Russia today stepped up state surveillance of Internet activity, blocking the website of the global privacy service Tor and part of its wider network, with Russian telecommunications regulator accusing it of allowing access to illegal content.
Russia has stepped up pressure on foreign tech companies over the content they share on their platforms this year, and has also targeted virtual private networks (VPNs) and other Internet tools in a campaign that critics say is stifling Internet freedom. .
Russian telecommunications regulator Roskomnadzor said the site www.torproject.org had been banned by court order.
“The reason for this was the posting of information on this site that allows the operation of tools that provide access to illegal content,” Roskomnadzor said in a statement, adding that “today, access to this source is restricted.”
Tor, which was founded by American computer scientists, did not comment directly.
Reuters verified that the Tor website was not accessible. There was limited access to the Tor Browser and other components of the Tor infrastructure.
GlobalCheck, a group that monitors website accessibility in Russia, has confirmed that the blockade has begun.
In a blog post posted yesterday, Tor said some ISPs had been blocking access since Dec. 1 and urged its users to bypass the block by visiting its site, which is still running.
“Tor’s blockade would be virtually impossible – it’s a large community that will find the means to fund ways to circumvent the blockade in Russia,” said Mikhail Klimarev, head of the Internet Defense Society, a non-profit group that tries to fight internet censorship in Russia.
The Tor anonymity network is used to hide the IP addresses of computers in order to conceal the identity of an internet user. Tor says it has more than 300,000 users in Russia, or 14% of all daily users, second only to the United States.
Anton Gorelkin, a member of the Information and Communications Committee of the State Duma (lower house) of Russia, described the Tor this week as a cover for illegal activities and as an “absolute evil.”
Tor says its mission is to promote human rights and freedoms by creating and developing free and open source anonymity and privacy technologies.
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