Open Net Initiative

The OpenNet Initiative (ONI) was a joint project whose goal was to monitor and report on internet filtering and surveillance practices by nations. The project employed a number of technical means, as well as an international network of investigators, to determine the extent and nature of government-run internet filtering programs. Participating academic institutions included the Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto; Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School; the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) at University of Oxford; and, The SecDev Group, which took over from the Advanced Network Research Group at the Cambridge Security Programme, University of Cambridge.

In December 2014 the OpenNet Initiative partners announced that they would no longer carry out research under the ONI banner. The ONI website, including all reports and data, is being maintained indefinitely to allow continued public access to ONI's entire archive of published work and data.

ONI used several methods to test and document internet censorship in a country.

The ONI principal investigators were:

In December 2007, the International Development Research Center of Canada approved a $1.2 million (CAD) project to expand the work of the Open Net Initiative to 15 countries in Asia. The project aims to build capacity among partners located in these countries to carry on the work of the Open Net Initiative at a national level. ONI Asia is managed by Rafal Rohozinski (The SecDev Group), and Ronald Deibert (The Citizen Lab). The regional coordinator is Al Alegre (Foundation for Media Alternatives, Philippines).

Psiphon is a censorship circumvention solution that allows users to access blocked web pages in countries where the Internet is censored. Psiphon allows a regular home computer to act as a personal, encrypted proxy server that allows the administrator to specify a username and password that is, in turn, given to someone in a country where internet censorship is prevalent so that users in that country will be able to browse the internet in a secure, uncensored manner.

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