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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2020-07-06 | snowflake |
Deployed NAT-aware matching at the Snowflake broker.
comment |
| 2020-06-30 to 2020-07-23 | Ethiopia |
Internet shutdown in Ethiopia. Restrictions were partially lifted 2020-07-15.
article article IODA relay users graph |
| 2020-06-25 | snowflake Unknown |
One- or two-day spike in estimated Snowflake users. It resembles the spike that occurred around the time of the Turbo Tunnel release of Tor Browser 9.5a13 on 2020-05-22.
users graph |
| 2020-06-02 | snowflake |
Release of Tor Browser 10.0a1, the first release with Snowflake for Android.
blog post ticket |
| 2020-05-22 | snowflake |
Release of Tor Browser 9.5a13, the first release with Turbo Tunnel session persistence features for Snowflake. There is a spike in estimated users on 2020-05-21 and 2020-05-22, which appears to be an artifact.
blog post ticket users graph |
| 2020-04-23 | snowflake |
Redeployed the Snowflake bridge with support for non–Turbo Tunnel clients and KCP–Turbo Tunnel clients, removing support for QUIC–Turbo Tunnel clients.
comment |
| 2020-03-02 to 2020-03-03 | Iran |
Farsi-language edition of Wikipedia blocked in Iran.
OONI report Censored Planet |
| 2020-01-09 to 2020-06-08 | webstats Unknown |
Tor Browser update pings drop temporarily. A similar effect is present in other years.
graph issue metrics-team thread |
| 2019-06-21 to present | Myanmar |
Internet shutdown in parts of Myanmar.
report 2020 report |
| 2019-04-27 to present | Russia Relays Unknown |
Relay users increase by about 100K, in an apparent weekly cycle. Bridge users are not similarly affected.
relay graph bridge graph tor-talk thread Reddit thread |
| 2019-02-16 to present | Belarus Relays Unknown |
Increase of relay users in Belarus.
graph mailing list post |
| 2018-12-20 to present | Sudan |
Protests and social media blocks in Sudan.
relay graph Access Now post Psiphon users |
| 2018-09-26 to present | fte |
Outage of default FTE bridge 128.105.214.162:8080.
comment |
| 2018-09-26 to present | fte |
Outage of default FTE bridge 128.105.214.163:8080.
comment |
| 2018-07-28 to present | Turkey Relays Unknown |
Another jump of relay users in Turkey, from 5k to about 30k.
relay graph bridge graph |
| 2018-07-01 to present | Uganda |
A social media tax takes effect in Uganda. The government pressures ISPs to block VPNs.
relay graph bridge graph BBC article AllAfrica article OONI report |
| 2018-06-20 to present | Venezuela |
Venezuela's largest ISP, CANTV, blocks direct access to Tor and the IP addresses of default bridges. meek and non-default bridges are reported to work.
ticket mailing list post Access Now report |
| 2018-04-30 to present | Iran |
Iranian ISPs block Telegram.
ticket article relay graph bridge graph Psiphon users |
| 2018-01-05 to present |
Outage of the op-hk OnionPerf instance.
op-hk graph |
|
| 2017-12-04 to present |
DDoS attack creates load on the network.
tor-relays thread relay graph summary post ticket |
|
| 2017-08-07 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 |
| 2017-02-10 to present | OR exit |
Measurement error from bandwidth authority causes decrease in measured bandwidth in Europe.
mailing list post |
| 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 |
| 2016-11-03 to present | Turkey |
Turkey blocks Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp.
article |
| 2016-10-25 to present | Egypt OR Relays |
Egypt blocks Tor directory authorities and public relays by TCP RST. Bridges work.
OONI report |
| 2015-12-31 to 2020-06-04 | Mexico |
The Telmex ISP in Mexico blocks seven directory authorities.
mailing list post article |
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