The Tor network now hosts a version of the Twitter website, just days after the Russian government blocked access to it and several other sites.
According to an announcement made on Twitter after midnight today by software developer and internet security evangelist Alec Muffett, Twitter has launched its website on the Tor (The Onion Router) network.
Muffet has previously assisted organisations such as the New York Times, Wikipedia, and BBC News in developing services for the Tor network. According to him, he also assisted Twitter developers in their implementation of the Tor network. Twitter has added the Tor network and browser to its list of supported browsers. It can be accessed via the Tor network via:
https://twitter3e4tixl4xyajtrzo62zg5vztmjuricljdp2c5kshju4avyoid.onion/
This action by the corporation comes at a time when the Russian government has blocked access to sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and several news platforms, ostensibly to isolate the home audience from global news and viewpoints.
This means that both the user and the web server are being anonymized. Otherwise, the user’s traffic is diverted via Tor relays before exiting the network via an exit node.
This also implies that the possibility of rogue Tor exit nodes is reduced, allowing users to bypass most national website bans. According to Muffet’s blog, if you write in the exact.onion address for a website, you will either connect to the genuine page or nothing at all.
While you could previously visit Twitter’s regular website via the Tor network, the new.onion domain is solely available via the Tor network and browser. Furthermore, because the site is now part of the Tor network, traffic does not need to be routed through a Tor exit node.
If you’ve ever used the Tor network to access ordinary websites, you may have observed that they frequently need users to enter several CAPTCHA codes, and sometimes don’t work at all, displaying the message “Our systems have identified unusual behaviour from your computer network.” Please retry your request later.”
This is determined by your exit node’s IP repute. Having a service based on Tor helps to alleviate this issue as well.
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