Research others can build on.
Understanding how censorship works helps people choose what to build, test, and investigate next. We publish findings, methods, and tools so others can use them in their own work.
Research has been part of the Outline team’s work alongside building tools for access. The publications and resources below bring together contributions from the team and our research collaborators.
Publications
CenAlert: Amplifying User Voices to Rally Censorship Investigation
IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy · 2026
Changes in search interest for circumvention tools can point to events worth investigating. CenAlert uses those signals to help researchers prioritize their attention.
By Aaron Ortwein, Anna Ablove, Armin Huremagic, Luqin Chang, Vinicius Fortuna, and Roya Ensafi.
Growing with the People
Provider research report · OkThanks and the Outline team · 2024
Interviews with eight providers explored how people adapt Outline to run services for their communities. The report identifies needs around service management, changing censorship, troubleshooting, communication, and addressing abuse while respecting privacy.
Research by José Gutiérrez, Carrie Winfrey, Emily Saltz, and David Ho.
Advancing the Art of Censorship Data Analysis
FOCI · 2023
Censorship measurements require careful interpretation. This paper examines analysis challenges in OONI and Censored Planet measurements and presents an open-source pipeline for Censored Planet data. The study brought together the Outline team and University of Michigan researchers.
By Ram Sundara Raman, Apurva Virkud, Sarah Laplante, Vinicius Fortuna, and Roya Ensafi.
Analysis and tools
Making censorship measurements easier to explore
Historical collaboration · Described in October 2023
The Outline team and University of Michigan researchers worked on tools for exploring Censored Planet data. Their dashboard made it easier to ask questions across measurements and time.
Making traffic indicators easier to investigate
Historical analysis tools · Jigsaw net-analysis repository
The team’s shared tools included ways to retrieve Google Transparency Report traffic indicators, detect unusual changes, and explore correlations. The repository also includes a tutorial for investigating OONI DNS measurements.
The Google traffic series are normalized and contain added noise; they do not give raw traffic volumes. They are also a different source from the Google Trends search-interest signals used by CenAlert.
The repository was archived in April 2026. Its code and methods remain available as a historical research resource.
Explore the traffic analysis methods · Browse the analysis repository
Help develop the next useful finding
Researchers, developers, operators, and communities bring different evidence and expertise. We welcome conversations about investigating interference, improving methods, and turning findings into technology others can use.