---
_id: '66268'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: 'Governments around the world limit free access to information through Internet
    censorship. With the rising adoption of the QUIC protocol, these censors have
    been forced to evolve their systems. Russia introduced sweeping changes to its
    censorship after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, including completely blocking
    international QUIC connections. However, after this broad filter was identified
    in 2022, Russian QUIC censorship received little attention: The current state
    of QUIC censorship by TSPU devices is largely unknown. In this paper, we provide
    a timeline of Russian QUIC censorship and detail its current state. We identify
    that Russian TSPU devices switched to SNI-dependent QUIC censorship on a large
    scale between May 2022 and July 2023, a fact that went largely unnoticed for three
    years. While the GFW was previously thought to be the first censor with broad
    SNI-dependent QUIC censorship, we highlight that Russian TSPU devices broadly
    adopted SNI-dependent QUIC censorship at least nine months before the GFW. We
    consider this an indicator of the TSPU devices’ flexibility and of Russia’s willingness
    to invest in strict and up-to-date censorship.'
author:
- first_name: Nico
  full_name: Heitmann, Nico
  id: '74619'
  last_name: Heitmann
  orcid: 0009-0003-7687-7044
- first_name: Niklas
  full_name: Niere, Niklas
  id: '63563'
  last_name: Niere
- first_name: Felix
  full_name: Graf Lange, Felix
  id: '67893'
  last_name: Graf Lange
- first_name: Juraj
  full_name: Somorovsky, Juraj
  id: '83504'
  last_name: Somorovsky
  orcid: 0000-0002-3593-7720
citation:
  ama: 'Heitmann N, Niere N, Graf Lange F, Somorovsky J. On Russia’s Early Introduction
    of QUIC SNI Censorship. In: ; 2026.'
  apa: Heitmann, N., Niere, N., Graf Lange, F., &#38; Somorovsky, J. (2026). <i>On
    Russia’s Early Introduction of QUIC SNI Censorship</i>. Free and Open Communications
    on the Internet, Calgary.
  bibtex: '@inproceedings{Heitmann_Niere_Graf Lange_Somorovsky_2026, title={On Russia’s
    Early Introduction of QUIC SNI Censorship}, author={Heitmann, Nico and Niere,
    Niklas and Graf Lange, Felix and Somorovsky, Juraj}, year={2026} }'
  chicago: Heitmann, Nico, Niklas Niere, Felix Graf Lange, and Juraj Somorovsky. “On
    Russia’s Early Introduction of QUIC SNI Censorship,” 2026.
  ieee: N. Heitmann, N. Niere, F. Graf Lange, and J. Somorovsky, “On Russia’s Early
    Introduction of QUIC SNI Censorship,” presented at the Free and Open Communications
    on the Internet, Calgary, 2026.
  mla: Heitmann, Nico, et al. <i>On Russia’s Early Introduction of QUIC SNI Censorship</i>.
    2026.
  short: 'N. Heitmann, N. Niere, F. Graf Lange, J. Somorovsky, in: 2026.'
conference:
  end_date: 2026-07-20
  location: Calgary
  name: Free and Open Communications on the Internet
  start_date: 2026-07-20
date_created: 2026-07-05T20:06:35Z
date_updated: 2026-07-05T20:11:29Z
ddc:
- '006'
file:
- access_level: closed
  content_type: application/pdf
  creator: nniklas
  date_created: 2026-07-05T20:04:24Z
  date_updated: 2026-07-05T20:04:24Z
  file_id: '66269'
  file_name: foci-2026-0010.pdf
  file_size: 559028
  relation: main_file
  success: 1
file_date_updated: 2026-07-05T20:04:24Z
has_accepted_license: '1'
language:
- iso: eng
main_file_link:
- open_access: '1'
  url: https://www.petsymposium.org/foci/2026/foci-2026-0010.pdf
oa: '1'
status: public
title: On Russia’s Early Introduction of QUIC SNI Censorship
type: conference
user_id: '63563'
year: '2026'
...