Hello everyone,
Following is the report from user support team for the month of June.
Note: (↑), (↓) and (-) are indicating if the number of tickets we
received for these topics have been increasing, decreasing or have been
the same from the previous month respectively.
# Summary of updates from user support
## Farsi-speaking user support
Last month, in light of the conflict[1], we received a lot of tickets
from users trying to connect to Tor from Iran. Due to the severe
censorship imposed on the internet and at times, total internet
disruptions (i.e Iran blocking international connections), users haven't
been able to connect to the internet reliably and, consequently, to the
Tor network.
Throughout this time, we have been gathering feedback and information
from users who were able to contact us on our user support channels. At
the moment, highly depending on factors like the region the user is
connecting from and internet service provider (ISP), users in Iran might
be able to connect to Tor with Snowflake and other pluggable transports.
Haidi worked on localized user support for Farsi-speaking users which
included but was not limited to helping users to troubleshoot, gather
feedback and help with instructions to use censorship circumvention
methods in Tor Browser Desktop and Android and other Tor powered apps
(like Orbot and Onion Browser).
Due to the urgent situation caused by the conflict; Haidi, ebanam and
Gus made it a top priority to help users in Iran get connected.
* 195 tickets in total (↑159 as compared to May)
* 157 tickets on Telegram
* 38 tickets on Email
## Russian-speaking user support
In June, we observed the first instances of WebTunnel bridge blocking on
a few ISPs in Russia[2]. This new wave of blocking is likely the main
factor behind the increased number of support tickets from Russia in
June and reflects a broader tightening of censorship in the country[3].
Nina worked on reviewing, answering and processing feedback from Google
Play Store comments and localized user support for Russian-speaking
users which included but was not limited to helping users with
instructions to use censorship circumvention methods in Tor Browser
Desktop and Android and other Tor powered apps (like Orbot, Onion
Browser, Tails), troubleshoot and gather user feedback.
* 1335 tickets in total (↑197 as compared to May)
* 1146 tickets on Telegram
* 188 tickets on Email
* 1 ticket on WhatsApp
## General user support
ebanam worked on Tor Browser user support related tasks prior to and
after Tor Browser releases; updated user-facing documentation in the Tor
Browser User Manual and the Support Portal and helping users in regions
where Tor is censored which included but was not limited to helping users
with instructions to use censorship circumvention methods that work best,
troubleshoot, censorship analysis and gathering user feedback.
For the past few months, we have been receiving relatively higher number
of tickets from users trying to connect to Tor from China, given that
most of obfs4 bridges shared by rdsys have not been working.
Users trying to unblock Tor from China, will have to use bridges with
WebTunnel pluggable transport. For instructions on fetching WebTunnel
bridges and using them with Tor Browser, refer to the "How to circumvent
the Great Firewall and connect to Tor from China?" article on the Support
Portal.[4]
With WebTunnel bridges working much more reliably in regions where Tor
is being censored, like in Russia and China, we have received feedback
from users using Tails to provide support for WebTunnel bridges[5]. In
June, we received a couple of tickets about this.
In June, Nina and ebanam investigated why Tor Browser for Android users
are having issues related to the browsing speed[6] and we're planning to
investigate more of this issue in July.
* 701 tickets in total (↓7 as compared to May)
* 404 tickets on Email
* 266 tickets on Telegram
* 17 tickets on WhatsApp
* 14 tickets on Signal
That's it for the summary, following is a more detailed report about the
tickets our user support team worked on last month.
# Frontdesk (email user support channel)
* 762(↓) RT tickets created
* 693(↓) RT tickets resolved
Tickets by topics and numbers:
1. 318(↓) tickets: instructions to circumvent censorship for Chinese
speaking users.
2. 188(↓) tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries.
3. 70(↓) tickets: help with troubleshooting existing Tor Browser install
on Desktop (Windows, macOS and Linux).
4. 37(↑) tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi.
5. 4(↓) tickets: reports of websites blocking Tor connections or not performing well in
Tor Browser.
6. 3(↓) tickets: help with troubleshooting existing Tor Browser install
on Android.
7. 3(↑) tickets: help with the correct Tor app to install on iOS (Onion Browser).
