A common standard for describing fiber infrastructure makes it easier for regulators and policymakers to accurately assess the true extent and resiliency of their fiber optic networks.
Authoritarian regimes often censor websites for those within their borders, threatening free and open communication on the Internet. Measuring what is blocked, how censors operate, and how censorship changes over time is essential to understanding and circumventing these censorship efforts. Unfortunately, it is challenging to measure such things, particularly in countries that restrict researchers’ ability […]
The growth of Internet traffic has presented a significant challenge for large content and cloud providers (Hypergiants or HGs), which are constantly seeking innovative solutions to reduce latency and enhance user experience. Two solutions are deploying services and servers inside end-user networks (off-nets) and joining Internet Exchange Points (IXPs). In the first approach, HGs install […]
Are you interested in Internet measurements and research and have a project or tool in mind that contributes to upholding an open, globally-connected, secure, and trustworthy Internet?
Internet censorship and shutdown events have become increasingly common in many countries — in the last 12 months, the Internet Society’s Pulse Shutdown Tracker has recorded 94 shutdown events. When analyzing Internet censorship and shutdown events, Internet Society curates data from multiple datasets, including OONI, Google Transparency Report, and Cloudflare. Each dataset provides a unique […]
A resilient Internet is crucial for a flourishing economy and the advancement of a country. It supports businesses, fuels innovation, and connects communities, forming a backbone for modern society’s progress and prosperity. Network resiliency is much more than just preventing network failures or disaster recovery. It acknowledges the inevitability of such incidents and prioritizes rapid […]
A middlebox is a computer networking device that can transform, inspect, filter, and manipulate Internet traffic — otherwise known as connection tampering — that is deemed as restricted between clients and servers due to reasons such as copyright infringement or Internet censorship. Although these intentions seek to improve security and performance, there is a need to […]
People living and working in regions prone to prolonged Internet shutdowns in India, such as Jammu Kashmir, and Manipur, have devised various ways to access the Internet. Below is a sample of these methods to help others who are dealing with government-enforced Internet shutdowns. Note some of these require pre-planning and setting up before a […]
On 19 July 2023, a video went viral on X (formerly Twitter) showing two women from Manipur’s Kangpokpi district being paraded naked by a mob of hundreds of men. The footage sparked outrage across political spectrums. Netizens voiced their anguish and dismay regarding the treatment of the women as well as the fact that this […]
Electronic government (e-gov) services enable citizens and residents to interact with their governments digitally via the Internet and are considered an indicator of resilient local Internet service. The Domain Name System (DNS), which maps domain names to Internet addresses, underpins e-gov services. Therefore, if the DNS services of e-gov domains fail, government services become unreachable. […]
Earlier this week, a tweet caught our attention noting that Pulse partner, Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI), was showing social media platforms in Ethiopia were now accessible without using a Virtual Private Network (VPN), bringing to an end a 158-day service blocking order by local authorities. As per the Pulse Shutdown Tracker, local authorities […]
In the second quarter of 2023 two more countries have joined the ranks of those with secured country-code Top Level Domains (ccTLD) and security keys deployed in the DNS root zone. Just about every Internet communication starts with a Domain Name System (DNS) lookup. The DNS is an essential piece of Internet infrastructure that translates […]
Decision-makers and advocates can use Pulse to identify weaknesses in their local Internet ecosystem and make evidence-based, public policy decisions to address these.
It is increasingly common for governments to shut down the Internet on a national or sub-national level in an effort to solve specific problems, including control of civil unrest, stem the flow of misinformation, or prevent cheating on national exams. As of the start of July 2023, governments and other actors across 15 countries have […]
The NetLoss Calculator is a new feature we’ve added to the Pulse platform to provide a rigorous and precise estimate of the economic outcomes of Internet shutdowns.
