Internet censorship is an issue on the rise around the world. The Tor Project is looking to combat this growing threat to freedom by providing users a connection to the internet “with as much privacy as possible” [1], thus giving users the freedom to share what they like, even against the wishes of national agencies in their country. However, access to Tor has been dwindling in Russia. Since December 1st 2021 several internet service providers in Russia have been blocking access to Tor [2]. Thankfully, the community isn’t ready to let go of its Russian userbase just yet (which happens to make up around 15% of all Tor users [2]). First, though, let’s answer the question for the uninitiated: What exactly is Tor?
What is Tor?
Plain and simple, Tor is a web browser that can be used to access sites that aren’t indexed. This means that you aren’t going to be able to find a given .onion site on Google or Bing, only through a browser that’s told exactly where to look. You can also access the “clear net” [3] or regular worldwide web with Tor. It’ll be much slower, however. That’s due to the method through which Tor directs internet traffic with the intent to anonymize users and their browsing data. This means that while you can get access to the “Dark Web” of sorts, be that drugs or other elicit services, there are also plenty of platforms for completely uncensored exchange of information, giving users in countries with heavy censorship a platform to communicate freely.
How Tor keeps your data private:
Tor is built using an idea called “onion routing” [1]. When a user makes a request for a web page their traffic is routed through multiple servers on the way to the destination. At each point, the traffic is encrypted, adding extra layers of privacy to the users request, hence the onion analogy. Tor operates with three nodes in between a user making a request, the entry node, the relay node, and the exit node. [3].
These nodes are used in this manner because this way there is no node that knows both the user and the destination. A given node only sees the traffic it’s receiving and its destination meaning that while an entry node can see the request the user is making, it cannot see the destination of the request. This is essentially how Tor protects user privacy.
Back to Russia
Several countries around the world attempt to censor their citizens’ access to the internet. Russia, for one has been blocking access to relay nodes making it more and more difficult for users in Russia to access Tor. This is where bridges come in. Bridges are hidden relay nodes run by users to help circumvent network proxy’s that are being used to block traffic [3]. Back in November of 2021 we were seeing a trend in the decrease in the number of these very necessary bridges in operation. In response The Tor Project launched an initiative get more bridges online. This campaign recently wrapped up with a reported 2470 running bridges, almost doubling the number of bridges active in November [4]!
This is an overwhelming success for the protection of the uncensored internet. Both awareness and action are very important for this maintained protection, and it’s really encouraging to see how quickly the online community was willing to act in order to protect these freedoms. This isn’t over just yet though. We need a constant trickle of new bridges coming on online to help offset those being blocked in places like Russia and China.
Want to Help?
Does this sound like a movement you can get behind? Do you have a spare computer lying around? Check out this link below and you can decide if you’d like to get your own Tor bridge set up.
https://blog.torproject.org/run-tor-bridges-defend-open-internet/
References:
[1] https://www.torproject.org/about/history/
[2] https://blog.torproject.org/tor-censorship-in-russia/
[3] https://www.comparitech.com/blog/vpn-privacy/ultimate-guide-to-tor/
[4] https://blog.torproject.org/wrapping-up-bridges-campaign/
Great Article! It is really surprising to see the overwhelming success for the protection of the uncensored internet. Internet censorship has been in news since forever. “Dark web” sounds a very scary thing to exist. I personally wasn’t aware of Tor that much so it got me hooked. I’m sure that uncensored stuff can help many things like drugs, terrorism, etc. go on under-looked. Overall, This article is definitely very intriguing!
Great post! But as a student from China I want to present a different opinion about these “block stuff”. Actually we have to admit that internet is a place that need more management. There are a lot of toxic information need to be restricted, in order to protect the mental health of younger generation. This kind of protection becomes even more essential when it comes to a country with the most population of the world. So it is a little helpless that sometime we have to apply policies suited to national conditions, even somehow they are not that perfect. But as long as they are beneficial to the development of this whole country, then we should and we must insist these policies.
