In May of this year, we released our first internet blocking digest — a collection of notes on problems with the Runet that we tracked using our internal Amnezia Pulse tool.
Today, we’re presenting the updated public version of Amnezia Pulse and sharing it with you. It shows disruptions in mobile and home networks every day, so you can stay aware of connection problems in any region of Russia and around the world.
In this article, we explain how to read the blocking map and who this tool can be useful for.
What Data Amnezia Pulse Analyzes
We’ve described in detail how we collect information within the service.
Our system tracks how data transfer speed changes, as well as the stability of connections within operators and regions.
In Russia
We track restrictions across Russia for the “Big Four” mobile operators — MTS, MegaFon, Beeline, and T2 — as well as the home providers Rostelecom and Dom.ru.
Amnezia Pulse lets us track the introduction of “whitelists” in a given region.
We transfer the collected data onto a map of Russia and assign each region a color depending on the level of blocking:
- green — we see no disruptions,
- yellow — we observe problems,
- red — we record serious outages.
To see a detailed graph of an incident with hour-by-hour dynamics, click on a region where problems are showing.
The more Amnezia Free or Amnezia Premium users there are, the more detailed the picture of outages and the sooner you’ll learn about incidents. Connect, so others can find out about disruptions in your region!
Important: all data is anonymized. We don’t collect users’ IP addresses and process only three types of publicly available data that any site on the internet sees: region, provider, and connection speed
Around the World
We also track disruptions in other countries. Earlier this year, we shared data on the shutdown in Iran, but now this work will be systematic.
For instance, we recorded traffic anomalies in Gabon and link them to blocking that has already lasted eight months. We had seen unstable behavior earlier and formed hypotheses about what it was. Then we confirmed that the cause was a restriction on social media, and now we see a drop in traffic on VPN nodes.
We have two explanations: either the traffic was cut off for good, and Amnezia Pulse isn’t getting data from Amnezia VPN users, or the blocking ended. Either way, we see an anomaly and give researchers important information about the state of the network.
Who We Created Amnezia Pulse For
This service is meant for everyone who cares about the state of the internet — we assume you’re one of them.
Soon we’ll launch an open API for researchers, human rights organizations, and technical experts.
If you’d like to collaborate now — get us at reports.pulse@amnezia.org.
We publish prompt summaries on the state of the internet in the Amnezia VPN X (Twitter) — subscribe to it to be the first to learn the details of incidents.
“Internet outages and slowdowns are increasingly being reported around the world, raising serious concerns about their impact on fundamental human rights. In countries like Russia, where such disruptions are frequently reported, systematically documenting and monitoring them is more important than ever.
Amnezia Pulse provides a valuable resource for both the Russian and global internet freedom communities by offering a systematic approach to tracking outages and slowdowns across Russian regions.
This initiative can make an important contribution to research and advocacy efforts aimed at protecting internet freedom and upholding the right to a free and open internet.”
Maria Xynou, Director of Strategic Engagement, OONI
What’s Next
We continue to improve the accuracy of our data and expand our geographic coverage — primarily in the countries of Africa and Latin America. At the same time, we’ll track blocking around the world, paying special attention to regions with a high level of internet censorship.
In parallel, we’re improving the quality of our data and its analysis. Connect to Amnezia Free or Amnezia Premium so other users can find out about the state of the internet in your region.
We cover the most notable incidents in the Amnezia VPN X (Twitter) — subscribe to stay on top of them
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