Tanzania blocked Proton VPN

Proton VPN is currently blocked on some networks in Tanzania.

OONI data suggests that the block may have started in August 2022. The following chart illustrates that while protonvpn.com and api.protonvpn.ch were previously found accessible on tested networks in Tanzania, the OONI Probe testing of both domains started presenting anomalies from 8th August 2022 onwards.

The persistent presence of anomalies thereafter suggests that the blocking of Proton VPN in Tanzania may have started in early August 2022. When looking at OONI measurements collected from the testing of Proton VPN in 2023, we see that the largest volume of measurements were collected between 9th March 2023 to 17th June 2023 (illustrated in the chart below). It is during this period that we have greater confidence in the findings and for which we performed dedicated analysis.

Our analysis of Proton VPN (protonvpn.com and api.protonvpn.ch) measurements shows that most anomalous measurements presented signs of TLS interference, as OONI data shows the timing out of the session after the ClientHello message during the TLS handshake. As we observe consistent measurement results in the testing of both protonvpn.com and api.protonvpn.ch, OONI data suggests that access to both ProtonVPN’s website and app was blocked in Tanzania.

While we have limited measurements collected from many networks in Tanzania, we observe the same TLS handshake timeout errors in almost all measurements collected from the testing of protonvpn.com on (at least) six ASes. This not only provides a strong signal of blocking, but also suggests that ISPs in Tanzania implement blocks in a centralized way, using the same censorship techniques. We observe similar blocking methods targeting other URLs, including LGBTQ websites, human rights websites and online dating websites in Tanzania.

In October 2023, the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) started requiring users in Tanzania to report their use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). To use a VPN, users in Tanzania are now required to fill out a form to report to TCRA the VPNs that they use, providing information that includes their individual IP addresses. The Authority clarified that they have not restricted the use of VPNs, but it remains unclear to us if the new requirement has resulted in a drop in VPN use in Tanzania.

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