Hello everyone!

Last month, we saw a massive uptick in user support requests coming from Russian and Chinese speaking users. To put it in numbers, we answered a little over 1100 unique user support requests across our various user support channels. This can be attributed to the latest developments[0] in Tor censorship in Russia and continued outreach work aimed towards Chinese speaking audience[1] respectively. Since a majority of these requests are from users in regions where Tor is censored, it has involved helping users to download (using mirrors and GetTor) and install Tor Browser, using censorship circumvention methods that will work best for them, gathering feedback and general troubleshooting.

I dedicated some time testing the latest Tor Browser Alpha releases and answered a number of Tor Browser related user support tickets.

Here's a more detailed breakdown of the tickets our user support team worked on last month:

# Frontdesk (email support channel)

* 762(↑) RT tickets created * 672(↑) RT tickets resolved

Tickets by numbers:

1. 350(↑) RT tickets: private bridge requests from Chinese speaking users. 2. 237(↑) RT tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries. 3. 5 RT tickets: Reports of onion services (not maintained by Tor Project) not working. We ask users to report to the respective onion service operator. 4. 3(↓) RT tickets: Circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi.

Highlighting some other topics we received questions and feedback:

5. 4 RT tickets: Help with troubleshooting Tor Browser install on Windows. 6. 3 RT tickets: Reports of websites blocking Tor. 7. 2 RT tickets: Help with installing Tor Browser install on Linux. 8. Help with installing Tor Browser on macOS. 9. Question about contributing to Tor.

# Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal Support channel

* 751(↑) tickets resolved

Breakdown: * 734(↑) tickets on Telegram * 17(↓) tickets on WhatsApp * 0(↓) ticket on Signal

Tickets by numbers:

1. 542(↑) tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries. 2. 46(↓) tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi. 3. 27(↑) tickets: private bridge requests from Chinese speaking users. 4. 22(↑) tickets: helping users on iOS, using Onion Browser or Orbot, to use censorship circumvention methods.

Highlighting some other topics we received questions about:

5. 10(↑) tickets: instructions on how to get Tor Browser binaries from GetTor. 6. 2 tickets: Questions about what onion services are and how to access them. 7. 2 tickets: Help with troubleshooting Tor Browser install on Linux. 8. Help with troubleshooting Tor Browser install on macOS.

# Highlights from the Tor Forum

1. Issues connecting to Tor with bridges from Russia.[2] 2. 'lyrebird' in Tor Browser.[3] 3. Bookmarks in Tor Browser.[4]

Thanks! e.

[0]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/censorship-analysis/-/issu... [1]: https://github.com/torproject/tor4zh [2]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/does-anyone-have-issues-with-the-connection-t... [3]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/lyrebird-can-prevent-tor-browser-from-working... [4]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/security-hole-with-bookmarks/14266