The Pluggable Transports Implementers’ Meeting is a bi-annual event that brings together hackers, technologists, academics, and community from a variety of companies and organizations to solve pressing issues related to Internet security, anti-censorship strategies, and the open internet.

You Can Look Forward To:

Get excited for the 2021 virtual PTIM! We’ll bring together the Pluggable Transport (PT) community to discuss the latest on censorship circumvention technology. You’ll hear from experts on measurement, talks on user experiences with circumvention tools, the latest developments to PTs such as Snowflake, policy impacts, and more! This event will feature panels, lightning talks, regional sessions, and hacking sessions to provide a unique and collaborative experience for everyone. Scroll to see this year’s schedule!

REGISTER HERE:

Registration is free! Use this link to register for PTIM 2021. Last day to register: October 17th. We look forward to your attendance!

ALL TIMES IN Eastern Time (ET)

October 19

9 AM - 10 AM (Optional) Coffee Hour This time is reserved to meet fellow participants and have a cup of coffee before the official start of the PTIM.
10 AM - 10:30 AM Welcome Day 1 Official Welcome to the 2021 PTIM
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM Sharing Best Practices for Uncovering Surveillance Middleboxes Join a session discussing the methodologies and best practices to discover surveillance middleboxes. It will build on previous research by Vasilis Ververis and Valentin Weber, in which the two researchers discovered thousands of Huawei middleboxes across the world. Hear about how to use OONI datasets, the Shodan platform, and Censys. Presented by Valentin Weber and Vasilis Ververis.
11:45 AM - 1:05 PM Lightning Talks
  • Snowflake: Challenges, growth, and censorship attempts. Presented by Cecylia Bocovich of Tor Project.
  • Thoughts on Measuring Pluggable Transports. Presented by Simone Basso of OONI.
  • TunnelBear Bandwidth Support Program. Presented by Shames of TunnelBear.
  • Rosen: An easy to use, modular, obfuscating proxy tunnel. Presented by Awn Umar.
  • Measuring the Health of the Internet with the Pulse Platform. Presented by Kenneth Olmstead of Internet Society.
1:15 PM - 2:15 PM Sub-Saharan Africa Internet Freedom Issues Hear from activists and developers from Sub Saharan Africa on the current state of Internet Freedom. Presented by Dr.Richard Brooks and Sub Saharan Africa Activists.
Building a Successor for Obsf4 obfs4 is a very popular and widely deployed transport. There are several reasons to consider deploying a successor to obfs4 from maintainability of the codebase to increasing blocking resistance. This community session will gather from the PT community requirements for a successor to obfs4 and discuss the transition process for deprecating and sunsetting obfs4 support.
2:15 PM - 3:15 PM (Optional) Continuing The Conversation Time dedicated to discuss the day's sessions and interact with fellow participants.
2:15 PM - 4 PM (Optional) Hacking Session Topics/Projects Coming Soon

October 20

9 AM - 10 AM (Optional) Coffee Hour This time is reserved to meet fellow participants and have a cup of coffee before the official start of PTIM Day 2.
10 AM - 10:05AM Welcome Day 2 Opening of PTIM Day 2
10:05 AM - 11:00 AM User Feedback Panel Hear from users in different regions of the world on their experience using circumvention tools. Presented by Atnafu Brhane, Amir Rashidi, and Andres Azpurua.
11:15 AM - 12:15 PM Lightning Talks
  • GreatFire's Envoy Circumvention Code Library.
  • How to Make a Blizzard: Recruiting Snowflake Proxies and Rewarding Resource Sharing. Presented by Brandon S. of Calyx Institute.
  • How Psiphon VPN Supported Tanzanians During Shutdowns. Presented By Zaituni Njovu of Zaina Foundation.
12:30 AM - 1:30 PM Building a Cross- Platform Circumvention Tool Nothing is "pluggable" if it's not cross-platform. In this talk we want to compel the community to think about what a platform to make cross-platform circumvention tools should look like. Vinicius Fortuna will share the experience and challenges of making the Outline VPN client work on 6 different platforms. Ox Cart will share the experience with Lantern and some of the new technology they have been exploring. We can then have a discussion on what the development requirements are and the different ways to achieve that as a community.
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM Turbo Tunnel Q+A and Workshop This session will be about embedding an independent session protocol inside a circumvention protocol, a design pattern called Turbo Tunnel. We will talk about the benefits of a Turbo Tunnel design, look at how the design has been applied in practice, and discuss how to integrate the design into existing circumvention systems. Presented by David Fifield.
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM (Optional) Continuing the Conversation Time dedicated to discuss the day's sessions and interact with fellow participants.
2:30 PM - 4 PM (Optional) Hacking Session Topics/Projects Coming Soon

October 21

9 AM - 10 AM (Optional) Coffee Hour This time is reserved to meet fellow participants and have a cup of coffee before the official start of PTIM Day 3.
10 AM - 10:05AM Welcome Day 3 Opening of PTIM Day 3
10:05 AM - 11:00 AM Internet Freedom in the MENA Region The main idea of the session is to discuss the freedom of expression on the Internet and the challenges facing the Arab region in the cyberspace, especially those working in the field of civil society organizations. Security challenges, threats from militias, legal challenges such as legislation and what is our role as digital activists to respond. Presented by Hayder Hamzoz of INSM network Iraq.
11:15 PM - 12:15 PM Policies Policing Your Codes and How We Use Them During this session, we will talk about how policies and regulations affect how people use circumvention tools, and how circumvention tools and codes that don't take policies and regulations into consideration can lead to more harm than good. Presented by Berhan Taye of Internews.
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM Censorship in Cuba From nationwide internet disruptions to targeted suspensions of specific individuals' telecommunication services, from passing new laws aimed at controlling online content to spreading misinformation intended to infuse fear that translates into self-censorship online, the Cuban government has doubled down on its toolbox of means for keeping citizens ill-informed and disconnected following the July 11th protests. How does censorship work in Cuba and where is it headed? Presented by Barbara Maseda.
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM Lightning Talks
  • Right to Left Languages Accessibility in Internet Freedom Technologies.
  • Bypassing Censorship with Machine Learning. Presented by TunnelBear and Geneva.
  • The Shadown Transport. Presented by Joshua Clark of Operator Foundation.
2:30 PM - 2:45 PM Closing Session Wrap up the 3 day virtual 2021 PTIM!
2:45 PM - 4 PM (Optional) Post Event Reception Time dedicated to wrap up this event with fellow participants.
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