Yes, because pictures of Winnie the Pooh are so deeply harmful to the mental health of our youth. Explain to me how this (and you know, blocking conversations about sexual harassment, mass evictions, floods, the dalai lama etc) are “toxic information”. You can try to rationalize this all you want, but there’s a big difference between “protection” of youth (like idk, removing criminal content), and blocking legitimate discussion.
Interesting post! Really interesting that Russian internet citizens make up 15% of Tor users. One thing I wonder is when Tor does its onion routing, it needs to have a route (what server to go to) and a list of servers it will enter and leave. Is there a trail left there? A potential vulnerability? What happens to the network if a server is setup that is hacked. With the same line of thinking the new bridges in Russia is there any verification that the bridges are pro-Tor users and not surveillance agencies or other nefarious actors.
I have personally found that Tor, much like cryptocurrency tends to be one of those divisive subjects in which opinions on them tend to be polarized.
Arguments in support of Tor tend to base themselves in perceived benefits such as access to information, and privacy. Many people would likely agree that these are huge positives.
Arguments against Tor often resemble the popular “nothing to hide” argument in you will hear regarding privacy. Personally, just because I have nothing to hide doesn’t automatically justify constant surveillance of my actions online. I wouldn’t want someone peeking through my window, why would I want them peeking at my web activity.
The main issue seems to be that it makes it easier for people to engage in unethical/criminal behaviour. While I understand this is a concern, I am not convinced that the detriment outweighs the benefit.
In other words:
Benefit of Easier Access to Online Privacy > Harm done by behaviours that have negative societal impact
Thank you for sharing about Tor! The situation in Russia reminds me of a current event in the sports community, when Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai accused a top political official of sexual assault. From what I know, minimal local news outlets in China have reported about the issue, any that do are most likely taken down, and all of the communication about the accusation is now supervised. This article and the Tor bridge solution gives me hope that issues like this can be more widely reported from countries with a heavily censored internet.
Great post! I’ve often heard of the Tor browser being referred to as the “onion” browser but never understood why it was called that so thanks for explaining! It’s also fascinating that 15% of the Tor userbase is Russian, I guess that goes to show that should governments become oppressive with their censorship laws, anonymous browsers such as Tor are important for preserving individual rights.
Tor is a super interesting topic as everyone above has stated. Then again, it is truly extremely polarizing and many different people have different opinions on it, especially with preconceived ideas of the “dark web”. Growing up and learning about the internet this was always depicted as a horrible place only used for illegal activities, some of which are truly horrifying. On the contrary however, as I’ve grown older and more informed on topics such as these, the idea of the privacy it can provide becomes more and more interesting. On the topic of Russia, this becomes even more interesting. There are some reports that most of the technology sold there comes with built in keyloggers and screen-readers essentially making Tor useless in the first place. Whether people there still choose to use it is up to them, however, it may not be giving them the security they truly think it is!
Very well put together. The term dark web has very negative connotation, but this explanation puts is in a more neutral light. I think that it is important that, if one desired, can have absolute secrecy and no censorship.
On a more conspiracy note: Why do you think free communication is called the dark web? It obviously because big government doesn’t want you to be able to have ideas! (sarcastic)
Good post, I have always been intrigued by the dark web and its possibilities. I usually heard about it in a negative view, but it seems pretty beneficial in this case. I’ve also wondered it is like when it comes to internet usage and experiencing censorship in countries like Russia and China something I do not see talked about often. I did not know about Tor, and onion routing now makes a lot more sense with the onion analogy and the layers of routing.
