DNS-based Web Censorship in India

IGP is proud to serve as the host organization for a project on censorship funded by the U.S. Open Technology Fund (OTF). Karan Saini, an Indian citizen working in Delhi, is researching DNS-based web censorship. The 18 month project will involve collecting large-scale DNS measurements, both direct and remote, across Indian ISPs. The project will also produce an open source tool that enables researchers to detect DNS-based web censorship at Internet-scale. The project will produce raw datasets, block lists, resolver lists and censorship signatures, and open source tooling to automate the workflows involved in performing large-scale DNS censorship research. The project will conclude with publication of a research paper and project website

Karan’s previous work focused on detecting DNS censorship on the network of a major ISP in India, producing the largest known list of websites blocked in the country. Given the opaque nature of website blocking in India and the lack of transparency surrounding blocking orders, this project aims to provide an accurate understanding of the scale and nature of DNS blocking in India.