The Tor Project Defends the Human Rights Racists Oppose

by steph | August 17, 2017

 

We've heard that the hate-spewing website Daily Stormer has moved to a Tor onion service.

We are disgusted, angered, and appalled by everything these racists stand for and do. We feel this way any time the Tor network and software are used for vile purposes. But we can't build free and open source tools that protect journalists, human rights activists, and ordinary people around the world if we also control who uses those tools. Tor is designed to defend human rights and privacy by preventing anyone from censoring things, even us. 

Ironically, the Tor software has been designed and written by a diverse team including people of many religions, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, and points on the (legitimate, non-Nazi) political spectrum. We are everything they claim to despise. And we work every day to defend the human rights they oppose. 

They feel powerful by spewing hate, whining, bullying, and promoting violence against others. But together, we are more powerful. 

Tor stands against racism and bigotry wherever and whenever such hatred rears its ugly head. It is our work to provide everyone with the best possible security and privacy tools so human dignity and freedom can be promoted all over the world.

Comments

Please note that the comment area below has been archived.

August 17, 2017

Permalink

What about the child pornographers, drug dealers and human trafficking? Seems these take a sideline for virtue signaling against the evil nazis.

August 17, 2017

In reply to steph

Permalink

Knowing the contents of the Tor Network range from random blog to everything mentioned above. Why call out a buch Nazis and their blog in particular? Why not just let them run whatever they want without dragging more attention to them? I mean, there's no such thing as bad publicity and honestly why keep putting them on the spotlight?

August 19, 2017

In reply to alison

Permalink

Better the onionspace make them fall into obscurity, as they fall out of the reach of search engines worldwide, instead of being on the open web and enjoying Google and other search engines indexing and driving traffic to their sites.

August 17, 2017

In reply to steph

Permalink

I don't think the blogpost was even warranted.
If the developers have any ability to censor anyone using the software, it would be possible to be compelled to.

I understand that this is news right now, but I thought the inability to censor went without saying.

Ones mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter. How about we refrain from calling them pieces of shit and instead focus on condemning and critically disproving their ideology if we find it faulty.
And I'm talking in general, too may people accept this b/w notion of the world where you are told who they are (bad guys) without thinking critically about their motivations, background or ideology at all.
It makes a lot more sense to me to point out their logical fallacies than te label them and ignore/censor them.

That's too much work. I don't have time to think for myself. I want someone else to think for me so much that I'll pay them to do it. Now I just have to go about figuring out what's worth paying for. B

Well said! . "oo may people accept this b/w notion of the world where you are told who they are (bad guys) without thinking critically about their motivations, background or ideology" And since we are the one picking who is the "bad guy" we wrongly assumed that we are the "good guy". And the problem remain and the business behind as well.

The fact that some people use hammers to inflict blunt force trauma on the heads of people they don't like is not a good reason to stop making hammers. Hammers have many legitimate uses. To be sure on balance Tor is probably used more frequently for publicly undesirable outcomes than hammers are. In Tor's favor, there are plenty of substitutes for hammers (rocks, for example) while there are few if any substitutes for Tor. So you would have to convince me that Tor has no meaningful legitimate public use before I'd stop supporting Tor.

Tor is nothing more than software; the Tor Project does not provide hosting for any .onion TLD sites.
If one manages to get a Hidden Service to reveal its IP address, then contact the provider behind that IP and give your evidence to them.
Same if you manage to unmask the new Daily Stormer website.
FBI can unmask a hidden service without direct compromise, like in the Silk Road case; criminals often have bad opsec.

I do not condone racism. Freedom of the Internet does extend to even those assholes. While I continue to condemn racism and those who actively live that lifestyle, it is still their right of free speech. Any small "whittling away" from anyone's right to the Internet simply empower's the criminals in Congress to restrict our lives even more. As for the pedophiles and human trafficking etc, if you see it, and you know that laws are being broken, harm to ANYONE, report it to your local authorities!

August 17, 2017

Permalink

For those looking for the tl;dr: key sentence:

"Tor is designed to defend human rights and privacy by preventing anyone from censoring things, even us. "

Bravo.

