CAREER: Internet-wide censorship detection, diagnosis, and circumvention beyond nation-state censorship

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The number of democracies in the world has decreased recently for the first time since World War II. The newly authoritarian regimes engage heavily in Internet censorship, and private institutions, major platforms, and Internet service providers are following suit. These new threat actors far outnumber the large totalitarian states traditionally studied in censorship research and they operate differently, with different capabilities and limitations. This requires a new science of censorship detection, diagnosis, and circumvention. The project’s novelties are effective techniques and tools for combating censorship by the new, more nimble threat actors. The project’s broader significance and importance are to safeguard users and contribute to a more secure and democratic technology future by upholding Internet freedom and human rights.This project enhances global censorship observatories through the design and validation of new measurement methodologies that are suitable for detecting the blocking activities of governments and non-governmental actors alike. Moreover, the project introduces scalable techniques for detecting Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) middleboxes and tracking their use for censorship and provides accurate threat models for modern DPI capabilities by simulating an adversarial network in partnership with a mid-sized Internet Service Provider (ISP). Finally, the project investigates quantitative and qualitative factors behind circumvention tool (CT) adoption, such as technical, operational, and usability issues, and helps ensure that CTs meet users’ needs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.