The problem about tor endpoints decreasing lately has definitely provided some issues with maintaining anonymity on the network, with a perfect example being KAX17 that showed up last December establishing so many relays in an attempt to deanonymize traffic going in and out. For high censorship countries such as Russia and China, and organizations like the CIA always seeking for a way to identify people dealing in illegal goods and services, the decreasing amount of Tor relays has definitely been a boon for them. I’m glad to hear that recent attempts to establish more relays and keep the anonymous nature of Tor intact, although I rarely use the service myself. I think Tor is a nessicary part of the Internet, especially after the fight for net neutrality in 2017. An important part that people need to understand about the Internet and the various communities that are built and established around it is that there will always be people seeking to do wrong, and they will always find a way to do such things, with or without a neutral net or Tor, and that by letting these things die out would only serve to hurt the millions of people who use it everyday.
Great post, I’m very glad you brought this part of the Internet to light for the rest of the class.
I am honestly amazed and excited by the idea behind Tor. The idea of allowing true anonymity on the internet is horrifying, to me at least, because that could give people a false sense of security when it comes to illegal activities or harming others, the way people hide behind usernames on social media. However, with this in mind, the idea of give access to the complete internet to people who, thanks to totalitarian governments in places like Russia and China, is a valiant effort and I am in full support of it.
It encourages me to see that things like Tor exist, as well as have a solid community backing behind them. I like how they allow their users themselves to help develop their hidden infrastructure and allow internet access in censored countries like Russia. It almost reminds me of the driving force behind how people were circumnavigating censorship using Minecraft servers to transmit information. Hopefully we can continue to put up a good fight and allow uncensored access to information across the world. The Dark Web has a scary name and a somewhat negative reputation among the average internet user, but I think we should take steps to show off its good side as well!
I think Tor is an amazing tool for those living in censored countries. It can be argued that Tor is used for illicit and illegal activities (buying drugs, money laundering…etc), but perhaps this is the cost of privacy.
Hey, great article!
I’m so for the whole movement of protecting one’s information and respecting one’s privacy. It seems like trends on the internet (or clearnet) has made it increasingly impossible to remain anonymous and maintain their many freedoms (such as freedom of expression), especially in countries where censorship is rampant. However like some of our classmates stated — right not it seems like the “dark net” has more negative connotations than positive connotations, which I hope will change in the near future.
This is fascinating! “When there’s a will, there’s a way” is perfectly described here. In my opinion, having uncensored access to the internet is incredibly important in today’s day and age, with how interconnected everything is and is becoming and it’s disheartening to see governments of certain countries trying to limit interaction with the outside world, I would assume as a means of trying to control the population. I can only hope there’s a strong push for more freedom in places like Russia, considering people will always find ways around restrictions, regardless of what the restriction might be.
This is fascinating! “When there’s a will, there’s a way” is perfectly described here. In my opinion, having uncensored access to the internet is incredibly important in today’s day and age, with how interconnected everything is and is becoming and it’s disheartening to see governments of certain countries trying to limit interaction with the outside world, I would assume as a means of trying to control the population. I can only hope there’s a strong push for more freedom in places like Russia, considering people will always find ways around restrictions, regardless of what the restriction might be.
Interesting post! I’ve always been fascinated and at the same time, terrified, of the “dark web”. When I hear someone mention that they use Tor I always assume that they use it to do some form of illegal activity or view illegal content. I also thought they would use Tor on a virtual machine (VM) for security reasons as I also assumed Tor wouldn’t do a good job at keeping connections private. However, this post challenged my current views and really made me question what potential could Tor or the “Dark web” provide?
It is a shame that TOR has such a strong (but understandable) stigma surrounding it. Unfortunately, it seems that any medium that emphasizes anonymity, privacy, and protection from governments (benevolent or not) will attract bad actors who are determined to abuse such freedoms in order to commit evil and unethical acts. Individuals with righteous intentions who use TOR to circumvent censorship and persecution from authoritarian governments like Russia may have their messages diminished simply due to the association with dark web.
This post is very interesting!
