TEST LISTS FOR MEASURING INTERNET CENSORSHIP APPLICABILITY, PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS
IMPROVING LISTS OF CENSORED ONLINE CONTENT • Update test lists for 48 states in Latin America, Africa, MENA, Asia and CIS • Develop methodology (http://netalitica.com/) • Establish collaboration among tool developers, researchers and community organizations • Advance knowledge and research on Internet censorship
WORKSHOP STRUCTURE • What are Citizen Lab test lists? • Types and organization • How to clean lists? • How to update lists? • Potential risks and safety tips
WHAT ARE THE TEST LISTS? url category_code category_description date_added source notes http://www.alahrambeverages.com ALDR Alcohol & Drugs 2019-03-31 netaltica https://zenvpn.net/ ANON Anonymization and circumvention tools 2017-06-23 AFTE https://te.eg/wps/portal/te/Person COMT Communication Tools 2019-05-16 Netalitica https://thegeekdaily.com/ CTRL Control content 2017-12-06 AFTE http://www.culturewheel.com/ar CULTR Culture 2019-06-02 Netalitica • Machine-readable files http://www.aljisr-news.com/ COMM E-commerce 2017-07-01 AFTE in past this website wa http://www.eaee-eg.com/ ENV Environment 2018-02-09 OONI not likely to be blocked https://torrents.me/ FILE File-sharing 2018-08-02 AFTE • Made up of URLs tested for https://www.casinoarbi.com/ GMB Gambling 2019-03-31 netaltica http://www.mod.gov.il/ GOVT Government 2017-08-10 Egypt List https://www.ampproject.org/ HOST Hosting and Blogging Platforms 2018-02-07 AFTE blocking by network measurement https://www.eipr.org/ HUMR Human Rights Issues 2014-04-15 citizenlab https://www.ochaopt.org/ IGO Intergovernmental Organizations 2019-03-31 netaltica tools (e.g. OONI Probe, Centinel) https://www.globalgayz.com/ LGBT LGBT 2014-04-15 citizenlab https://www.zeedrama.net/ MMED Media sharing 2019-06-02 Netalitica Reportedly blocked https://arabist.net/ NEWS News Media 2014-04-15 citizenlab https://www.zawaj.com/ DATE Online Dating 2019-05-16 Netalitica • Include sample of websites http://www.gamal-mubarak.com/POLR Political Criticism 2014-04-15 citizenlab https://6-ar.com/ PORN Pornography 2019-03-31 netaltica https://www.victoriassecret.ae/en PROV Provocative Attire 2019-05-16 Netalitica • History https://www.altibbi.com/ PUBH Public Health 2019-05-16 Netalitica https://islamonline.net/ REL Religion 2014-04-15 citizenlab http://www.misrlinks.com/ SRCH Search Engines 2019-05-16 Netalitica https://www.zanzu.de/ar/ XED Sex Education 2019-05-16 Netalitica https://twitter.com/ikhwanweb GRP Social Networking 2014-04-15 citizenlab https://dawaalhaq.com/ MILX Terrorism and Militants 2017-08-21 AFTE
TYPES OF TEST LISTS COUNTRY GLOBAL CUSTOM • Tested in a single country • Tested in all countries • Made to answer specific RQ • URLs relevant to that country • Globally relevant URLs • Customizable (OONI Run) • Predominantly in English • Limited N of URLs • In local language(s)
STRUCTURE - COUNTRY LISTS url category_code category_description date_added source http://www.alahrambeverages.com ALDR Alcohol & Drugs 2019-03-31 netaltica https://zenvpn.net/ ANON Anonymization and circumvention tools 2017-06-23 AFTE https://te.eg/wps/portal/te/Person COMT Communication Tools 2019-05-16 Netalitica https://thegeekdaily.com/ CTRL Control content 2017-12-06 AFTE http://www.culturewheel.com/ar CULTR Culture 2019-06-02 Netalitica http://www.aljisr-news.com/ COMM E-commerce 2017-07-01 AFTE • Broad range of local sites http://www.eaee-eg.com/ ENV Environment 2018-02-09 OONI https://torrents.me/ FILE File-sharing 2018-08-02 AFTE https://www.casinoarbi.com/ GMB Gambling 2019-03-31 netaltica • Not “Alexa top 1,000 sites” http://www.mod.gov.il/ GOVT Government 2017-08-10 Egypt List https://www.ampproject.org/ HOST Hosting and Blogging Platforms 2018-02-07 AFTE https://www.eipr.org/ HUMR Human Rights Issues 2014-04-15 citizenlab • Not block lists : include blocked + https://www.ochaopt.org/ IGO Intergovernmental Organizations 2019-03-31 netaltica https://www.globalgayz.com/ LGBT LGBT 2014-04-15 citizenlab likely to be blocked + not blocked https://www.zeedrama.net/ MMED Media sharing 2019-06-02 Netalitica https://arabist.net/ NEWS News Media 2014-04-15 citizenlab URLs https://www.zawaj.com/ DATE