IODA

Goals

Improve detection, investigation, and understanding of Internet outages and disruptions around the world by leveraging and improving the IODA platform (ioda.live). The team will conduct technical, socioeconomic, and political analyses, improve existing detection systems (throttling detection, traceroute analysis, etc.), and write reports to shape and inform public policy and understanding. Because of the global nature of the project, bilingual students are especially welcome.

Issues Involved or Addressed

“For the second year in a row, authorities and warring parties wielded an unprecedented number of Internet shutdowns as a weapon of war and a tool for collective punishment — hurling communities into digital darkness, and concealing grave human rights abuses. As Internet access becomes consistently weaponized, restricted, and precarious, we are seeing pervasive patterns of crushing censorship and an urgent need for greater accountability. No single stakeholder can end Internet shutdowns alone. The time to act is now.” Felicia Anthonio, Access Now #KeepItOn Campaign Manager, 2025

Users across the globe rely on Georgia Tech’s IODA to track and monitor Internet connectivity. IODA also provides a valuable open-data source for the technical research community that inspires collaboration and spurs researchers to generate scientific work in the field of Internet measurements. This VIP team will be embedded in the IODA initiative. Students will conduct Internet data science investigations (investigate and compile data that could ground-truth outages, investigate and compare Internet connectivity data, etc.); will conduct case studies into specific Internet outages and disruptions, looking both and Internet measurements and socio-political context; and participate in ongoing investigations of daily Internet disruptions across the globe. Additionally, bilingual students will help localize outages and contextualize regional issues.

Keywords: Computer networking, Digital rights, Internet data science, Human rights journalism, Case study, Internet freedom

Partners/Sponsors

The IODA team partners with a wide range of industry (e.g. IPinfo, Kentik, Cloudflare) , advocacy (Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Access Now), and research partners (Censored Planet, OONI, Measurement Lab).