If you’ve followed my series of posts on the benefits of HTTP/3 (QUIC) compared to HTTP/2 (TCP), by now you might think that these new protocols seem too good to be true. They improve performance, boost security/privacy, and are the perfect bedrock for future-proof experimentation and improvements in the years to come. Still, the protocols have […]
So far in this series, I’ve detailed how QUIC and HTTP/3 have overcome the security and privacy issues that plague the Transport Control Protocol (TCP) and HTTP/2 in a future-proof way. In this post, I’ll look at how they compare when it comes to perhaps the most important feature of any protocol: performance. Comparing HTTP/3 […]
Imagine using your phone at work to connect to a virtual meeting via your office WiFi network. The video conference is going overtime but you need to get to a client meeting across town. The facilitator says there are only 15 minutes left so you decide to watch the rest while you walk to your […]
The HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is a cornerstone of the Internet, helping to load Web pages, stream videos, and fetch data for your favorite apps. Last year a new version of the protocol, HTTP/3, was standardized by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the organization in charge of defining Internet technologies. Since then, HTTP/3 and the related […]
Spanish Internet provider Telefónica recently announced it has completed the deployment of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) for all Movistar and O2 mobile network customers in Spain. Rolling out the technology upgrade started in November 2022. The Spanish network operator also claimed it will deploy IPv6 to all fixed broadband connections by the end of […]
The decentralized web, also known as Web 3.0, is an innovative approach to the traditional web we currently use. It provides users with more resilience, security, and control of where their data is stored. However, because of its decentralized and peer-to-peer (P2P) structure, Web 3.0 makes measuring and monitoring its performance challenging. In this post, […]
The Internet Hygiene Portal allows consumers to assess the level of security of website and email services to help them make informed choices to safeguard their digital transactions from cyber threats.
Open Fibre Data Standard seeks to streamline the process of making sense of the data and enable public and private sector stakeholders to make data-driven decisions about terrestrial fiber projects.
While I was writing this post for Pulse last year, to note that the Top Level Domain (TLD) for Côte d’Ivoire (.ci) had been signed, I noticed that both .ke (Kenya) and .bw (Botswana) were unsigned since 15 September and 22 June respectively. Both of these domains had previously been signed. It’s very troubling to […]
Do you live in one of the following countries? Bolivia Iraq Morocco Brazil Kazakhstan Palestine Burkina Faso Madagascar Philippines Democratic Republic of Congo Malawi Samoa Georgia Maldives Sudan If so, the Internet measurement community needs your help and you don’t need any technical knowledge to contribute! The Internet Society Pulse team is developing a methodology to […]
Earlier this year while compiling the latest IPv6 deployment data for our Pulse Enabling Technologies page my attention was drawn to a dramatic rise in levels of IPv6 traffic emanating from Mongolia. Interested to learn more, we set about making contact with Unitel, the largest digital service provider in Mongolia and the source of the […]
The Mongolian parliament is reviewing a controversial law that gives the minister of internal affairs the power to shut down access to the Internet. The law, which was hastily passed by the parliament in January and then quickly vetoed by the president, would remove the ability of 3.3 million people to communicate, learn, and earn […]
In the first quarter of 2023 two more countries have joined the ranks of those with secured country-code Top Level Domains (ccTLD) and security keys deployed in the DNS root zone. Just about every Internet communication starts with a Domain Name System (DNS) lookup. The DNS is an essential piece of Internet infrastructure that translates […]
In my first post in this series, I highlighted the amazing growth of DNSSEC validation in countries within Africa. In this post, I’ll jump across the Atlantic Ocean to highlight the mixed changes we’ve seen in DNSSEC validation over the past year in North and South America. Growth continues in South America, with Guyana, Venezuela, and Argentina all making significant gains […]
The Internet Society Nigeria Chapter has been collaborating and informing the national regulator on threats against the Internet, including nullify rumors of Internet shutdown during the recent Nigerian elections.
Are you interested in Internet measurement research and have a project or tool in mind that contributes to upholding an open, globally-connected, secure, and trustworthy Internet?