What Tor says here is extremely important. I commend CloudFlare for the actions they took recently, and also for the honesty in why they did it. However, I think Tor's approach is the correct one.

Despite the atrocities we witnessed the past weekend, and the hateful rhetoric spewed by sites like the Daily Stormer, I am overwhelmed by the numbers that rise and stand against them. I don't believe that non-censorship is tolerance, but even the opposite. By not censoring these people, you are proving that you not only believe in freedom of speech, but that you also haven't lost hope in your brothers and sisters around the world to stand against it in all other forms.

Yes indeed. Many thanks to steph for the post and for allison's comments above!

It is very important that the Tor community do everything possible (media outreach, official Tor Project posts here) to prevent our anti-democratic enemies from taking advantage of this kind of news item to unfairly demonize our community.

In this instance, the decision of DailyStormer's former webhost, CloudFlare, to shut down their hateful website has been very widely reported by all three US networks and around the world. This action may have led Daily Stormer to try to self-host using an onion service. I completely agree that this rumor (fact?) required an immediate response from the Tor Project, and I also agree that the right way to try to respond to negative developments allegedly involving Tor is to stress the critical role that the Tor network plays in protecting human rights activists and journalists worldwide. And can play in protecting opposition politicians, bloggers, employees in sensitive jobs (telecoms, power plants, and yes, police) and other groups which so many stories over the past few years have shown are targeted by a rapidly increasing array of cyberwar operations sponsored by various governments.

One example I like to cite: Mexican media rarely reports on drug cartel shootings because of the likelihood of reprisals (journalists who wrote stories about the mayhem have often been kidnapped, tortured and murdered by the cartels). But some brave bloggers have tried to fill this gap in the news, using Tor to protect themselves from murderous reprisals. Pro-democracy activists in such places as Hong Kong and Russia also use Tor to communicate. In the US, prompted by numerous revelations of social media spying by USG fusion centers, social justice movements are also beginning to adopt Tor in order to protect their members.

I like the analogy between the Tor network and the US road network. In the early days of the 20th century, after early adopters of the horseless buggy included some rural bank robbers, US police chiefs published serious-minded editorials calling for criminalizing automobiles. Needless to say, that didn't happen. And needless to say, US police departments were not in fact left eating the dust of fast cars driven by criminals; they simply bought their own fast cars and found that the automobile was not simply a "crime-enabling vehicle" but had many other uses, very few of which involved criminal activity.

In the just same way, the Tor network can be and will be used by all manner of people, including criminals and hate groups. But just as the number of cars on US highways which are being used as getaway vehicles by criminals represents a tiny fraction of the total traffic, we should expect that the number of users of the Tor network who are using Tor to commit crimes, or to promote hateful ideologies, is very small.

I would go further and suggest that as the financial services industry, and ecommerce generally, begin to adopt Tor hidden services and blockchain technology, it will become clear that far from enabling crimes, the Tor network offers enormous advantages for protecting ordinary consumers from becoming the victim of a financial crime. And onion services appear to offer enormous security advantages for many socially beneficial activities, such as journalism.

Tor talks about not censoring people but our comments have to be approved by administrator before they are published to me that's censorship. Isn't that kind of hypocritical.

August 17, 2017

Permalink

Yay! dailystormer will provide covert traffic for other HSes! /s

To be serious, I don't think they would stand, without a CDN or something a la OnionBalance their (onion) site will be easily DDoSed. In fact I couldn't access it when they first launched it, so big win for the good human beings and I hope the DDoSes keep up until they loose their relevance.

August 17, 2017

Permalink

Haha neo-Nazis and supremacists on your Twitter post are now pissed off at Tor yet the Dailystormer must rely on it for not getting kicked off. What a bunch of hypocrites

August 18, 2017

In reply to alison

Permalink

So spreading hate is ok with tor. I'm done I with tor. You and your racist Nazis can have fun together. I'll keep fighting against hate they spread. I'm done with tor.

The main alternatives are I2P, Freenet, and Zeronet; of these, I2P is the easiest to use and to host a sizable site on (Zeronet has a built-in 10MB limit per site, because of the distributed nature of hosting, not just routing).

