Russia: Some ISPs are blocking Tor
gitlab.torproject.org
gitlab.torproject.org
Anyway, the actual baffling situation is that Tor was not blocked before, despite DPI being already kinda available—not everywhere, but mandated and progressively implemented. All proxy services that don't duplicate RKN's blocking are supposed to be blocked themselves, for couple years at least (iirc). Some VPNs already were blocked, and a bunch of major ones got blocked recently. Notably, this blocking of Tor seems to be implemented based on IPs, as people report that new connections succeed sometimes—so DPI isn't even necessary.
With DPI being available, the non-blocking of Tor makes one wonder if the use or Tor wouldn't cause police to knock on the door one day. Cooking up a search order is a well-established procedure.
if Russia had indeed banned tor, what would have happened? what would they have done which is different from 'some ISPs in Russia block access to tor'?
Roskomnadzor (government entity) sent an email to abuse@hetzner.com, saying that if Tor doesn't delete information prohibited in Russia or at least limit access to it from Russia (like Fastmail did when they got this email) it will get banned countrywide. Since there were no details provided about such «information» and where to find it AND Tor is unable to comply AND the fact that it is virtually impossible to connect to Tor from any mobile device; I conclude that is getting banned starting now.
I hope, really hope to be wrong, but right now it's a sad reality.
Is there a source to this? It reads like something too ridiculous to be true with no additional crucial details. Doesn't RKN have a public registry for "blocked" information, that everyone is supposed to pull from?
I now wonder how the Tor Project had reacted to similar precedents (probably didn't at all?)
Russian government has been implementing censorship measures for many years.
E.g. Tor would have been blocked in Russia sooner or later regardless.
That why you cannot deal with them with any diplomacy. Only an answer in kind, or worse will make them scratch.
Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, iMessage, all of the App Stores, even which apps you can launch on your computer or phone - this is all centrally censorable in minutes with a single phone call.
It's a ticking time bomb. The moment a war breaks out, you're going to lose a ton of things you take for granted, even in the USA.
Here's some technical info on what's is going on: https://ntc.party/t/ooni-reports-of-tor-blocking-in-certain-...