Twitter launches version of its site that bypasses Russian censorship

Twitter launches a privacy-protected ‘onion’ version of it site for the dark web that BYPASSES Russia’s censorship

• Users can access the onion service version of Twitter through the Tor browse
• Tor allows people to access sites on what is also referred to as the ‘dark web’ 
• Instead of .com or other geographic suffixes, onion sites have a .onion suffix
• The move came after Russia access to Facebook and limited Twitter as part of its information and propaganda war surrounding its brutal invasion of Ukraine 

Twitter has launched a privacy-protected version of its site to bypass surveillance and censorship after Russia restricted access to its service in the country.

Russia has blocked access to Facebook and has limited Twitter in an attempt to try to restrict the flow of information about its war in Ukraine, over which it is also waging a war of disinformation and propaganda.

Both companies have said they are working on restoring access to people inside Russia even as they restrict the country’s state media from their services.

Known as an ‘onion’ service, users can access this version of Twitter if they download the Tor browser, which allows people to access sites on what is also referred to as the ‘dark web.’ 

Instead of .com, onion sites have a .onion suffix.

FILE – In this April 26, 2017, file photo is a Twitter app icon on a mobile phone in Philadelphia. Twitter has launched a privacy-protected version of its site to bypass surveillance and censorship after Russia restricted access to its service in the country. Russia has blocked access to Facebook and has limited Twitter in an attempt to try to restrict the flow of information about its war in Ukraine. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

Software engineer and internet security expert Alec Muffett, who has worked with other companies to set up onion sites, announced Twitter’s new service on his own Twitter account

Mr Muffett also posted a screenshot of Twitter’s page working through the Tor browser

Regular websites, including Twitter.com, are also accessible on Tor, but the .onion versions are made specifically for Tor and prevent the site from being spoofed by malicious actors.

While the term ‘dark web’ connotes illegal sites such as the now-defunct Silk Road drug market, it is also often used by people seeking to remain anonymous for their safety and also to access sites censored by repressive governments.

Facebook and other sites such as the BBC also have versions accessible on Tor. Twitter’s version has been in the works for some time, since before the Russian invasion, the company confirmed Wednesday.

Software engineer and internet security expert Alec Muffett, who has worked with other companies to set up onion sites, announced Twitter’s new service on his own Twitter account.

‘This is possibly the most important and long-awaited tweet that I´ve ever composed,’ he wrote on Tuesday.

In addition to fighting its war with bombs and missiles, Russia has also been waging an information war over Ukraine.

Russia has been fighting to control the flow of information into its own borders over its illegal war in Ukraine, instead insisting on calling it a ‘special military operation’ and claiming that Kyiv is the aggressor – despite all evidence showing otherwise.  

In addition, numerous Russian news outlets have been accused of spreading disinformation, and state-backed Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik have both been met with sanctions in the West.

RT America cased production and laid off most of its staff last week, while RT and Sputnik were both banned in the European Union.

On Wednesday, the U.S. government publicly warned that Russia might seek to use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, after Russia – without evidence – accused Ukraine of having chemical weapons labs. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said it could be a ‘false flag’

Brussels said this was done in a bid to tackle ‘systematic information manipulation and disinformation by the Kremlin’.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Tuesday rejected accusations from Russia that the bloc was clamping down on media freedom by targeting the outlets.

‘They are not independent media, they are assets. They are weapons in the Kremlin’s manipulation ecosystem,’ Borrell told lawmakers at the European Parliament.

Just on Wednesday, the U.S. government publicly warned that Russia might seek to use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, after Russia – without evidence – accused Ukraine of having chemical weapons labs.

The Kremlin has also claimed that the goal of it’s ‘special military operation’ is to de-nazify Ukraine, despite the country’s president Volodymyr Zelensky being Jewish and far-right parties only receiving 2 percent of the vote in Ukraine’s last election.