I like how you talk about other features that the internet has, since most posts talk about different companies getting hacked. I feel like I really learnt something new, since I did not know about TOR before reading this. I think the idea of a highly private and untraceable browser is really good and I like that it gives access of censored content to countries which may restrict it. People will be less controlled by their governments, and have more freedoms. One counterargument to TOR is that it gives people easier access to illegal activities. However, I do not believe that a censored internet would be the fix for this. Governments can start other programs to try and stop illegal activities, but an uncensored internet is one where you can get the most information.
The “dark web” has always been somewhat of an enigma considering how obscure that part of the internet really is. Like you said, the idea is that it’s full of shady activity and dealings, but one can only imagine the extent of what goes on in there. Since Tor has always been a popular point of access to the dark web, I’ve had my own doubts about it. However, reading this article really opened my mind to the possibilities of Tor that go beyond what I had initially thought. To be able to grant freedom of speech to heavily censored nations is a tremendous feat and now I can see how Tor may also be useful.
Wow, this is a very interesting post. I’ve heard about Tor before, mainly that it’s used for the dark web. The dark web, I’ve also heard many stories about, some of which were quite scary. Seeing how the dark web has this negative reputation, explains why several people, at first me included, don’t really approve of Tor, but after reading this post I’ve realized that Tor is actually a pretty nice and safe browser. I had no clue that it was so important to people in other countries due to the limitation their countries put on the internet, such as Russia. I am a big believer in internet freedom, I believe that people should be able to visit any website they want, even the dark web if they really want to, and now the potential risks. Why put limitations on such things? Let the people do what they want. Since Tor gives these people that freedom and also privacy, I definitely approve of it. This is a movement I can get behind.
I believe Tor is a very controversial idea. On one hand, it allows users to watch everything they want to and access every part of the web and even though it’s an interesting idea, I believe some censorship is actually for the better. As majority of the users online are not particularly “tech savvy” and they need some protection so they do not accidentally stumble upon harmful websites. One example would be websites about drug dealing which are hard to get to for a reason.
Cool Post!
Honestly, the dark web sounds so interesting but scary at the same time. I was curious about how the dark web works back in summer, so I did some research on it and read that a lot of people on the dark web use Tor Browser. I’m curious to know if Tor is the most common browser people use to access the dark web? I don’t know why, but it just feels like Tor should be illegal lol but then again it is indeed not unlawful to be anonymous on the web. I always thought Tor is some dangerous browser that is only associated with the dark web, but it really isn’t and that people can use Tor for legitimate and legal reasons too.
Very Interesting. I see very little downsides to TOR as a concept, and I’m very happy to see that Russian users have been successful in bypassing the government censorship. These can be important tools for communication when living in authoritarian regimes. I don’t agree with some of the criticisms of TOR I see in these comments. Most criminal behaviour (drugs, etc) done on TOR would still exist without it, I don’t see any reason why TOR would increase crime rates. There are certain major crimes that I would consider need a solution if they become prevalent on TOR, such as sex trafficking. In these scenarios, I’m hoping that a more decentralized solution to report these crimes could be developed instead of cracking down on TOR overall.
Interesting post. I really learnt something new today since I did not know about TOR before reading this. In my opinion, it is very important to have uncensored access to the internet these days as most media outlets are becoming biased. They are only writing in favor of the partly they are supporting. One drawback to TOR is that it gives people easier way to spread misinformation. In these scenarios, I’m hoping that a more decentralized solution to report these crimes could be developed instead of cracking down on TOR overall. Nevertheless, I do not believe that a censored internet would be the fix this problem.
Interesting read! The support of the protection of uncensored internet, especially for countries like Russia where the censorship could be taking away freedom of the press / freedom of speech. However, there’s no doubt that the dark web is controversy as it’s notorious for human trafficking, child pornography, selling of weapons and drugs,, which are likely to be unethically sourced, and other illegal activities. Reading this article, I can’t help but wonder how many users are there for freedom of press and how many there for the crimes. The onion routing protects the Russian internet users’ access to sites like Facebook, but also protects the criminals. At this time, I will not be supporting the dark web given the criminal activities on there.