August 17, 2017

Permalink

I believe in human rights and I am against racism, but I am still glad that those racists and what they do can be protected by Tor, in the same way that everyone else can be. I don't support them in any way, but this shows me that Tor works and it's a great tool for all of the humanity, because it can protect our right to free speech. It's shame that some people use it to do evil, but every time I see such case, I am still very glad that it exists, because it gives us freedom. Even if our beliefs are different and even when there are people, who want to stop us from sharing them, we can still do it safely, because of tools like Tor.

Keep up the good work guys.

I'd put it like this:

While it is inevitable that in order to project their business, providers such as Facebook, Google, and assorted webhosts will attempt to respond to demands that they censor objectionable content, it should be clear that global society cannot censor its way out of the problem posed by resurgent fascist/racist/terrorist movements in the US, EU, and other areas.

The only *effective* way to prevent hateful political movements from gaining control of national politics is to create and nurture peaceful political movements. The only *effective* way to respond to pro-hate speech on-line is by uniting with other supporters of civil liberties in order to create an overwhelming chorus of anti-hate speech on-line.

Speaking out against hate groups is not a complete solution to the growing societal stresses caused by overpopulation, climate change, and environmental collapse, but it is an essential part of the solution.

Given the magnitude of the problems which currently face humanity, it is appropriate to put our collective energy into actions which are effective, such as speaking up for civil rights and democratic values, rather than actions have proven to be ineffective, such as attempts to simply censor problematic speech.

August 17, 2017

Permalink

Can the tor project please go back to being neutral and not have any opinions other than on privacy & security? Instead of using words like appalled and disgusted, stick to something like "we will defend their right to free speech even if we, as an organization and individuals, do not share the same world view." That simple.

Not have a position on Nazis and violent White Nationalists? This is hardly a simple Left vs Right situation. Though it seems the US right-wing has drifted toward the indefensible position.

I see your point, but I have to agree with Tor Project here.

TP is under very severe political threat from opponents (such as FBI) which are constantly seeking to demonize the entire Tor community with disinformation, such as "memes" which attempt to falsely suggest that we are all pornographers, human traffickers, or neonazis [sic], when in fact almost none of us are any of those things.

There is currently a huge grassroots political backlash in the US against the resurgence of hateful ideologies, and that is a very good thing for American society. But few of these highly concerned citizens who are speaking out against hatred and bigotry know very much about Tor and how it can be and is intended to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. And our enemies have rushed to try to exploit widely reported news items which (they claim) involve Tor in some way to paint a misleading and very negative picture of our entire community. If Tor Project did not attempt to vigorously correct misstatements and negative "spin", our enemies could very possibly achieve their goal of persuading the US Congress to simply outlaw Tor outright, which would be a terribly dangerous development for millions of member of pro-democracy and social justice movements all over the world, not to mention for millions of Americans who rely on Tor to project themselves and their families.

I would add that some things are so horrid and dangerous that every well intentioned citizen must oppose them. E.g. state-sponsored mayhem, oppression of journalism, neonazi street violence.

August 17, 2017

Permalink

I'm really glad you guys get the importance of the big picture here. Dailystormer.wang today, VICE the next, and TYT etc soon there after. We might hate the hate that is Anglin's product but first amendment protection is only tested at the extreme fringes. If we don't extend this positive human right to everyone then we don't actually believe in the first amendment at all. By the way, even if his perspective is not legitimate, Anglin is not a Nazi - read his article called "why I don't identify as a national socialist" or something like that if you are interested as to why this is true. Lots of love to everyone reading this.

August 17, 2017

Permalink

Nazis are the canary in the coal mine. Wherever you find Nazis you have free speech. Where they have been purged, you have censorship.

I think Tor's position is the correct one. Rather than trying to police traffic, which would completely destroy their credibility, they trust ordinary people not to be swayed by idiots, fools and tyrants.

"I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion. "
-- Thomas Jefferson

"Nazis are the canary in the coal mine. Wherever you find Nazis you have free speech. Where they have been purged, you have censorship."

Yeah, wherever you find Nazis you have free speech. I remember Nazi Germany, bastion of free speech. Duh.

So by that logic you had free speech in nazi germany?
I'd go with "Freedom is always the freedom of the one who thinks differently" (Rosa Luxemburg).
And there's a lot of ways to think differently. Nazis and Fascists have been in power way to often to consider them a good canary.

