The agenda to start the project was in https://pad.riseup.net/p/sponsor139-meeting-pad

Regular meetings will happen on Thursdays at 16UTC at the anti-censorship team meetings in irc.

Objective 1: Increase the availability of Tor Browser for Android in Iran Because our website and other methods for downloading apps (e.g., Apple Store, Google Play Store) are now blocked in Iran, we have other channels for distributing official copies of Tor Browser for desktop. We do this with a tool called GetTor. With GetTor, a user sends an email or Telegram message to a bot. In return, they will receive an automatic message with an official copy of Tor Browser. With the introduction of the Telegram bot, we’ve seen GetTor explode in popularity. Iranians have turned to this method of downloading Tor Browser by the thousands.

Right now, GetTor can only serve users with the desktop version of Tor Browser. We need to offer the Android version of Tor Browser as well because many people only connect to the internet via their mobile devices. Without an official .apk, there is a void where unofficial channels have stepped in. Some of these unofficial channels distribute malicious or fake Tor Browsers. Adding a Tor Browser for Android .apk to GetTor will help meet the needs of users and help combat fake versions of the app. To offer Tor Browser for Android via the GetTor tool, we need to build one additional binary. With a small amount of work, we’ll be able to greatly expand what we can offer to Iranians who need to connect to the internet through Tor.

Objective 2: Increase the availability of localized support and resources Although we have a wide translator community, to fight against an ongoing and uncertain censorship scenario, we will need to quickly adapt, translate, and deliver Tor circumvention guides with localized instructions in Farsi. For example: https://forum.torproject.net/t/iran-circumventing-censorship-with-tor/4590 To do this with the agility necessary, we need to hire a paid translator.

We also need to increase the hours of our support staff. We’re receiving thousands of support requests and we have a small team–in order to meet the needs of Iranians right now, we need to expand our availability for the next 6 months.

Objective 3: Increase the availability of circumvention methods Iranian ISPs block traditional access to the Tor network. This means that Iranians need a special, uncensored mechanism to connect successfully to the network. Iranians have been able to use our pluggable transport and bridge mechanism called Snowflake to bypass this kind of censorship. We’ve seen an increase of hundreds of thousands of Iranian users utilizing Snowflake through Tor Browser and through the VPN Orbot, which funnels traffic through Tor and allows users to bypass censorship in mobile apps.

Snowflake works by creating a “flurry” of available proxies all around the world. Individuals who want to help people bypass censorship can install a Snowflake proxy into their web browser and become a temporary proxy as long as their browser is open and online. This means that it’s extremely easy for many people to run proxies–we’ve seen an increase from about 30,000 to about 110,000 in the last month!

It’s also possible to set up standalone Snowflake proxies that run on their own machines or servers. While they are not as easy as a browser plugin to run, standalone Snowflake proxies have some benefits: (1) standalone Snowflakes are connected 24/7 (instead of just when a user’s browser is on); (2) they have a dedicated, fast, and stable connection in a data center; and (3) they have unrestricted NAT–this is important because when using residential connections, modems and routers limit a lot of what can connect to an individual’s proxy.

In order to accommodate the amount of new traffic on the network, we need to increase the number of standalone Snowflake proxies. We have a program we have been piloting with the support of the U.S. State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor where we offer subsidies to organizations to support them in setting up specific kinds of servers (bridges) for the Tor network. This has been extremely successful.

In this Objective, we will work with partner organizations and individuals to set up, host, and run standalone Snowflake proxies and offer them technical support. We also will help the operators monitor their proxies for blocking and respond when there are censorship events or changes so that these proxies remain available.