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gasull

It's time to start using Tor.

I don't mean only for browsing the web. I mean it's time to have services in Tor:

- We need a Youtube in Tor that won't censor a video because it's an unauthorized remix of some other music videos.

- We need a Twitter in Tor where users don't get subpoenaed.

- We need a Facebook in Tor where I can use a pseudonym if I want to.

- We need a Gmail in Tor where messages won't be so easily eavesdropped by Governments.

- We need services in Tor that won't need to fear patent trolls.

PG, please unblock Tor for HN.

View on HN

I didn't realise that access to HN was blocked for Tor users, so I just thought I'd try it out. I can access the site when using Tor. I can log in to the site when using Tor. And if this comment submission works, then I guess I can comment via Tor as well...

I tried long time ago and didn't work for me. I assumed it was still blocked.

Firstly, we'd need a massive expansion of the Tor network. While Tor might be quite well known among the more technically inclined, the network itself is of course largely composed of volunteer systems and is quite small: http://torstatus.blutmagie.de/

As of writing, the number of Tor routers is in the low thousands and of course only a minority of those are exit nodes. Technically savvy people like the HN readership (who also often have a strong online civil rights interest) make pretty good candidates for helping the network out via running a Tor relay!

Looking at the current list, the CCC contributes a substantial slab of resources to the overall network. It's a pretty suboptimal situation that the network performance could be impacted/compromised by one organisation (potentially) pulling its support for whatever reason.

Spammers/scammers use Tor. And they use it in a big way.

One of the issues with total Tor anonymity is that yes, the "bad guys" will almost certainly come. Because they can.

I am not saying that banning Tor outright is the best thing sites like HN would do, but seeing the ratio of regular Tor trafic vs. spammy Tor trafic on much smaller site myself, I can't blame them; almost anything that comes from Tor is spam.

Sad reality.

> Spammers/scammers use Tor. And they use it in a big way.

Yes, and they use the rest of the internet, too. Maybe we should ban everything.

yes, but, in the language of conditional probability:

P(spammer|non-tor) is quite low (there are not that much spammers), while P(spammer|tor) is almost one (almost everyone coming from Tor is a spammer).

Email spam is responsive for 85%-95% of all emails. That's almost all. Yet, nobody would seriously suggest to ban email.

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