The Censor Census Android Client

part of the Bowdlerize.co.uk Censor Census Project, the Open Rights Group Censorship Monitoring Project feeding into the Open Observatory of Network Interference

How To Help Bring Transparency To UK Internet Filtering

• Install the app from Google Play
• URLs are sent to your phone/tablet from the Bowdlerize servers (URLs are found from social media or user submissions)
• Your device issues a HTTP HEAD request and then reports back if it could reach the URL or not
• The Bowdlerize servers retain an MD5 hash of the URL and the censor state NOT the URLs themselves
• A full OONI payload can be delivered to the Open Rights Group middleware servers for processing

Why is this needed?

The UK Government is extending its silent censorship of the Internet expanding way beyond abhorant images and moving to block extreme / esoteric material.

This material will become inaccessible via spoofed 404s, time outs and other errors. People will not know they are being censored.

Unlike the British Board of Film Classification or other industry bodies that control what can and can't be seen these Internet filters are silent and unaccountable.