August 18, 2017

In reply to steph

Permalink

How about the human rights that are being trampled on by these hate groups like the Nazis.

> so are you or are you not blocking them?

By the very design of Tor, the Tor Project cannot possibly "block" anyone using the Tor network on the basis of content.

That is not a bad thing. Many people may want to censor the Daily Stormer, and I can understand why: that group promotes hateful, disgusting, and potentially dangerous views. But please don't condemn Tor for its inability to censor even the most hateful views. Because many governments want to censor, not neonazis or racists, but opposition political parties. Many multinational corporations want to censor bloggers who are trying to call attention to their misdeeds, which in some cases amount to illegal activity. To mention one recent example, Big Soda has tried to censor soda tax activists in Mexico (apparently even going to far as to provide the money to hire NSO Group to target them with sophisticated malware, against which using Tor may provide some defense). And so on and so forth.

Most of the things which some powerful entity somewhere in the world wants to censor are--- unlike Daily Stormer--- actually socially desirable. Providing technical counter-censorship tools does not imply that anyone favors the lowest common denominator among all those views which someone somewhere wishes to suppress. Rather, supporting Tor amounts to an expression of faith in the principle that if they feel free to express their true opinions, the vast majority of the members of any civilized society will want to speak out *against* hateful ideologies, not in favor of them.

From the actions of the US government, many people around the world have no doubt received a poor impression of the USA. The recent grassroots political backlash inside the US suggests the American people are not as inclined towards military violence and promoting political oppression around the world as their government sometimes seems to be, but to the contrary are inclined towards tolerance and working to find peaceful solutions to conflicts at home and abroad.

Just because a philosopher philosophizes a concept doesn't mean their conclusion is true.
Don't fall so easily for the argumentum ad verecundiam, my dear sophist.

August 17, 2017

Permalink

Thanks for allowing them to use your services still. It's good you're not censoring them due to their political and social beliefs. I am not a racist but I still think racists should have a right to speak and use services. If we censor them, we're no better than they are.

> Thanks for allowing them to use your services still. It's good you're not censoring them due to their political and social beliefs

Just trying to make sure everyone clearly understands: by the very nature of Tor software, Tor Project cannot prevent anyone from using Tor, and cannot censor anyone's use of Tor based upon content. That's one of the things which makes Tor significantly different from, say, Facebook, which has been getting into so much trouble lately in its (inevitably) troubled attempts to sort out "acceptable" content from "unacceptable" content. Virtually everyone agrees that a few things, like promoting genocide on-line, are unacceptable, but actually attempting to implement a censorship regime, even one which is narrowly focused, always runs into trouble.

August 17, 2017

Permalink

I only fear Tor joining other internet powers to start suppressing "politically incorrect" content. Don't ever let that happen.

It's not about "politically correct" These guys cyber stalk, dox, show up at people's houses, harass their very young children, intimidate, and terrorize. They aren't just calling people bad names, and what not. This is not freedom of speech as these giant pussies will have you believe. If you have been paying attention- they incite violence. They literally give 2 dicks about freedom of speech. It's a gd ploy.

August 18, 2017

Permalink

Hatred of any kind, cannot be tolerated! All power to those that stand against it! To re-iterate a famous quote (Sir Edmund Burke):

"All it takes for evil to succeed, is for good men/women to do nothing.".

Then stand up and debate them, or seek out and persuade members of their group to change their rhetoric. Silencing a group or a person by categorical imperative is evil too.

Yes. Nazis will always be the exception to the "free speech" rally. They are fucking you in the ass with free speech, and they could give two shits about it. It's their proverbial foot in the door, you twats!!! To recap: When is it bad to ban Nazis?
NEVER. fucking NEVER. See Fucking Himmler, Goebbels and Goering. And either stand up or be known for what you helped spread.

August 18, 2017

Permalink

Can you post the Daily Stormer's onion so we can "help" them with some web design? They need some peace or lgbtq banner there.

Tor Project cannot condone or assist in vandalizing or DDOSing a website, even such a hateful one as Daily Stormer.

