Growing with the People
Insights from Outline VPN providers operating in an evolving censorship landscape
Provider research report · April 2024 · Research conducted in 2023
A collaboration between OkThanks and the Outline team.
Research by José Gutiérrez, Carrie Winfrey, Emily Saltz, and David Ho.
Learning from the people running services
How are providers adapting Outline to serve their communities, and what would help them respond as censorship changes?
OkThanks interviewed eight providers using Outline in different ways: running services with Outline Manager, embedding Outline technology, or building their own management tools. Follow-up interviews with four providers explored their operations and priorities in more depth.
What providers needed
The report connects the experience of censorship with the practical work of running a service. It identifies needs that reach beyond the connection itself:
- Manage growing services. Distribute access keys, manage users and servers, and use available resources effectively.
- Keep adapting to censorship. Develop and test additional connection approaches as blocking methods change.
- Help people understand connection problems. Improve troubleshooting, communicate service status, and set realistic expectations.
- Address abuse while respecting privacy. Give providers tools to manage the responsibilities that come with running a service.
Why this informs Outline’s work
The study was designed to inform Outline’s roadmap and share useful findings with the wider circumvention community. Providers had adapted the same technology to different audiences and operating conditions. Their experiences show why useful shared technology also needs practical integration, management, and support.
The findings describe a small set of providers during the study. Read the reported product limitations and individual experiences in that historical context.
Contributors and sources
The report also credits contributions from Maddy Hoffman, Vinicius Fortuna, Peter Wiegand, and Simon Biddle-Snead. It was produced before the independent Foundation, as part of the Outline team’s work.