The Tor Project has put out an urgent call to the privacy community asking volunteers to help deploy 200 new WebTunnel bridges by the end of the year

Tor needs 200 new WebTunnel bridges to fight censorship

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2024-11-28 18:30:08

The Tor Project has put out an urgent call to the privacy community asking volunteers to help deploy 200 new WebTunnel bridges by the end of the year to fight government censorship.

Currently, the Tor Project operates 143 WebTunnel bridges, which help users in heavily censored regions bypass internet access restrictions and website blocks.

This comes in response to increasing censorship in Russia, which Tor says currently impacts the browser's built-in censorship circumvention mechanisms, including obfs4 connections and Snowflake.

The Tor Project believes that setting up more WebTunnel bridges is the best response to this censorship escalation, as analyzing new tactics and developing workarounds takes time, leaving users vulnerable and isolated from the free internet.

"Recent reports from Tor users in Russia indicate an escalation in online censorship with the goal of blocking access to Tor and other circumvention tools. This new wave includes attempts to block Tor bridges and pluggable transports developed by the Tor Project, removal of circumvention apps from stores, and targeting popular hosting providers, shrinking the space for bypassing censorship. Despite these ongoing actions, Tor remains effective.