To repeat, decades of experience (c.f. ACLU and SPLC) have shown that the only *effective* way to ensure that hate groups do not gain or maintain political power in a (more or less) democratic society is not to try to censor their views, but rather to speak out against those views, and to persuade your friends and neighbors to join you in speaking out against hatred and bigotry.

August 18, 2017

Permalink

>[...] and points on the (legitimate, non-Nazi) political spectrum

Who imbued you with the power to decide what is and isn't a legitimate political opinion?

I agree with the position of Tor and their entire blog post, except this. Nazism might be an evil and horrible political opinion, but it should be recognized as a political opinion.

August 18, 2017

Permalink

Anything good can be used for evil. It's the people who are using it who decide which one they want. Just as with the 1st Amendment your right to speech also means other's with evil intentions also have that right. The problem occurs when you censor the things you disagree with and in doing so become just as evil as those you sought to silence.

August 18, 2017

Permalink

"The core principle of Tor, "onion routing", was developed in the mid-1990s by United States Naval Research Laboratory employees, mathematician Paul Syverson and computer scientists Michael G. Reed and David Goldschlag, with the purpose of protecting U.S. intelligence communications online."

> Well tor is dead now ...

It would be a tedious undertaking indeed to attempt to collect all the many many times someone has said that in a comment in this blog.

The Tor community is under a dire existential *political* threat (e.g. from FBI) as well as under constant technical threat (e.g. from NSA), but it is certainly not dead yet, and if freedom is to live, it is essential that the enemies of Tor not be able to kill it, whether by means poltical or technical.

August 18, 2017

Permalink

Why did you have to say anything? Why do you feel under pressure to respond to day-to-day US politics?

August 18, 2017

Permalink

I lost family in the Holocaust. Modern neo-Nazi groups hate me for my background.

You have to understand the history of extremist groups in order to avoid becoming exactly like them. Virtue signalling on political trends does not instill confidence that TOR ensures neutrality. Just be neutral, don't get involved in telling people what to do or think.

Nazi groups are vile (overall, not just because they hate me particularly for being Jewish), then everyone should be able to see that, and no censorship or 'hate speech' thought-control should be necessary. The problem solves itself. However, the 'OMG NAZI's' people are the same ones comfortable with Communism, and Communists were also anti-Semitic and killed millions. Both of them are unwanted, and if you favor/persecute only one of the extremes then don't be surprised if the other extreme gets more powerful as a result (again, see history of ww2 and rise of extremist movements).

All these comments asking for TOR to censor is like watching one group considered criminals depending on the viewpoint/jurisdiction moralize about how some other group are totally criminals because of a different viewpoint/jurisdiction. TOR users are persecuted/harassed in many places, don't forget that when moralizing.

August 18, 2017

Permalink

My concern is more focused on my neighbours.

Is it really possible for Putin to ban - techno-wise - the usage of tor in Russia and China? It's all very well to get the legislation rubber-stamped by the Duma and whatever passes for the Chinese parliament - which meets once annually for only about two weeks.

The goods news is, of course, that Putin obviously hasn't 'cracked' the onion route and this means that the shentlemen at NSA are also in the same position.

LEA are able to focus only on excessive bandwidth and power consumption as guides to nefarious activities. Such clues allow them to apply for a tappingwarrant on the isp's servers - I forget the acronym used - so, to me, tor network usage is still very, very safe.

Venturing outside of the tor network is, of course, totally unsafe. Never forget it!

Bur getting back to China and Russia - oops! I guess that's a question I shouldn't be asking on a public forum. I don't want to educate/alert their respective dictators.

Three loud cheers for the onion route...

August 18, 2017

Permalink

"What about the child pornographers, drug dealers and human trafficking?"

Think hard about that question asked above and understand thus that only neo-nazis, supremacists - of whatever ilk - racists, etc. etc. will indulge in those drug, human-trafficking and pedophile activities.

And using tor to do so means that they're removing themselves from the regular internet thereby self-limiting the quantity/volume of their potential audience.

Better yet, any movement of such ideologues to the tor network is, in fact, a deliberate act of self-censorship.

All democrats, whether conservative or liberal, abhor and shun such criminal activities.

Nationalists, hiding under the umbrella of democracy, corruptly see such criminal activities as legitimate commercial activities.

