app).

We also:

Added support for setting the maximum execution time of the Web
Connectivity test: https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1280
Added support for storing measurements in the OONI backend (and not on
disk): https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1313
Worked towards integrating the new RiseupVPN test into the OONI Probe
desktop app

### Updated OONI Probe macOS homebrew package

We upgraded the OONI Probe homebrew package to run the new ooniprobe 3.x
command line interface. In order to do this, we implemented native
system scheduling features inside of the command line tool (see:
https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/192).

This allows users to enable automatic testing by running the command:

`ooniprobe autorun start`

More details about this can be found in the following issue:
https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1289

The maintenance of the package has since been taken up by the homebrew
community, which is doing an excellent job at keeping it up to date:
https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/pulls?q=is%3Apr+ooniprobe+is%3Aclosed

We updated the installation instructions for the OONI Probe Command Line
Interface (CLI) on our website to enable users to get the latest version
of the OONI Probe command line tool: https://ooni.org/install/cli/macos

## Released Debian package for OONI Probe

We released a Debian package for OONI Probe with support for automatic
testing.

As part of the installation process, this package displays the informed
consent procedure through the use of native Debian packaging features.
Packages are automatically built as part of the continuous integration
workflow. See: https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1061

We updated the OONI Probe installation page for Linux to feature the new
Debian package: https://ooni.org/install/cli/ubuntu-debian

## OONI Probe engine

We released v.0.22.0 of the OONI Probe measurement engine:
https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/releases/tag/v0.22.0

Highlights from this release include:

* Significantly improved QUIC implementation
* Significantly improved DNSCheck implementation
* New `run`  experiment that takes in input a list of experiments to run
along with their options as a JSONL

This release includes a series of API changes, improvements, updates,
and bug fixes, as documented here:
https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/releases/tag/v0.22.0

## Expanding OONI Probe measurement methodologies

We improved upon our QUIC experiment, as documented through the
following pull requests:

https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/pull/1196
https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/pull/1126
https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/pull/1197
https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/pull/1176

We also improved upon our DNSCheck
(https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/pull/1166) and urlgetter
(https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/pull/1182) experiments. We
collaborated with community members who volunteered to work with us on
these experiments.

### New OONI Probe RiseupVPN test

In January 2021, we shipped a brand new OONI Probe test for RiseupVPN!

You can now check whether RiseupVPN works on your network. Learn all
about this test here: https://ooni.org/nettest/riseupvpn/

The RiseupVPN test (developed by the LEAP collective) was first made
available through the 2.9.1 release of the OONI Probe mobile app
(https://ooni.org/install/mobile). The test is now also available in the
OONI Probe desktop app.

All RiseupVPN test results from around the world are openly published in
near real-time on OONI Explorer:
https://explorer.ooni.org/search?since=2020-12-30&test_name=riseupvpn

## OONI Explorer

We released OONI Explorer 2.4.0
(https://github.com/ooni/explorer/releases/tag/v2.4.0) which includes
improvements to the metadata of the measurement pages for the purpose of
search engine optimization. We also integrated percy.io for the visual
testing of OONI Explorer (https://percy.io/407b7763/ooni-explorer/), and
fixed some issues in measurements
(https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/543). 

## OONI backend

Throughout January 2021, we worked on the following backend activities:

* Deployed an event detector on test and updated it for the new ams-pg
codebase
* Monitored the dashboard for the reactive test-list
* Investigated the counters bug and created a new
counters_hourly_software table
* Investigated the cause of the measurement drops
* Handled measurement keys in the fastpath pipeline
* Fixed the counters table update bug
* Fixed the pagination in the API
* Changed the DB query timeout in the API to fix test-url timeout bugs
in probes
* Fixed the API enumeration/paging bug
* Worked on implementing the probe check-in API 
* Generated report IDs
* Fixed the category code filtering

## New partnership

We formed a new partnership with civil society members in Sudan.

We previously had the opportunity to collaborate with this partner as
part of Internews’ 6-week internet shutdown measurement training program
for human rights defenders, which we helped lead. This training program
(which also included OONI modules) helped lay the ground for this
partnership.

## Test list updates

In January 2021, we made a few minor updates to the Citizen Lab test
lists, as documented through the following pull requests:

* Hong Kong test list: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/711
* Global test list: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/713

## Community activities

### OTF Virtual Summit 2021

Between 11th-15th January 2021, we attended the OTF Virtual Summit 2021.

On 13th January 2021, we participated as a panelist in the online
session “Collaboration between organizations in the internet freedom
field”, during which we shared some of the challenges, opportunities,
and best practices we have identified in forming partnerships and
working with digital rights organizations around the world.

## Userbase

In January 2021, 7,188,644 OONI Probe measurements were collected from
5,270 networks in 203 countries around the world.

This information can also be found through our measurement stats on OONI
Explorer (see chart on “monthly coverage worldwide”):
https://explorer.ooni.org/

~ OONI team.

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