Technical analysis
new report documents a decade of censorship in Azerbaijan
july 16, 2021On July 16, Qurium Media Foundation released a report, “A Decade of Efforts To Keep Independent Azerbaijani Media Online”. The report highlights the work carried out by Qurium since 2010 assisting targeted independent and opposition online news platforms in Azerbaijan. “For more than a decade, Qurium has monitored and mitigated a wide range of cyberattacks […]
attention: phishing attack detected
july 16, 2021On July 8, Azerbaijan Internet Watch received a notification that an email sent on behalf of Human Rights Watch reached a number of prominent Azerbaijani civil society activists. The email contained an attachment “Human Rights Invoice Form Document – 2021.docx” prompting the recipient to download the attached file. AIW, reached out to partners at Qurium […]
Media censorship in Azerbaijan through the lens of network measurement – July 2021 report
july 2, 2021On July 1, Azerbaijan Internet Watch launched a new report titled “Media censorship in Azerbaijan through the lens of network measurement”. The report was prepared in partnership with the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) summarising key findings from network measurements conducted between January 2020 to May 2021. The full report can be accessed here. About […]
Azerbaijan keeps blocking access to key independent news platforms – OONI April report
april 27, 2021According to latest measurements carried out by OONI, access to a number of key news sites remains blocked in Azerbaijan. In its latest report that covers the period from January through April, OONI concludes, there is “a strong signal that specific censorship techniques are adopted to block access to these specific media websites.” One noteworthy […]
Azerbaijan among 29 countries where internet shutdowns documented
march 9, 2021On March 1, Access Now released the #KeepItOn report that documents incidents of internet shutdowns globally for the year 2020. According to the findings of the report: there were 155 Internet shutdowns documented across 29 countries; there were 28 complete internet blackouts; out of the 155 internet shutdowns, six incidents were bandwidth throttling; there were […]
activist’s personal messages leaked after hacking [update March 9]
february 26, 2021[Update] On March 1, in response to a legal complaint filed by Gulnara Mehdiyeva’s lawyers the Ministry of Internal Affairs informed the defender that the opening of a criminal case on her claim is not planned. Last year, ahead of International Women’s Day March, one of the activists and organizers of the March in Baku […]
OONI measurements indicate censorship remains
february 16, 2021In its most recent measurement report, the Open Observatory of Network Interference [OONI] concludes that “while social media censorship in Azerbaijan appears to have been lifted, the media censorship remains.” These and other findings are based on the recent measurement report produced in partnership with OONI. Here are some highlights. Blocked websites The news websites […]
Azerbaijan among top VPN users worldwide according to recent reports
january 13, 2021Azerbaijan ranked among the top countries where VPN services were in high demand last year between September and November during the 44-day war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. According to Proprivacy and NordVPN research “global events in 2020 have caused surges in VPN demand, as citizens from Belarus to Hong Kong set out to secure their […]
Azerbaijan September – November 2020 OONI Measurement Results
december 1, 2020On September 27, the government in Azerbaijan introduced a series of restrictions on Internet access as a result of military operations in Nagorno Karabakh. Users in Azerbaijan were left with limited Internet access while access to a number of social media platforms, as well as communication apps, were restricted. Azerbaijan Internet Watch, and OONI collected […]
spotted: sandvine back at it, this time, in Azerbaijan
october 8, 2020In August, when people in Belarus took the streets across the country in protest of election results where incumbent President Lukashenka secured yet another victory in a contested presidential election, authorities deliberately cut the internet. Quickly, experts concluded DPI technology may be in use. By the end of August, it was reported that this DPI […]