Twitter Unveils Tor Service To Help Russians Avoid Surveillance

Twitter has introduced a Tor onion service that is expected to let users access Twitter when it is blocked in any given country and help protect against surveillance.

According to contributor Alec Muffett, the new Tor onion service is based on a version of the Enterprise Onion Toolkit (EOTK) customised to meet Twitter's "extraordinary production requirements."

Muffett broke the news rather than Twitter as there were concerns news on the official Twitter Safety account would produce a "load-spike" that flooded the Tor service right when it was most needed.

Annalists believed that the new service was introduced at the right time to help Russians see and share the truth about the invasion of Ukraine despite their country's efforts to censor social apps like Facebook (which already has an onion) and communications tools like Zello. And when President Putin's government has made it illegal for media outlets to contradict the official narrative on the war, Twitter may offer one of the few ways to access objective reporting in Russia.

This is possibly the most important and long-awaited tweet that I've ever composed.

On behalf of @Twitter, I am delighted to announce their new @TorProject onion service, at:https://t.co/Un8u0AEXeE pic.twitter.com/AgEV4ZZt3k

— Alec Muffett (@AlecMuffett) March 8, 2022

The Tor service is also expected to help residents in other countries that block Twitter, such as China, Iran and North Korea.