What is "The onion Router" and why has twitter opted for it?

Twitter has launched a version of its website on Tor (The Onion Router) platform, just days after the Russian government banned Twitter.

According to an announcement made by the software developer and internet security expert Alec Muffet, Twitter has launched a version of it on TOR.

What is TOR?

TOR, short for The Onion Router, is a free and open-source software used for anonymous communication.

This is possibly the most important and long-awaited tweet that I’ve ever composed.

On behalf of @Twitter, I am delighted to announce their new @TorProject onion service, at:https://t.co/Un8u0AEXeE pic.twitter.com/AgEV4ZZt3k

— Alec Muffett (@AlecMuffett) March 8, 2022

Muffet has previously assisted Tech companies like Wikipedia, the New York Times and BBC News to get on the Tor network. According to him, he has now assisted Twitter engineers with the adoption of the Tor network as well.

Also Read: ‘Birdwatch: Twitter expands crowdsourced fact check experiment

Twitter has also announced to update its supported browsers list and included the Tor network and browser. It can be accessed on the Tor network through:https://twitter3e4tixl4xyajtrzo62zg5vztmjuricljdp2c5kshju4avyoid.onion/

Twitter decided to launch itself on TOR just days after the Russian government banned sites like Twitter, Facebook and others, to stop the local public to gather news and opinions from across the globe.

Twitter was already accessible through the Tor network, but the new domain has made it available on the network and its browser. Its availability over the network has also removed the need to create a Tor exit node, which reroutes your data.

This means that both the user and the web server they are using is being anonymised. Otherwise, the user’s traffic is rerouted through Tor relays before going out of the network through an exit node.