Last fall, we soft-launched Tor VPN Beta as a way to extend Tor's privacy protections beyond the browser to an entire Android device. Since then, we've been able to learn from how people are actually using it in real-world scenarios. This post walks through what makes our per-app circuit isolation different from commercial VPNs, the surprising UX lesson when trying to bypass blocks, and the mobile foundation we're building for what's next.
The Tor Project's first participatory funding campaign raised more than $200,000 for internet freedom projects and taught us valuable lessons about community support, project visibility, and sustaining internet freedom infrastructure.
There are many ways to help people bypass censorship with Snowflake–a browser extension, using Orbot or Tor Browser, website embedding etc. We set out to experiment with a new mechanism and test an Android app called Snowflake Volunteer for those willing to help people reach the Tor network and circumvent censorship from their mobile devices. It was built open-source by Bloco, an Android app studio from Portugal.
Tor is strongest when the broader internet freedom ecosystem is healthy. A coalition of privacy, internet freedom, cryptocurrency and open-source ecosystems, led by the Tor Project and Funding the Commons, is supporting critical digital infrastructure with a new participatory funding campaign.
Handling mobile media that documents human rights violations can put those brave enough to capture a record -- and those very records -- at risk. OpenArchive's free open source Save app and DWeb Storage help communities securely archive, verify, and encrypt this documentation without depending on centralized platforms that can remove, lose, or expose sensitive data at a moment's notice.
Fighting internet censorship requires more than noticing when it happens. It requires documenting it, sharing evidence, and building the collective capacity to respond. OONI makes that possible.
When censorship strikes, Tor provides a lifeline to access information--a lifeline to a FREE INTERNET. Tune in to this year's 2025 State of the Onion event to hear about how our teams and community work tirelessly behind the scenes to keep it alive.
It's been a year since we launched WebTunnel bridges and the Tor community has successfully scaled WebTunnel bridges from 60 to over 300, surpassing the initial goal of 200 new deployments.
