Twitter is launching a privacy-focused version of its website through the Tor onion service. The move was announced earlier this week by software engineer Alec Muffett who described it as “possibly the most important and long-awaited tweet that I’ve ever composed.”
For those unaware, Tor is short for The Onion Router. It is a free open-source software used for anonymous browsing. Its services are private, generally not indexed by search engines, and they use self-certified domain names that are long and difficult to read.
The Tor network has now been added to Twitter’s supported browsers page. The social media website was always accessible through the Tor browser, but this new development adds extra layers of protection and better software support. It should also help Twitter monitor malicious traffic that takes advantage of the Tor network without having to block harmless users.
Twitter’s onion service will be available via https://twitter3e4tixl4xyajtrzo62zg5vztmjuricljdp2c5kshju4avyoid.onion while using Tor browser or a similar tool.
Muffett commented on this development saying:
It’s a commitment from the platform to dealing with people who use Tor in an equitable fashion. Setting up an onion address is a practical step that demonstrates that the platform is providing explicitly for the needs of people who use Tor.
