China started blocking F-Droid

As of 22nd June 2023, OONI data collected from China shows the blocking of F-Droid – an app store and software repository for Android, containing only free and open source apps.

The following chart aggregates OONI measurement coverage from the testing of f-droid.org on 22 networks in China between 1st April 2023 to 25th October 2023.

As is evident, the testing of f-droid.org previously showed that the site was accessible in China, and mainly started presenting anomalies (signs of blocking) from 22nd June 2023 onwards. The fact that most measurements thereafter (from multiple networks) continued to present anomalies provides a further signal of F-Droid blocking.

Our analysis of OONI data shows that f-droid.org is blocked by means of DNS injection, where an unrelated IP (e.g., DropBox) is returned to the client. This technique is commonly used in China to restrict access to services.

OONI data suggests that the block remains ongoing.