Last month, Hanna Kreitem and I participated in MENOG22, an event organized by the RIPE NCC in Manama, Bahrain. It is the major networking and peering event in the region attracting 183 attendees from 29 countries for two days of presentations, and lots of discussions and interesting exchanges during the breaks and the social event. During […]
The stars are aligning for IPv6 deployment. The last two months have seen huge rollouts of IPv6 technology at the Ukrainian ISP Kyivstar and the satellite Internet operator Starlink. We want to highlight these significant ongoing IPv6 deployments as they serve to illustrate the continued adoption of this key enabling technology by major network operators […]
Concerns about the Internet fragmenting into multiple, disconnected and non-interoperable networks have been raised and discussed within Internet governance forums for nearly a decade, including at this week’s Internet Governance Forum (IGF). Follow: IGF 2022 Open Forum #49 Advancing Digital Inclusion through the Freedom Online Coalition: Responding to Internet Fragmentation Many in the technical community, including […]
As a network of networks, the Internet can be characterized as a set of dependencies between networks. Dependencies for both connectivity and customers. An outage at any specific network can impact dependent networks that do not have alternative means of accessing the Internet. Some networks are so large that significant outages can impact many dependent […]
Internet service interruptions in Lebanon are increasing in frequency and becoming the norm. Access via landlines and mobile data is affected across all regions in the country. The argument used to justify these outages is power cuts at local transmission stations. At the Internet Society Lebanon Chapter, we estimate that the direct and indirect costs […]
We wrote earlier this year about Rwanda joining the ranks of fully DNSSEC capable domains and now we can report that they have been followed by the Côte d’Ivoire ccTLD, .ci. The .ci ccTLD is managed by the Côte d’Ivoire Network Information Centre. It’s been a few years since ICANN helped to provide DNSSEC deployment workshops for […]
Over the past couple of weeks we have observed multiple incidents of artificial Internet limitations in Iran. These incidents are reported to be connected to local unrest. We collect data and analysis on Internet shutdown events occurring around the world, and look at the economic and human impact of these actions. Timeline Regional shutdowns On […]
A new report, Internet Shutdowns to Prevent Cheating During Exams: The Impact on Society and Economy in the MENA Region, has been launched today by SMEX, a Lebanese NGO that works to advance self-regulating information societies in the MENA region. The report comes after another summer of Internet shutdowns throughout the region, which saw Internet […]
It’s now been a full two months since Rogers Telecom suffered a nationwide Internet outage, leaving tens of millions of Canadians without telecommunications services. On the morning of 8 July 2022, Rogers subscribers across Canada found themselves without Internet service. The outage spread to cable, mobile services, and fixed line telephony, including access to E911 […]
Internet shutdowns cost the country more than $580 million in 2021, with 59 million people impacted. https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/tech-telco-firms-seek-federal-oversight-to-control-internet-shutdowns-122090700496_1.html
Iran has a notable history of maintaining a tight grip over the Internet within the country. Since 2009, there has been an increasing number of Internet shutdowns in Iran, ranging from local and regional events to a near total national blackout in November 2019. During this event, the Iranian government shut down the Internet for […]
If you’ve been around the Internet and tech industries for a while, it can start to feel like there’s often more hype than reality to a lot of buzzword-driven trends and so-called innovations. The advent of Web 2.0 in the early noughties had substance and ushered in a new era of more collaborative, social websites and […]
In 2021, a fourth focus area was published on Internet Society Pulse. We called it “Internet Centralization”. Today we’ve changed the name to “Market Concentration” and we wanted to explain why. The concept of centralization can be seen as the degree to which an activity within a given set of relationships is dependent on a […]
The devastating real-life effects of Internet shutdowns on the lives and rights of millions of people are vastly under-appreciated and deserve much greater attention, says a new report on Internet shutdowns, published by The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN-OHCHR). Internet shutdowns create significant obstacles that damage economies, democratic processes, […]
Internet access is an essential part of life for many people around the globe – but not during the school exam period in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This is the message that is conveyed by the ongoing disruption of Internet access for millions of people, in part or in full, to stop students cheating on public exams in several countries, including Syria, Sudan, Jordan, and Algeria. Often used as […]
General entrance exams in Sudan took place from 11-22 June, 2022, and alongside them came Internet shutdowns implemented as a measure to combat cheating. As has occurred over the last few years, Internet access was disrupted for everyone, rendering Sudan out of reach from the world for a few hours on each day with scheduled […]
General entrance exams in Syria took place from 30 May – 21 June, 2022, and alongside them came Internet shutdowns implemented as a measure to combat cheating. As is the case since 2016, Internet access was disrupted for everyone, rendering Syria out of reach from the world for a few hours on each day with […]
On Internet Society Pulse we present a variety of different measurements that help to illustrate the extent and variation in IPv6 deployment around the world and across the networks that comprise the global Internet. June 2022 marks the 10-year anniversary of World IPv6 Launch so we thought this would be a good time to reflect on some of […]
