Facilitation: Tactical Tech
1. Behind the Scenes of Censorship: Analyze the GRSC archive materials
Task from Teplitsa.Technologies for Social Good: Analyze the leaked GRSC data archive and find a new and interesting “story”. Things that have not yet been published (see IStories, MediaZone, Nastoyashee vremya, Agency, Centr Dossie, etc.)
Sketches out a draft with a view to revising it into a full-length article. Winners will be able to publish their material on Teplitsa’s resources and partner media outlets.
Prize: $500
2. An analysis of network outages in Ukraine with Mozilla Network Outages Data Project
Conduct an analysis of network outages in Ukraine and visualize the data
Using Mozilla’s Network Outages Data Project write a short report about network outages in Ukraine including its temporarily occupied territories. The report should include infographics and nice data visualization that can be shared on social media.
Prize: $500
3. Making a research based on one or more data leaks from Data Leaks
A joint task from ZaTelecom and Teplitsa.Technologies for Social Good
Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, there have been numerous cyber-attacks and hacks of various agencies and services (from GRNC to Delivery Club). Many data are available to journalists and researchers on demand through the DDoS Secrets website or on specialized telegram channels (see Nice Leak Bro). The goal is to find interesting, little-studied leaks and use them as the basis for an investigation, either on the current anti-war agenda or on topics related to censorship, surveillance and propaganda. The resulting investigation can be published on the ZaTelecom channel and the Social Technology Greenhouse website.
Prize: $500
4. Analysis of propaganda using Google Discover
Challenge proposed by True Story and DGAP
Media analysts from True Story and researchers from DGAP have found a bias in Google results for Russian and non-Russian IP addresses. They have found that the results for Russian audiences contain links to propagandist media and unreliable sources.
The task is to create an instrument to monitor Google recommendations, with a botnet that simulates users behavior and could run probes a few times per day and record recommendations into a database for further analysis. In the future, the analysis could be more granular, to include different profiles with different sociodemographic parameters, geography and interests to see how personalized recommendations differ.
Prize: $600
5. Research on the connectivity on the occupied territories of Ukraine
Challenge curated by System Block media
After 2022, SPARK has information on 13 telecommunications companies in the occupied territories of Ukraine. SB proposes to investigate who and what kind of connections are now offered in the region and how the map of the Network between Russia and Ukraine looks like.
We propose to work with RIPE Atlas data. First of all we offer to read their report on changes in the Ukrainian Internet connectivity in 2022. Point measurements are available on the website. We suggest starting with country-level data. For example, the graph for Ukraine for December 2022. And the map for December 2022. The graph for Russia.
What to look at first:
- In the Ukrainian graph, select the points that are in the occupied territories (you can start without the dynamics of change).
- Check how they are connected to other points in the graph, what has changed since December 2021.
- Find the points that are in the Russian graph. For example, AS201776 (Miranda Media).
- Determine which providers and entities are own addresses in the Ukrainian part, if these companies are in SPARK.
- Which companies are responsible for communications in the Russian part, related to the Ukrainian part.
- Choose metrics to assess the quality of the connection. Countries have RTT. Is it possible to evaluate the connection between the points?
Prize $500