Censored Planet

University of Michigan

Victor Ongkowijaya, Reethika Ramesh, Ram Sundara Raman, Adrian Stoll, Roya Ensafi

https://censoredplanet.org

2

IP routing

TCP handshake

DNS query for

cnn.co

m

Resolver

Measuring Censorship is a Complex Problem!

(opt) TLS handshake

HTTP requests

How to Measure Censorship Globally & Continuously?

Common practice:

● Deploy hardware or software at hosts(RIPE Atlas, OONI probe)

● Ask people on the ground, or use VPNs

THREE KEY CHALLENGES: Coverage, ethics, and continuity

Server

?

Client

Measuring w/o Volunteer Participation!

?

Measuring Internet Censorship Globally… Remotely!

DNS Satellite ( Iris) → Using Organizational Open Resolver

TCP/IP Augur (Spooky Scan)→ Using Global IPID routers

ApplicationQuack (Echo, Discard, etc) → Using services that echo

What can you do with Censored Planet?- Politics: When political events happen, rapidly understand how they’re

reflected in change to blocking

- Trends: Use longitudinal data to observe how censorship evolves

- Network measurement: Distinguish likely censorship from other network

failures in your dataset

- Economics: Estimate financial losses from markets that can’t reach your site

- Transparency: Let users know what their governments are denying them

Censored Planet

University of Michigan

Victor Ongkowijaya, Reethika Ramesh, Ram Sundara Raman, Adrian Stoll, Roya Ensafi

https://censoredplanet.org