As quoted, “Word of Mouth travels faster than anything else.” In today’s world, social media has the most influence on the global population.
People from all walks of life use and abuse the freedom of speech rights granted by these platforms under the guise of “expression of oneself.” One such platform, which is regarded as the most influential and popular among the youth, is “Twitter.”
Some prominent descriptions or motivations for its being in the spotlight include delivering a solution or starting a dispute.
One such piece of news which came forward was the launch of Twitter on the dark web in recent times, where it can be accessed through the Tor Onion service.
What is the Dark Web?
The Dark Web is one of three distinct web browsing modes: surface web, deep web, and dark web. The access is not obtained through normal means of browsing but through a unique browser that is not available freely.
The dark web has a bad reputation for being a hotspot for all kinds of illegal activities such as drug dealing, raid parties, weapon sales, and so on. However, this might be true, but it is not entirely aligned with such kinds of activities.
Additionally, it is a secure space for journalists and whistleblowers to share information, as no data is tracked. To access it, we want to know the exact URL of the site.
What are Tor Onion and its connection with Twitter?
In these times of exponential growth in cyber attacks, the dark web has become a popular choice due to its reliability in comparison to other private browsing methods.
It started as a project in the US Navy during the mid-1990s but quickly spread as a free and open-source platform among the local crowd. The work is similar to a VPN as it connects you to websites, online services, and more via a virtual tunnel.
Unlike Google Chrome and other similar browsers, the latter route it to the Onion Network, where the data is encrypted.
The Tor client creates at least three secure and random servers known as nodes. One of these carries the connection and data. This protects the user’s privacy because the data is not tracked.
Announcement of Dark Web launch amidst Ukraine – Russia Crisis
The announcement of this launch couldn’t come at a better time. During the Ukraine-Russia crisis, a Twitter Software Engineer announced, “This is possibly the most important and long-awaited tweet that I’ve ever composed. On behalf of Twitter, I am pleased to announce the launch of TorPorject, an onion service.
Russia has imposed a ban on all US-based company’s apps, Twitter being one of them. People will be able to easily get to the content that has been censored because of the dark web’s reach.
In March, 12.77 percent of Tor relay users were originally connecting from Russia, according to the data provided in the Twitter project.
Conclusion
This is not the first time a major platform has entered the dark web. Facebook announced its arrival in 2014, back when it was already battling the issue of security and privacy of data.
Many news outlets, like BBC, New York Times, and others, have certain Tor–specific websites to access content from countries like North Korea and China, where the content is banned.
This kind of information makes us wonder whether it allows people to hide their online presence or make it visible to the world more easily.
Severe punishment has been imposed on those who engage in such malpractices, but that doesn’t prevent its users from accessing the web pages.
Hence, it raises the question of whether the launch of Twitter on the dark web will make it more user-friendly or an information hub to be utilized by different countries.
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