Is there an index somewhere where countries are rated by a conflation of criminal and nationalistic activities. I bet we all could accurately guess which nations would be at the head of such a list, yes?

Any social scientists reading me here? It's not only climate changes which must urgently be reversed!

Yes, such democrats might establish institutions to rehabilitate such criminals in much the same way they also provide institutions to aid refugees.

Thanks for your indulgence...

August 18, 2017

Permalink

Thank you and best wishes.

August 18, 2017

Permalink

This post was unnecessary. This is how everything has gotten politicized and out of control today. Every company/organization/group must publicize their "belief". For most it is a PR piece. If you have a personal opinion on this subject the shout it out and attribute it to yourself. Shouting it out as the TOR organization just drops you in the same bucket as all of the other corporations who spew out their PR. TOR should be above this.

August 18, 2017

Permalink

While I think The Tor Project took a huge risk by expressing their collective and official opinion on this matter ie: making this the voice of the project, I think it is a testament to their integrity as an organization that DESPITE this "Official Opinion", they will not censor their network in any way. Kind of like how if a certain administration personally feels a certain whistle blower from 2013 is a "dirty leaker" and should be pursued for treason, it should still uphold the integrity of the nation it stands for and allow Due Process. Like I said, this was a risky statement. But a great example of integrity.

August 19, 2017

Permalink

So Tor is modern technology but it has Nazis on it? How do they use it? I didnt think they had the internet in their time...

August 19, 2017

Permalink

Why are so much people speaking about censorship in this context. If I am not willing to serve Nazis it is in no way censorship. Censorship historically is the activities governments undertook to stop unwanted (most times emancipatory movements). And this is what freedom of speech is about. But freedom of speech in no way forces me as an individual or any company to serve my services to and nazis. So yea in the case of tor there is sadly no way to stop them by Technic at least not with tor itself. But that's hopefully an unwanted side effect.

And hey, if some idiot is talking shit on your birthday you also kick him out and you won't complain about censorship.

August 19, 2017

Permalink

"and points on the (legitimate, non-Nazi) political spectrum"

What about communists? The second most widespread form of terrorism after Islamic terrorism is Communist terrorism. Communist regimes killed way more people than fascist regimes ever did, and on top of that collapsed every single country they ever took over. Is the far left also non legitimate, or is it just the far right?

Nice deflection, address the issue by pointing out questions about other groups. If I may suggest, do a search on 'critical thinking skills' and learn the basics. I mean it sincerely. If more people did learn critical thinking skills our debates would be more constructive and informative, even for difficult and personal issues and topics.

August 19, 2017

Permalink

We live in a reverse McCarthy era nowadays.
Everyone expressing even remotely right-wing ideas is being prosecuted as 'Hateful Nazi'. Meanwhile 'progressive' left-wing extremists are free to spread moral terror under the veil of 'tolerance' and 'social justice'. But their tolerance quickly comes to an end when someone opposes their worldview and they respond with the very hatred they claim to fight.

People seem to have forgotten that attributes like 'right' or 'wrong', 'evil' or 'good' are mere opinions in the eye of the beholder and not static absolutes. A society permanently needs to renegotiate its values. The path to extremism begins where you criminalize your opponents instead of debating them.

is it an usa blog ?
like an american movement reserved for the losers of the last election ?
calumny, rancor, hate ...
if yes it should be better to allow tor & its onions only on the u.s territory ... no one else understands the sens of this article except the author who was payed for posted it ... weak argument without impact & outside of the reality.

August 19, 2017

Permalink

I support Tor's decision 100% on this issue. Tor has been double-edged sword since day one. It's not ideal but its existence is essential. For those who are attacking Tor on this, please provide or suggest a better way to insure the freedom of expression, otherwise you are just a punch of cowards who criticize at no cost. The true fairness is here yet you all are pretending to be blind.

August 19, 2017

Permalink

I guess I know the reason for the disclaimer, but why would Tor even need to make a statement reviling white supremacists? Don't the vast majority of sane people revile them too as a matter of course? Should that not go without saying? A lot worse goes on here then saying racist thing. I distrust any ideology that requires me to protest my innocence, when I was never guilty.