Re: [tor-bugs] #25137 [Obfuscation/Censorship analysis]: Tor blocked in UAE

["Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki" <blackhole@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

#25137: Tor blocked in UAE
---------------------------------------------+---------------------
 Reporter:  mwolfe                           |          Owner:  dcf
     Type:  defect                           |         Status:  new
 Priority:  Medium                           |      Milestone:
Component:  Obfuscation/Censorship analysis  |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal                           |     Resolution:
 Keywords:  censorship block ae              |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:                                   |         Points:
 Reviewer:                                   |        Sponsor:
---------------------------------------------+---------------------

Comment (by mwolfe):

 The UAE has two ISPs: Etisalat and du. When Dubai created free zones, it
 set up its own ISP, du, which had no blocks at all. Then the President in
 Abu Dhabi ordered all ISPs to report to the Telecommunications Regulatory
 Authority, or TRA, and all must block whatever TRA says. So the two are
 basically identical (owned by different sheikhs). On 1 Jan, the TRA
 ordered Tor blocked. This happened before (several years ago, and I have
 an old ticket on it), then Tor was unblocked, and now it's reblocked. But
 obsf4 gets around the block, except for 3 hours 3 days ago. I tried meek,
 and that worked for about 30 minutes, then I closed Tor, and when I tried
 to restart, it could access the network but could not load the network. If
 there was a DDoS then, that would explain it. Not Etisalat (my ISP) or the
 TRA, but the DDoS, since, after 3 hours, obfs4 started working again.

 Friday is the weekly holiday, which is the reason there's a spike. My
 physician told me about Tor in 2000, and I've been using it ever since.
 There are about 6 million people here, and almost all use the Internet
 daily, so 100,000 Tor users could be possible.

 Mostly, torproject.org is blocked, but since I downloaded Tor before it
 was blocked, no problem until they started doing more to block Tor. Now,
 of course, it's a drop down menu item if the regular obfs4 or meek work.
 If they don't, you sent me 3 bridges that are harder to find, so thanks.

 If there's anything I can help with, please ask. I used to use the
 unencrypted e-mail I check several times a day, but then decided that
 wasn't very smart, so now I use encrypted e-mail, which I only check once
 a day. The encrypted e-mail refuses to allow use from more than one
 country unless you give it a mobile it can check and see if you're you, so
 I set up Tor on one computer to always say I'm in the US, so it doesn't
 ask for my mobile number, and I only check that e-mail once a day.

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/25137#comment:11>
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki <https://trac.torproject.org/>
The Tor Project: anonymity online

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