Over the last five months we ran OONI tests in Kenya almost every day to examine whether internet censorship events were occurring in the country. Hundreds of thousands of network measurements were collected and analyzed. 1,357 URLs were tested for censorship, including both international websites and sites that are more relevant to Kenya (e.g. local news outlets). Yet, after five months of intensive testing from four local vantage points in Kenya, we found almost no signs of internet censorship in the country.

Read the post here.

Publisher: Open Observatory of Network Interference & CIPIT Strathmore University

Publication date: 27th December 2016

In light of recent censorship events in Malaysia, the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI), in collaboration with Sinar Project, conducted a study to examine whether internet censorship events were persisting in the country and, if so, to collect data that can serve as evidence of them. This study was carried out through the collection of network measurements from two local vantage points in Malaysia, based on OONI software tests designed to examine whether a set of websites were blocked, and whether systems that could be responsible for internet censorship and surveillance were present in the tested networks (AS4788 and AS17971).

Read our research report here.

Publisher: Open Observatory of Network Interference & Sinar Project

Publication date: 20th December 2016

Today the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) project is excited to announce the release of two new software tests which are designed to examine the blocking of WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. You can now run these tests to monitor the accessibility of these apps across time, and to collect data that can serve as evidence when/if they are blocked.

Read the post here.

Publisher: Open Observatory of Network Interference

Publication date: 15th December 2016

Today, in collaboration with Amnesty International we are releasing a report that includes evidence of recent censorship events during Ethiopia’s political upheaval.

View our joint research report here.

View the pdf version of the report here.

Publisher: Open Observatory of Network Interference & Amnesty International

Publication date: 14th December 2016

Today we are excited to announce the beta release of our new web-based user interface (WUI) that enables ooniprobe users to run censorship tests from a web browser!

Whether you’re running ooniprobe from your desktop or a Raspberry Pi, you can now easily choose which tests you want to run through OONI’s web UI and run them with the click of a button.

Read more here.

Publisher: Open Observatory of Network Interference

Publication date: 13th December 2016

OONI aims to equip the public around the world with data that can serve as evidence of internet censorship events. Such data not only shows whether a site or service was blocked, but more importantly, how it was blocked, when, where, and by whom. This type of information can be particularly useful to the following:

• Lawyers: Examine the legality of the type of internet censorship implemented in your country, and use OONI’s data as evidence.
• Journalists: Improve the credibility of your stories by referencing network measurement data as evidence of censorship events.
• Researchers: Use OONI’s data to explore new questions. Researchers from the University of Cambridge and UC Berkeley, for example, were able to examine the differential treatment of anonymous users through the use of OONI data.
• Activists, advocates, campaigners: Inform your work based on evidence of censorship events.
• Circumvention tool projects: Inform the development of your tools and strategies based on OONI’s findings on censorship events around the world.

Read the blog here.

Publisher: The Tor Project

Publication date: 8th December 2016

Last week we attempted to perform OONI network measurement tests in the Gambia to examine whether websites were blocked during its 2016 presidential election. But merely a few hours after we connected our probe to perform tests, it stopped working completely.

We suspected that this was due to an internet shutdown. To confirm this, we referred to third-party data to examine whether a country-wide internet blackout was taking place.

In this report, we summarize some of our key findings pertaining to the internet shutdown that appears to have occurred in the Gambia on the eve of its 2016 presidential election.

Read our report here.

Publisher: Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI)

Publication date: 9th December 2016

Oonitarians are spread out across the globe, and OONI’s core team is no exception. We recently met in Berlin to hack on OONI’s software, work on our roadmap, and to have all those discussions that are more fruitful to have in person than on IRC. We also held a hackathon to engage new individuals with our project!

Learn about what we worked on here.

Publisher: Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI)

Publication date: 22nd November 2016

In light of Zambia’s 2016 general elections, the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI), in collaboration with Strathmore University’s Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law (CIPIT), conducted a study to examine whether internet censorship events occurred during the election period. This study was carried out through the collection of network measurements from a local vantage point in Zambia, based on a set of OONI software tests designed to examine whether a set of websites were blocked, and whether systems that could be responsible for internet censorship and surveillance were present in the tested network (MTN Zambia).

Read our research report here.

Publisher: Open Observatory of Network Interference & CIPIT Strathmore University

Publication date: 11th October 2016

Nearly 100 deaths and thousands of arrests have been reported in Ethiopia over the last days, as part of protests against the marginalization and persecution of the Oromos and Amharas, Ethiopia’s two largest ethnic groups. But the attacks and arrests may not have been the only forms of retribution carried out by the Ethiopian government in its crackdown against protesters.

Last weekend, the internet was reportedly shut down in the country.

In an attempt to understand whether the internet was in fact shut down, we looked at some public sources of data that contain information about internet traffic. Such data provides strong indicators that the internet was most likely shut down during the Ethiopian protests last weekend, though it remains unclear if this occurred in all regions and/or on all types of networks across the country.

Read more here.

Publisher: Open Observatory of Network Interference & CIPIT Strathmore University

Publication date: 10th August 2016