Twitter's Tor service has finally launched, helping its users in Russia to return to the platform after the government reportedly blocked access to it.
In this photo illustration, the logo for the Twitter social media network is projected onto a man on August 09, 2017 in London, England. With around 328 million users worldwide, Twitter has gone from a small start-up in for the public 2006 to a broadcast tool of politicians and corporations in 2017.
Twitter and Russia
As per a news story by Engadget, Twitter has rolled out a solution to the recent move of the Russian government, which reportedly blocked access to social media networks.
Aside from Twitter, the regulator of the Russian territory also reportedly blocked access to Facebook, as well as some "Western" news outlets like BBC.
Twitter's Tor Service Launches
However, this time around, Twitter launched a service that essentially evades such censorship in other parts of the world.
The tech giant debuted its own Tor onion service, which not only helps Twitter users evade any geographic banning or blocking, it also allows users to be anonymous while using the service.
As such, the Tor service of Twitter also prevents surveillance activities and further protects user privacy, while it also helps them evade any censorship.
According to a recent report by The Verge, a software engineer, Alec Muffett, broke the news regarding the new Tor onion service on Twitter.
TOPSHOT - This photograph taken on October 26, 2020 shows the logo of US social network Twitter displayed on the screen of a smartphone and a tablet in Toulouse, southern France. (Photo by Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP)
The engineer began his announcement by highlighting it as "possibly the most important and long-awaited tweet that I've ever composed."
Muffett told The Verge in an interview that he has been in talks with Twitter since way back in 2014 for the microblogging site to launch its Tor onion services.
The Tor service of Twitter is based on the Enterprise Onion Toolkit, which was specifically customized for the massive user base of Twitter to "meet extraordinary production requirements," the software engineer said.
Meanwhile, Engadget noted that Twitter made no official announcements regarding its all-new Tor service to avoid any "load spike," which, in turn, could make it unusable for users who need it most.
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
Facebook and Tor Service
Way back in 2014, another social media platform, Facebook, launched its own Tor service, giving its users a choice to be anonymous online.
The Mark Zuckerberg-led social network, Facebook, previously said last 2016 that tons of users opt to access their website via its Tor service. To be more precise, FB said that it has garnered more than one million users every month.
On the other hand, Twitter has yet to release its own onion service until March 2022. Just in the nick of time, when the Russian government has reportedly banned access to Twitter.
Related Article: Twitter Is Reopening Its Offices, But Won't Require Employees To Come In
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Written by Teejay Boris