Great Post, I learned a lot about dark net and tor, Tor allows the creation of hidden services, websites that use the Tor network to hide their physical location. This technology has allowed the creation of websites devoted to illegal activities that are difficult for the authorities to trace and shut down.
Great Post, I learned a lot about dark net and tor, Tor allows the creation of hidden services, websites that use the Tor network to hide their physical location. This technology has allowed the creation of websites devoted to illegal activities that are difficult for the authorities to trace and shut down.
Great Post, I learned a lot about dark net and tor, Tor allows the creation of hidden services, websites that use the Tor network to hide their physical location. This technology has allowed the creation of websites devoted to illegal activities that are difficult for the authorities to trace and shut down.
Interesting post , so much information , the way you presented it is really fun and easy for us to understand . Tor navigator is something i heard about before , but i didn’t know the details of it , until this post . Apparently it is more secure than the navigators i use. Also the use of photos in your post made it more readable for everyone .
Overall, great job !!
Tor is a very interesting piece of software, one that’s very important in under the context of how much more prevalent surveillance is nowadays. Sure tor still has a few problems that require to be ironed out, but I wonder if tor will become a necessity in the future if we are to try and preserve our privacy. Overall a very interesting and informative read!
Great article. I heard about Tor a long time ago and I knew that it is one of the most secure browsers. By having a lot of servers, Tor will anonymize your internet traffic against people that would like to know that information, such as ads companies, hackers, or even the government. Tor is also a must if you want to access the “Deep Web”, which includes a majority of the internet.
This post is interesting in that it presents Tor in a positive light. I have never seen this before. I have only ever heard Tor referred to as an ominous force for evil. That perspective never really convinced me, because it plays to our fears of criminality and violence and rarely addresses any benefits that the dark web may offer. In the post-9/11 age of extensive government surveillance I think the benefits are fairly clear. This perspective on Tor highlights an inconsistency in western perspectives on freedom-/privacy-enabling objects and practices. More freedom is good in Russia (the downsides are ignored), but not in Canada or the US. Have western countries gotten the balance right? That seems to be the assumption. Any decrease in states’ ability to monitor and/or penalize Internet users is usually considered as a negative, which will only bring disinformation and nastiness. I find this perspective ominous.
Good Post! I have never heard of Tor before, but from what your post tells me, it seems to be a very polarizing software. On one hand, it sounds like a really great idea, allowing those in censored countries to access information in a free manner, bypassing their country’s restrictions, (as you’ve mentioned). But on the other hand, it sounds like it would be very easy for one to access parts of the dark web using Tor, and I wouldn’t be surprised if many of the illegal activities that go on there (such as trafficking and the sale of illegal drugs) happen using Tor. I don’t know if the positives outweigh the potential negatives here, but I do support freedom of information, especially when it comes to the internet, and Tor is helping those in censored countries have just that.
Very interesting post!
I have been interested in the Dark Web for a long time. I used to try to browse the websites on the Dark Web, but I failed. As you mentioned, there are some unique ways to access the websites on the Dark Web, but I cannot find any of these ways on the “normal” Internet.
Even though I like browsing websites without any Internet censorship, I must say, sometimes, too much freedom might cause more crimes. Many articles and blogs talk about crimes on the Dark Web, including drugs, human trafficking and so on. Thus, I think we should try to find a balance between freedom on the Internet and Internet censorship by governments.
Anyway, if you know how to access the websites on the Dark Web, please tell me. I would appreciate that!
One of the larger criticisms that i’ve heard about TOR and VPNs in general is that while you are shielded from invasions of privacy, you might also end up liable for the traffic that is routed out of your node that originated from someone else. That seems like a pretty significant risk to me, but in your opinion is the privacy that you get from using TOR and similar networks worth the risk?