Let's measure the accessibility of COVID-19 websites around the world

Ensuring a free and open internet during an emergency, like the current COVID-19 pandemic, is more important than ever. However, access to information related to the coronavirus pandemic has already been censored by certain governments. China censored information on the coronavirus on Chinese social media platforms, while Venezuela’s state-owned CANTV blocked access to a coronavirus information portal last week.

We therefore invite you to participate in a measurement campaign to check if COVID-19 sites are accessible in your country (and on the network you’re using) and to share relevant measurement data with the world.

You can measure the blocking of COVID-19 websites through the following 4 steps:

1) Install the OONI Probe mobile app on Android or iOS.

2) Tap on the following OONI Run button (which is also available through this page).

3) Open the button with your OONI Probe mobile app (not with a web browser).

4) Tap Run

Please ensure that your VPN is turned-off when you run OONI Probe tests.

You will be able to see the results immediately inside the OONI Probe mobile app (Test Results section), and they will automatically be published on OONI Explorer in near real-time as well.

If you would like to test different COVID-19 sites, you can do so by testing the sites of your choice directly through the OONI Probe mobile app (tap on the “Choose websites” button inside the Websites card). To enable others to test those sites as well, please consider contributing those sites to the Citizen Lab test lists (or share those URLs with us via email).

Thank you for contributing measurements during these difficult times. We hope you stay safe and healthy.