Online Dating 2019-05-16 Netalitica http://www.gamal-mubarak.com/POLR Political Criticism 2014-04-15 citizenlab https://6-ar.com/ PORN Pornography 2019-03-31 netaltica • Help confirm blocking as well as https://www.victoriassecret.ae/en PROV Provocative Attire 2019-05-16 Netalitica https://www.altibbi.com/ PUBH Public Health 2019-05-16 Netalitica accessibility of websites https://islamonline.net/ REL Religion 2014-04-15 citizenlab http://www.misrlinks.com/ SRCH Search Engines 2019-05-16 Netalitica https://www.zanzu.de/ar/ XED Sex Education 2019-05-16 Netalitica • Organized into 30 categories https://twitter.com/ikhwanweb GRP Social Networking 2014-04-15 citizenlab https://dawaalhaq.com/ MILX Terrorism and Militants 2017-08-21 AFTE
CATEGORIES OF URLS • Alcohol & drugs • Environment • Anonymization and circumvention tools • File-sharing • Communication tools • Gambling • Control content • Gaming • Culture • Government • E-commerce • Hacking tools • Economics (economic development) • Hate speech
CATEGORIES OF URLS • Hosting and blogging platforms • Pornography • Human rights issues • Provocative attire • IGOs • Public health • LGBT • Religion • Media Sharing • Search engines • News Media • Sex education • Online dating • Social networking • Political Criticism • T errorism and Militants
WHY BOTHER? • “Censorship findings are only as interesting as the sites you test” (OONI) • Raise awareness • Keep authorities accountable • Help local testers • Advance Internet censorship research
Identified cases of blocking 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Blocked from existing URLs Blocked from newly added URLs
Blocking of websites in the CIS - global vs. local content 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Russia Uzbekistan Turkmenistan Kazakhstan Blocked from Global list % Blocked from Local list %
UPDATING LISTS Review & removing “bad” URLs AS A 3-STAGE PROCESS Adding fresh websites Balancing
Overal percentage of corrections made to existing lists INDONESIA 23% SOUTH AFRICA 26% ZIMBABWE 52% STEP 1: CLEANING Review & cleaning “bad” URLs RUSSIA 61% LISTS FROM “BAD” SUDAN 69% URLS Adding fresh URLs TURKEY 71% UAE 75% IRAN 82% Balancing QATAR 84% CHINA 87% SAUDI ARABIA 90% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
HOW TO CLEAN LIST? • Consult our Guideline (netalitica.com) • Download country list from GitHub • Conduct analysis of each website in- browser • Record findings • Get in touch with Netalitica (netalitica@gmail.com)
FOCUS CHANGEOVER NOW SOLUTION BEFORE • News site (Egypt) Is the site blocked (OONI • Explorer)? • Keep blocked URLs Delete the rest •
DEAD WEBSITES SOLUTION BEFORE NOW Human rights platform (Egypt) • • Keep blocked URLs • Delete the rest
OUTDATED WEBSITES SOLUTION Political criticism site (Sudan - 2005) Keep URLs that are blocked & • generate traffic • Delete the rest
DOMAIN FOR SALE SOLUTION BEFORE NOW Blogging platform (Tunisia) • • Update URL if service migrated to new domain Delete •
URL PROBLEMS – PURGED SOCIAL MEDIA SOLUTION BEFORE NOW Update URL if page moved to • new platform • Delete
DOMAIN REDIRECTS SOLUTION BEFORE NOW Update URL if site migrated to • new domain • Delete
IRRELEVANT CONTENT SOLUTION Irish medium in Ukraine list Delete •
OTHER ISSUES • Duplicates (delete) • Wrong categorization (correct) • Old domain names (update) • URLs with global relevance (move to Global list) • Facebook, T witter & YouTube pages (delete - keep up to 5)
Overal percentage of corrections made to existing lists SOUTH AFRICA 17% INDONESIA 23% SOUTH AFRICA 26% VENEZUELA 50% UZBEKISTAN 51% ZIMBABWE 52% BELARUS 61% RUSSIA 61% JORDAN 64% EGYPT 66% SUDAN 69% TURKEY 71% KAZAKHSTAN 71% UKRAINE 72% BAHRAIN 73% TURKMENISTAN 74% YEMEN 74% UAE 75% MOROCCO 75% ETHIOPIA 80% IRAN 82% QATAR 84% IRAQ 87% SYRIA 87% CHINA 87% PAKISTAN 89% TUNISIA 90% SAUDI ARABIA 90% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Improved speed of web connectivity tests SAUDI ARABIA 6% INDONESIA 11% BELARUS 13% VENEZUELA 14% SUDAN 15% ETHIOPIA 17% UZBEKISTAN 17% RUSSIA 20% BAHRAIN 21% IRAQ 22% IRAN 22% EGYPT 23% KAZAKHSTAN 25% JORDAN 32% QATAR 33% TURKMENISTAN 38% TURKEY 40% TUNISIA 41% SYRIA 43% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%
Recommend
More recommend
