Tanzania blocked Clubhouse

As of 13th August 2023, OONI data suggests that Tanzania started blocking access to Clubhouse – a social networking app based on audio-chat for thematic discussions. Recent data suggests that the block remains ongoing.

The following chart aggregates OONI measurement coverage from the testing of www.clubhouse.com on 22 networks in Tanzania between 1st May 2023 to 23rd November 2023.

As is evident, the testing of www.clubhouse.com previously showed that the site was accessible in Tanzania, and mainly started presenting anomalies from 13th August 2023 onwards. The fact that most measurements thereafter continued to present anomalies provides a signal of Clubhouse blocking. The block is further suggested by the presence of anomalies on at least 4 networks, but it’s worth noting that the block does not appear to be implemented on all networks in Tanzania.

Most OONI measurements show that access to Clubhouse is blocked by means of TLS interference. Specifically, OONI data shows the timing out of the session after the ClientHello message during the TLS handshake. Recent OONI data suggests that the block remains ongoing.

If you are in Tanzania, you can help test Clubhouse and contribute more measurements by running OONI Probe.