Users
We estimate the number of users by analyzing the requests induced by clients to relays and bridges.
This graph shows the estimated number of clients connecting via bridges. These numbers are derived from directory requests counted on bridges. Bridges distinguish connecting clients by transport protocol, which may include pluggable transports, so that graphs are available for different transports. For further details check the documentation on Reproducible Metrics.
Related events
The following events have been manually collected in the metrics-timeline Git repository and might be related to the displayed graph.
| Dates | Places/Protocols | Description and Links |
|---|---|---|
| 2017-01-25 to 2017-04-05 | webstats |
Tor Browser update pings roughly halve. The beginning corresponds with the release of Tor Browser 6.5.2, which changed the app.update.url. The end doesn't correspond to any release.
ticket |
| 2017-01-24 |
Tor Browser 6.5 is released. It changes the app.update.url, which causes an apparent drop in update pings.
blog post graph ticket comment about app.update.url |
|
| 2017-01-24 | snowflake |
Tor Browser 7.0a1 released, including Snowflake for GNU/Linux only.
blog post |
| 2017-01-22 | meek |
1.0-beta release of GAEuploader, a tool that automates the setting up of meek.
mailing list post |
| 2017-01-16 to 2017-04-20 | Cameroon |
Internet shutdown in parts of Cameroon.
article article |
| 2017-01-15 to 2017-03-01 | United Arab Emirates <OR> Relays Unknown |
Huge spike in relay users (400k+). An anonymous contributor suggests that it may be a botnet, based on the large number of hosts with an open SMB port in the UAE.
graph metrics-team thread Reddit thread comment about botnet |
| 2017-01-09 | meek |
Decreased the rate limit on the meek-azure bridge to 2.0 MB/s, from 3.0 MB/s.
|
| 2017-01-04 | ipv4 ipv6 |
geoip and geoip6 databases updated to "January 4 2017 Maxmind GeoLite2 Country" (geoip-db-digest 672C29A4FA9BF81DE97CFE128741445E2BDE8097, geoip6-db-digest 81F380639A8E1000539204949A363FD3BFAFBA74).
commit |
| 2016-12-21 to 2016-12-28 | <OR> Relays Unknown |
Drop in relay users.
metrics-team thread thread continues |
| 2016-12-15 to present | Congo, The Democratic Republic of the |
The Democratic Republic of the Congo orders a block of social media services.
article relay graph bridge graph |
| 2016-12-13 | obfs4 |
Tor Browser 6.5a6 is released. It fixes the app.update.url. It adds (uncomments) the default obfs4 bridge NX01:443. It activates timing obfuscation for certain obfs4 bridges. It changes the port of other obfs4 bridges.
blog post |
| 2016-12-12 | Turkey <OR> |
Turkey blocks direct Tor connections. The order to block had come on 2016-11-04.
ticket tweet article |
| 2016-12-09 | ipv4 ipv6 |
geoip and geoip6 databases updated to "December 7 2016 Maxmind GeoLite2 Country" (geoip-db-digest 1317BB3525E85E01FB34A89E04CE549AC23D07BD, geoip6-db-digest 865048C69BEC02B37268BFBAD66D9729B21CFCF5).
commit |
| 2016-12-01 | Belarus <OR> Relays |
Belarus blocks the addresses of public Tor relays, apparently by RST injection. Bridges work, even unobfuscated ones.
ticket article (Russian) OONI blog post |
| 2016-11-30 to 2016-12-02 | Gambia |
Internet shutdown in Gambia.
relay graph OONI report Cloudflare blog post |
| 2016-11-22 | meek |
Decreased the rate limit on the meek-amazon bridge to 2.0 MB/s, from 3.0 MB/s.
|
| 2016-11-20 to 2016-12-22 | Saudi Arabia Bridges Unknown |
Decrease in direct users and increase in bridge users in Saudi Arabia. The increase in bridge users lasts only about one month while the number of direct users remains down.
ticket |
| 2016-11-20 | Saudi Arabia <OR> Unknown |
Decrease in direct users and increase in bridge users in Saudi Arabia.
ticket |
| 2016-11-18 | obfs4 |
Default obfs4 bridge Lisbeth turns on timing obfuscation (iat-mode=1).
ticket |
| 2016-11-16 |
Tor Browser 6.5a4 is released. It changes the app.update.url.
blog post ticket |
|
| 2016-11-15 | meek |
Tor Browser 6.0.6 is released, unbreaking meek on macOS 10.12 (Sierra). (See 2016-09-20 breaking event.)
blog post ticket |
| 2016-11-15 | obfs4 |
Default obfs4 bridges ndnop3 and ndnop5 turn on timing obfuscation (iat-mode).
mailing list post ticket |
| 2016-11-07 | ipv4 ipv6 |
geoip and geoip6 databases updated to "November 3 2016 Maxmind GeoLite2 Country" (geoip-db-digest 363C038D0BE61D6E0A63C43DE8EA70771ED7BEA5, geoip6-db-digest 6110A2B794AFF0180FD096A4759434CABD289C40).
commit |
| 2016-11-04 | Turkey |
Turkey orders a block on VPN services and Tor.
Turkish article English article ticket |
| 2016-11-03 to present | Turkey |
Turkey blocks Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp.
article |
| 2016-10-19 to 2016-11-10 | meek |
Large decrease in meek users, perhaps caused by problems in Orbot 15.0.2 BETA 1 that were fixed in Orbot 15.2.0 RC8.
ticket initial email followup email Orbot mail |
| 2016-09-23 to 2016-11-28 | obfs3 |
Outage of default obfs3 bridges "Unnamed" and "Unnamed" (fingerprint AF9F66B7B04F8FF6F32D455F05135250A16543C9). (Start date not known for sure, though it must have been after 2016-09-23; discussed in non-archived tor-team email.)
|
| 2016-07-21 to 2017-03-03 | Brazil meek Unknown |
Sustained increase in meek users in Brazil. Locals believe that they are not actual users, rather bots or something like that. End date coincides with shutdown of meek-azure before migration. Would pick up again 2017-06-07.
graph |
| 2015-12-31 to 2020-06-04 | Mexico |
The Telmex ISP in Mexico blocks seven directory authorities.
mailing list post article |