8. 3(↑) tickets: queries from Tor relay operators.
9. 2(↑) tickets: questions about Letterboxing in Tor Browser.
10. 2(↑) tickets: help with installing Tor Browser on Desktop on Linux.
11. 2(↑) tickets: queries and feedback about the changes to Security Levels in
latest versions of Tor Browser.[7]
12. 2(↑) tickets: questions about "Dark Mode" in Tor Browser.[8]
13. 1(↑) ticket: report of Tor Browser being slow.[9]
# Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal user support channels
* 1779(↑) tickets resolved
Breakdown:
* 1746(↑) tickets on Telegram
* 18(↑) tickets on WhatsApp
* 15(↓) tickets on Signal
Tickets by topics and numbers:
1. 1238(↑) tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking
countries.
2. 157(↑) tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi.
3. 63(↑) tickets: instructions to circumvent censorship for
Chinese speaking users.
4. 37(↑) tickets: helping users on iOS, using Onion Browser or Orbot, to use
censorship circumvention methods.
5. 14(↑) tickets: help with instructions to use bridges with Orbot.
6. 10(↓) tickets: help with troubleshooting Tor Browser Android.
7. 10(↓) tickets: instructions on how to get Tor Browser binaries from GetTor.
8. 8(↓) tickets: help with troubleshooting Tor Browser Desktop on Windows,
macOS and Linux.
9. 5(↑) ticket: help with using Snowflake with Tor to circumvent censorship.
10. 4(↓) tickets: help with instructions to use bridges with Tails.
11. 3(-) tickets: questions about onion services and how to access them.
12. 3(↑) tickets: help with instructions to use pluggable transports
with little-t tor.
13. 2(↓) tickets: users seeing a "proxy refused" error when visiting websites
on Tor Browser for Android using Samsung devices.
14. 2(↑) tickets: instructions to verify Tor Browser's GPG signature.
15. 1(↑) ticket: instructions to download Tor Browser 13.5 legacy for
legacy operating systems.
# Topics from the Tor Forum
* Static Captcha when fetching bridges from within Tor Browser.[10]
* Censorship of Tor in Russia.[11]
# Highlights from Google Play Store
* Tor Browser for Android had a Google Play rating of 4.386 (↓0.021)
stars in June, lower as compared to in May.
* In June, Tor Browser for Android (TBA) got 725 (↑100) new reviews.
With the total count of reviews for the app standing at 63,311.
* Tor Browser for Android Alpha (TBA - Alpha) app had a rating of 4.184 (↓0.029)
stars in June, lower as compared to in May.
* In June, Tor Browser for Android (TBA - Alpha) got 26 (↓19) new reviews.
With the total count of reviews for the app standing at 8,599.
Like last month, the major complaints we got about Tor Browser for
Android were related to browsing speed.
Thanks!
-- ebanam
[1]: Internet is completely blocked in Iran (2025-06-17 to 2025-06-26) · Issue #484 · net4people/bbs · GitHub
[2]: [Russia] Blocking of webtunnel (#40064) · Issues · The Tor Project / Anti-censorship / censorship-analysis · GitLab
[3]: [Russia] Blocking Tor resources (2025 edition) (#40057) · Issues · The Tor Project / Anti-censorship / censorship-analysis · GitLab
[4]: How to circumvent the Great Firewall and connect to Tor from China? | Tor Project | Support
[5]: Add WebTunnel support (#20267) · Issues · tails / tails · GitLab
[6]: Multiple reports on Tor Browser for Android (14.5.x) being slow (#43841) · Issues · The Tor Project / Applications / Tor Browser · GitLab
[7]: Feedback/Proposal for SecurityLevel module for Tor Browser 14.5.4
[8]: Dark mode in Tor Browser (#40337) · Issues · The Tor Project / Applications / Tor Browser · GitLab
[9]: Multiple reports on Tor Browser for Android (14.5.x) being slow (#43841) · Issues · The Tor Project / Applications / Tor Browser · GitLab
[10]: Captcha when fetching bridges in Tor Browser
[11]: So, Russia began blocking Webtunnel bridges, which is good actually