# Censorship detected in RU

**Country:** 🇷🇺 Russia (RU)
**Date:** 2026-08-18
**Type:** Censorship
**Severity:** CRITICAL
**Status:** suspected

## Summary

None

## Metrics

- Confidence: 89%
- Measurements: 16
- Anomaly Rate: 97.8%

## Evidence

- **OONI** (measurement): OONI signal: 454/529 measurements anomalous (85.8%)
  - Observed: 2026-08-18
  - Confidence: 84%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=RU&test_name=signal&since=2026-08-18&until=2026-08-19&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI whatsapp: 305/364 measurements anomalous (83.8%)
  - Observed: 2026-08-18
  - Confidence: 84%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=RU&test_name=whatsapp&since=2026-08-18&until=2026-08-19&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI telegram: 315/353 measurements anomalous (89.2%)
  - Observed: 2026-08-18
  - Confidence: 86%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=RU&test_name=telegram&since=2026-08-18&until=2026-08-19&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI tor: 353/362 measurements anomalous (97.5%)
  - Observed: 2026-08-18
  - Confidence: 89%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=RU&test_name=tor&since=2026-08-18&until=2026-08-19&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI signal: 426/515 measurements anomalous (82.7%)
  - Observed: 2026-08-18
  - Confidence: 83%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=RU&test_name=signal&since=2026-08-18&until=2026-08-19&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI whatsapp: 283/360 measurements anomalous (78.6%)
  - Observed: 2026-08-18
  - Confidence: 81%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=RU&test_name=whatsapp&since=2026-08-18&until=2026-08-19&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI telegram: 292/338 measurements anomalous (86.4%)
  - Observed: 2026-08-18
  - Confidence: 85%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=RU&test_name=telegram&since=2026-08-18&until=2026-08-19&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI tor: 339/347 measurements anomalous (97.7%)
  - Observed: 2026-08-18
  - Confidence: 89%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=RU&test_name=tor&since=2026-08-18&until=2026-08-19&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI signal: 404/498 measurements anomalous (81.1%)
  - Observed: 2026-08-18
  - Confidence: 82%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=RU&test_name=signal&since=2026-08-18&until=2026-08-19&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI whatsapp: 269/347 measurements anomalous (77.5%)
  - Observed: 2026-08-18
  - Confidence: 81%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=RU&test_name=whatsapp&since=2026-08-18&until=2026-08-19&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI telegram: 301/341 measurements anomalous (88.3%)
  - Observed: 2026-08-18
  - Confidence: 85%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=RU&test_name=telegram&since=2026-08-18&until=2026-08-19&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI tor: 345/358 measurements anomalous (96.4%)
  - Observed: 2026-08-18
  - Confidence: 89%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=RU&test_name=tor&since=2026-08-18&until=2026-08-19&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI signal: 368/432 measurements anomalous (85.2%)
  - Observed: 2026-08-18
  - Confidence: 84%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=RU&test_name=signal&since=2026-08-18&until=2026-08-19&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI whatsapp: 259/314 measurements anomalous (82.5%)
  - Observed: 2026-08-18
  - Confidence: 83%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=RU&test_name=whatsapp&since=2026-08-18&until=2026-08-19&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI telegram: 261/306 measurements anomalous (85.3%)
  - Observed: 2026-08-18
  - Confidence: 84%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=RU&test_name=telegram&since=2026-08-18&until=2026-08-19&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI tor: 314/321 measurements anomalous (97.8%)
  - Observed: 2026-08-18
  - Confidence: 89%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=RU&test_name=tor&since=2026-08-18&until=2026-08-19&only=anomalies)

## What we cannot say

- **Who caused it** — measurement data alone does not attribute the interference to any government, ISP, or other actor.
- **Intent** — anomalous or unreachable measurements indicate interference, not a stated motive or a deliberate-vs-incidental determination.
- **Which networks** — no specific ASN/ISP is identified for this incident.
- **The mechanism** — we cannot state whether this was DNS tampering, TLS/SNI reset, HTTP blockpage, throttling, or an infrastructure outage.
- **A confirmed duration** — we report the observation window, not a verified start/stop of any block.
- **Sub-national scope** — measurement is aggregated at the country level; we cannot localize to a province, city, or network segment.
- **Independent corroboration** — this rests on a single source; treat it as a single-source signal, not a multi-source confirmation.

## Data Sources

ooni

## Citation

Voidly Research. (2026). Censorship detected in RU [RU-2026-3032]. Retrieved from https://voidly.ai/incident/RU-2026-3032

---
*Report generated by Voidly Research on 2026-08-19*
*Data licensed under CC BY 4.0*
*Incident ID: RU-2026-3032*
*Permalink: https://voidly.ai/incident/RU-2026-3032*