Every year, throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, millions of people are cut off from the Internet for lengthy periods while students take their school exams.In many countries in the region, national school exams are a major annual event. They can have a huge impact on people’s futures and the results usually […]
It’s been a few years since ICANN helped to provide DNSSEC deployment workshops for African ccTLD registries but that effort is still paying off. The latest ccTLD to join the ranks of fully DNSSEC capable domains is Rwanda’s .rw domain. The Rwandan ccTLD is managed by the Rwanda Internet Community and Technology Alliance and Rwanda is the 17th African […]
Google’s latest IPv6 measurements show the percentage of its users connecting to Google services over IPv6 passed 40% for the first time on 30 April this year. This is a significant milestone in the ongoing deployment of IPv6 services to Internet users all around the globe. Crossing this latest threshold now means that IPv6 use by Google users has grown from […]
Internet measurement results from our friends at APNIC show that efforts to improve the security and resilience of the Internet’s routing system passed a significant milestone recently. More than 50% of advertised IPv6 address space has a valid Route Origin Authorisation (ROA). This means that now, for the first time, the majority of announced IPv6 address space is secured with RPKI. […]
High Court in India Challenges Internet Shutdown Order in West Bengal By Tanmay Singh, Internet Freedom Foundation and Anandita Mishra, Internet Freedom Foundation On 8 March, 2022, a resident of Calcutta in India challenged an Internet suspension order, which was issued by the State Government of West Bengal on 3 March, 2022. The order, ostensibly […]
This is a live dashboard of speedtest data collected from Measurement-Lab. It presents data on both Ukraine and Russia as from 1 February, 2022. This dashboard provides a summary view by country (Pages 1 and 4) including the number of tests run on Ukrainian and Russian networks. The other pages provide either a City-level or […]
Mozilla Foundation hosted a Twitter Spaces audio chat related to Mozilla’s new open dataset on Internet outages with Berhan Taye, Doug Madory, Maria Xynou, Alberto Dainotti and Alessio Placitelli. The recording is online now if you wish to listen or share further. It was a wide-ranging conversation about technical outage measurements, why they matter and […]
As events unfold in Ukraine and the world is focused on following what is happening, it’s important to remember that critical Internet infrastructure plays a key role in keeping people connected, providing access to all kinds of crucial information and support and helping people stay in contact with loved ones across borders. At the Internet […]
In the past few years, India has imposed the lion’s share of Internet shutdowns across the world. The country witnessed a marked increase in the number of shutdowns since 2016 – ordering 121 of 213 documented shutdowns in 2019, and 109 of 155 documented shutdowns in 2020. An Internet shutdown, an intentional disruption of access […]
Data from the Internet Outage Detection and Analysis tool (IODA) shows a decline in the reachability of Ukrainian Internet address space since the beginning of the recent conflict with Russia. Over 15% of previously reachable Internet addresses are no longer responsive to probes from IODA. The regions most impacted are unsurprisingly those where we know […]
Note: After this blog post was published, the High Court of Calcutta dismissed the order to shutdown the Internet in West Bengal. Read more about how quick legal action meant that hundreds of thousands of citizens in West Bengal were able to stay online in this blog post. Over the last few years, a worrying […]
The Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) is a global community measuring Internet censorship around the world. In this short video, Maria Xynou, OONI’s Research & Partnerships Director, explains how you can take part by running the OONI Probe app to detect internet censorship where you are. She also explains how you can use the […]
Just about every Internet communication starts with a Domain Name System (DNS) lookup. The DNS is an essential piece of Internet infrastructure that translates human-friendly names (internetsociety.org) into computer-friendly numbers (2001:41c8:20::b31a). Like many other components of the Internet, the DNS started out without any security features in a vastly different Internet landscape. Today, security and […]
Yemen was forced into an Internet shutdown on Friday, 21 January, 2022 when the communications building in the city of Hodeidah was destroyed in a nighttime airstrike. The building is home to the only Internet cable landing point, connecting Yemen to the global Internet network, and the airstrike severed Yemen’s Internet gateway. In the aftermath, […]
In response to our recent post about the history of Internet network number assignments, Andy Davidson asked an interesting question via Twitter – what would this look like on a per capita basis? Very different indeed is the answer! (You may need to reload this page in your browser to see the animation below.) This […]
The Internet is a network of networks. But where are these networks? We can get some insight by using the location of the organization that holds the registration for the allocated Autonomous System Number (ASN) assigned to the network as a proxy for the location of that network. All Internet networks must be assigned an ASN in order for them […]
The new web protocol HTTP/3 now makes up around a third of all traffic on large European networks according to a recent post from Sandvine. They monitored traffic on several large Tier-1 networks in Europe and the US and found that HTTP/3 (running over the new transport protocol QUIC) constituted around 30% of traffic in […]
On the 4 January, 2022, The Gambia, the smallest country in mainland Africa, was completely cut off from the Internet for more than eight hours, leaving almost 2.5 million people without connectivity. Gamtel, the state-owned operator, released a communique on 5 January, explaining the reasons of the outage. What Happened? Most of the international traffic of The Gambia is routed […]