This was not even enough for the parties to pass the 5 percent threshold to sit in the country’s parliament. 

White House press secretary Jen Psaki called Russia’s chemical weapons claim ‘preposterous’ and said it could be part of an attempt by Russia to lay the groundwork for using such weapons of mass destruction against Ukraine itself.

‘This is all an obvious ploy by Russia to try to try to justify its further premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified attack on Ukraine,’ said Psaki.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Tuesday rejected accusations from Russia that the bloc was clamping down on media freedom by targeting the outlets

‘Now that Russia has made these false claims, and China has seemingly endorsed this propaganda, we should all be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, or to create a false flag operation using them.’

Russia has used chemical weapons before in carrying out assassination attempts against Putin enemies like Alexey Navalny and former spy Sergei Skripal. It also supports the Assad government in Syria which has used chemical weapons against its people in a decade-long civil war.     

On Tuesday, the EU pledged to step up its fight against Russian disinformation as fears surge over interference by Moscow. 

Borrell said he would now propose a new mechanism that could allow the bloc to sanction Moscow’s ‘malign disinformation actors’.

‘We are witnessing how the Russian assault on Ukraine continues,’ Borrell told lawmakers at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

‘And this assault painfully highlights why we need to pay more attention to foreign interference, and in particular, to foreign disinformation and information manipulation.’

Borrell decried the Kremlin’s crackdown on independent reporting and blanket efforts by the ‘Russian propaganda machine’ to justify the attack at home and distort what is happening on the ground.

‘President (Vladimir) Putin wants his nation to be blind and deaf. More than that, President Putin I think would like the Russian people to be apathetic,’ Vera Jourova, EU commissioner for values and transparency, told legislators.

‘It is more important than ever to reach the Russian people and provide them with information. Every possible channel should be used.’

Jourova praised a decision by streaming giant Netflix to halt services in Russia.

‘President Putin wants the people to be entertained, not to pay attention to what’s happening,’ she said.

‘It would not be right to see Russians being entertained and next door Ukrainians being killed.’

The EU has already bolstered its efforts to counter Kremlin disinformation since Moscow annexed Crimea and began fuelling a war in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

Meanwhile, Facebook on Wednesday began letting groups automatically reject posts identified as containing false information, taking aim at a part of the massive network that has drawn particular concern from misinformation watchdogs.

More than 1.8 billion people per month use Facebook Groups, which allow members to gather around topics ranging from parenting to politics.

Yet critics have said the groups are ripe targets for the spread of misleading or false information by having sometimes large audiences of like-minded users organized on a particular topic.

Pictured: Alex Pishcheiko (front right) along with Mariia Bocheva (left) and Vlad Kravchenko, from Ukraine and living in Dublin, take part in a protest outside Meta’s head office in Dublin, calling for a crackdown on Russian propaganda

Administrators of ‘groups’ at the leading social network can opt to have software automatically reject incoming posts showcasing information found to be false by third-party fact-checkers, Facebook App communities vice president Maria Smith said.

Groups were once touted by chief executive Mark Zuckerberg as a way to build more intimate communities at the world-spanning social network by providing online spaces for users to connect based on hobbies, endeavors, or other interests.

‘Our research shows, those same features – privacy and community – are often exploited by bad actors, foreign and domestic, to spread false information and conspiracies,’ disinformation researchers Nina Jankowicz and Cindy Otis wrote in a Wired opinion piece in 2020.

Facebook has long been under heavy pressure to prevent its platform from being used to spread misinformation on topics from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the Covid-19 pandemic and elections.

The platform on Wednesday also updated a ‘suspend’ tool that administrators can use to temporarily stop selected members from posting, commenting or otherwise taking part in a group.

For groups seeking to incorporate new members, Facebook added the ability to promote them using email or QR codes, Smith said. 

It was not immediately clear if Facebook’s move was in reaction to the war in Ukraine and the events surrounding it, or a more general push against misinformation.   

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