The Russian government is blocking access to the main website for the Tor Browser, a popular tool to bypass the country’s internet censorship.
The nonprofit behind the browser, the Tor Project, says the blocking occurred on Tuesday right after it published a blog post about growing censorship in Russia. The group is now warning that the clampdown could lead to a countrywide block of Tor.
“Since December 1st, some Internet providers in Russia have started to block access to Tor. Today, we've learned that the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor), a Russian government bureaucratic entity, is threatening to censor our main website,” the Tor Project wrote.
The blocking is especially significant since Russia has 300,000 Tor Browser users—or 15% of the total user base—putting the country second behind the US.
In response, the Tor Project is redirecting Russian users to the nonprofit’s website via a mirror link. However, the bigger issue is the Kremlin blocking access to default Tor bridges, the backend connections necessary to help the browser circumvent Russia’s internet censorship.
“Thanks to researchers, we've learned that the default bridges available in Tor Browser aren't working in some places in Russia,” the Tor Project wrote.
As a result, the nonprofit is calling on new volunteers to run private Tor bridges to help evade Russian blockades. “It's not enough to have many bridges: eventually, all of them could find themselves in block lists. We therefore need a constant trickle of new bridges that aren't blocked anywhere yet. This is where we need your help,” the Tor Project wrote last month.
So far, Russian regulator Roskomnadzor hasn’t publicly commented on the Tor Browser blocking. But the Kremlin has been steadily increasing its control of the country’s internet by demanding companies comply with strict rules on censorship or face a potential ban. In addition, the government has blocked VPN services, which can also circumvent the country’s censorship.