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War in Ukraine: media and social networks blocked in Russia remain accessible on the dark web

2022-03-09T17:55:04.063Z


Facebook, the BBC and Deutsche Welle had created secure sites protecting the anonymity of their visitors. Twitter has just launched its own.


In Russia, it has become complicated to learn about the war taking place in Ukraine.

The government seeks to silence all dissenting voices by threatening heavy prison sentences for any media or citizen discrediting the Russian military.

Some social networks, such as Facebook, are blocked in the country.

But these measures have little traction in the "

dark web

", a part of the Internet that is not accessible with the most popular browsers on the market.

Read alsoWar in Ukraine: the ban on the media Russia Today hinders the influence of the Kremlin in Europe

Like Facebook, the social network Twitter has been partially inaccessible in Russia since Friday, but the blue bird already has its parade.

It has just launched a version of its service specially designed for Tor, the main network providing access to the dark web.

Sites accessible only via Tor

Tor protects the identity and location of the Internet user as much as possible by covering the tracks.

It encrypts the traffic by passing the data through a whole series of servers.

If the Internet user can visit any Internet site anonymously, it is also possible to create sites that can only be consulted via Tor.

Their addresses end in .onion.

If the classic version of Twitter was already accessible on Tor, this new version is more secure according to the company.

It must allow better anonymization of user actions.

Alec Muffet, the engineer behind the project, explained on Twitter that this version has been under discussion since 2014. He does not specify whether it is the current conflict that has pressed the release of the device.

Alec Muffet already has the Tor version of the Facebook social network to his credit.

It was created in 2014.

The BBC and the

New York Times

already present

News media, such as BBC News, the New York Times, Deutsche Welle or Radio Free Europe, have also invested in Tor in recent years.

Recent events have pushed them to highlight these somewhat forgotten services.

In a message shared on social media, the BBC presented Russian citizens with several alternatives to circumvent Moscow censorship.

One of them is its dedicated Tor site, where information is published in Russian and Ukrainian language.

Russian media blocked in Europe such as RT France or the TASS agency could also theoretically be available on this parallel net.

They haven't mentioned it yet.

The term "

dark web

", often associated with sordid arms or drug trafficking, has a negative connotation among the general public.

However, it is quite simple and safe for individuals to connect to it.

Applications like “

Tor Browser

” (Android) or “

Onion Browser

” (iOS) allow quick access from your smartphone.

Source: lefigaro

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