2024-xue-tspu-russia
Tspu: Russia's decentralized censorship systemcore
Abstract
We characterize Russia's decentralized censorship infrastructure
("TSPU") deployed across major ISPs after 2021. Findings: blocking
is implemented inline at provider edges, with substantial heterogeneity
across providers; the system uses both SNI/host filtering and active
in-line manipulation; rollouts can be observed and timed.
Team notes
Definitive recent characterization of Russia's TSPU. If anyone on
the team is reasoning about RU blocking, start here. Particularly
important: TSPU is heterogeneous across ISPs, so test fixtures need
per-ISP coverage, not a single "Russia" bucket. This shaped the
bandit's per-ASN dimensioning decision.