# Sustained censorship in SA (2026-03)

**Country:** 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia (SA)
**Date:** 2026-03-10
**Type:** Censorship
**Severity:** CRITICAL
**Status:** confirmed

## Summary

OONI detected 19 days of elevated network interference averaging 65.9% anomaly rate.

## Metrics

- Confidence: 77%
- Measurements: 19
- Anomaly Rate: 65.9%

## Evidence

- **OONI** (measurement): OONI whatsapp: 2/4 measurements anomalous (50.0%)
  - Observed: 2026-03-30
  - Confidence: 70%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=SA&test_name=whatsapp&since=2026-03-30&until=2026-03-30&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI whatsapp: 3/4 measurements anomalous (75.0%)
  - Observed: 2026-03-27
  - Confidence: 80%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=SA&test_name=whatsapp&since=2026-03-27&until=2026-03-27&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI whatsapp: 4/6 measurements anomalous (66.7%)
  - Observed: 2026-03-27
  - Confidence: 77%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=SA&test_name=whatsapp&since=2026-03-27&until=2026-03-27&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI whatsapp: 5/7 measurements anomalous (71.4%)
  - Observed: 2026-03-26
  - Confidence: 79%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=SA&test_name=whatsapp&since=2026-03-26&until=2026-03-26&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI whatsapp: 7/9 measurements anomalous (77.8%)
  - Observed: 2026-03-26
  - Confidence: 81%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=SA&test_name=whatsapp&since=2026-03-26&until=2026-03-26&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI whatsapp: 4/4 measurements anomalous (100.0%)
  - Observed: 2026-03-25
  - Confidence: 90%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=SA&test_name=whatsapp&since=2026-03-25&until=2026-03-25&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI http_invalid_request_line: 2/4 measurements anomalous (50.0%)
  - Observed: 2026-03-25
  - Confidence: 70%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=SA&test_name=http_invalid_request_line&since=2026-03-25&until=2026-03-25&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI http_header_field_manipulation: 2/4 measurements anomalous (50.0%)
  - Observed: 2026-03-25
  - Confidence: 70%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=SA&test_name=http_header_field_manipulation&since=2026-03-25&until=2026-03-25&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI http_invalid_request_line: 1/2 measurements anomalous (50.0%)
  - Observed: 2026-03-25
  - Confidence: 70%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=SA&test_name=http_invalid_request_line&since=2026-03-25&until=2026-03-25&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI http_header_field_manipulation: 1/2 measurements anomalous (50.0%)
  - Observed: 2026-03-25
  - Confidence: 70%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=SA&test_name=http_header_field_manipulation&since=2026-03-25&until=2026-03-25&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI whatsapp: 11/19 measurements anomalous (57.9%)
  - Observed: 2026-03-24
  - Confidence: 73%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=SA&test_name=whatsapp&since=2026-03-24&until=2026-03-24&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI http_invalid_request_line: 1/2 measurements anomalous (50.0%)
  - Observed: 2026-03-13
  - Confidence: 70%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=SA&test_name=http_invalid_request_line&since=2026-03-13&until=2026-03-13&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI http_header_field_manipulation: 1/2 measurements anomalous (50.0%)
  - Observed: 2026-03-13
  - Confidence: 70%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=SA&test_name=http_header_field_manipulation&since=2026-03-13&until=2026-03-13&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI http_invalid_request_line: 4/6 measurements anomalous (66.7%)
  - Observed: 2026-03-12
  - Confidence: 77%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=SA&test_name=http_invalid_request_line&since=2026-03-12&until=2026-03-12&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI http_header_field_manipulation: 4/6 measurements anomalous (66.7%)
  - Observed: 2026-03-12
  - Confidence: 77%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=SA&test_name=http_header_field_manipulation&since=2026-03-12&until=2026-03-12&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI http_invalid_request_line: 3/5 measurements anomalous (60.0%)
  - Observed: 2026-03-12
  - Confidence: 74%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=SA&test_name=http_invalid_request_line&since=2026-03-12&until=2026-03-12&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI http_header_field_manipulation: 3/5 measurements anomalous (60.0%)
  - Observed: 2026-03-12
  - Confidence: 74%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=SA&test_name=http_header_field_manipulation&since=2026-03-12&until=2026-03-12&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI http_invalid_request_line: 1/1 measurements anomalous (100.0%)
  - Observed: 2026-03-10
  - Confidence: 90%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=SA&test_name=http_invalid_request_line&since=2026-03-10&until=2026-03-10&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI http_header_field_manipulation: 1/1 measurements anomalous (100.0%)
  - Observed: 2026-03-10
  - Confidence: 90%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=SA&test_name=http_header_field_manipulation&since=2026-03-10&until=2026-03-10&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.
- **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). Sustained censorship in SA (2026-03) [SA-2026-0135]. Retrieved from https://voidly.ai/incident/SA-2026-0135

---
*Report generated by Voidly Research on 2026-06-21*
*Data licensed under CC BY 4.0*
*Incident ID: SA-2026-0135*
*Permalink: https://voidly.ai/incident/SA-2026-0135*