Table of Contents

1. Latest Publications
2. News and Announcements

1. Latest Publications

• (Can't) Picture This: An Analysis of Image Filtering on WeChat Moments

  Building on previous research which shows that WeChat censors sensitive images, this new report demonstrates the technical underpinnings of how this censorship operates. Specifically, findings show that WeChat uses two different algorithms to filter images: an Optical Character Recognition (OCR)-based approach that filters images containing sensitive text and a visual-based one that filters images that are visually similar to those on an image blacklist. By analyzing and understanding how both the OCR- and visual-based filtering algorithms operate, researchers discovered weaknesses in both algorithms that would allow a user to upload images perceptually similar to those prohibited but that evade filtering.

• Familiar Feeling: A Malware Campaign Targeting the Tibetan Diaspora Resurfaces

  This report analyzes a malware campaign active between January to March 2018 that targeted Tibetan activists, journalists, members of the Tibetan Parliament in exile, and the Central Tibetan Administration. We detail a successful intrusion of a Tibetan NGO and provide a brief analysis of the operator’s actions post-infection. This recent campaign, as well as a campaign we reported in 2016, both have connections to a wider operation called “Tropic Trooper”. The strength and meaning of these connections is assessed.

• The Effect of Information Controls on Developers in China: An Analysis of Censorship in Chinese Open Source Projects

  A new paper by Citizen Lab researchers investigates how Chinese censorship reaches independent developers and reveals that, while developers include censorship lists in open source projects, there is little apparent similarity in these blacklists, raising several questions about their origins. Read the full PDF here.

• NSO Group Infrastructure Linked to Targeting of Amnesty International and Saudi Dissident

  Amnesty International reports that one of their researchers, as well as a Saudi activist based abroad, received suspicious SMS and WhatsApp messages in June 2018. Amnesty International researchers have concluded that the messages appeared to be attempts to infect these phones with NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. Based on our analysis of the messages sent to these individuals, we can corroborate Amnesty’s findings that the SMS messages contain domain names pointing to websites that appear to be part of NSO Group’s Pegasus infrastructure. Read our full coverage of NSO investigations here. 

2. News and Announcements

• Google’s Dragonfly: A Bellwether for Human Rights in the Digital Age

  The Citizen Lab’s Ron Deibert and Sarah McKune don’t mince words in a recent op-ed for Just Security about Google’s plan to create a search engine that conforms to China’s demand for censorship. By taking a historical perspective to Google’s past interactions with China and the dramatically shifting landscape for human rights in the digital age, they argue that Dragonfly– the name of the proposed China-based search engine– exemplifies the tightening of authoritarian control over Internet freedoms.

• Ottawa Needs to Act on Global Censorship of LGBTQ2+ Content

  Writing for The Hill Times, Citizen Lab founder and director Ron Deibert urges the Canadian government to support the digital rights of LGBTQ2+ individuals around the world. This call comes on the heels of recent Citizen Lab research which shows that Netsweeper, a Canadian company who has received funding from the Canadian government, is being used by governments to block access to content in ten authoritarian countries around the world, including LGBTQ2+ sites.

• Improve Your Online Safety with Security Planner

  Average Internet users face an increasing array of digital threats, which means staying on top of online safety is more important than ever. This is why we've created Security Planner: an easy-to-use guide with expert-reviewed advice for staying safer online.