Russia calls for Google ban on Tor


Russia's communications watchdog asked Google to remove Tor Browser from the Store.

Roskomnadzor demanded that Google LLC remove the Tor Browser software application from the Google Play store, following the decision of the Saratov District Court.

"The court recognized the information contained in the Tor Browser as prohibited for distribution on the territory of the Russian Federation, as well as the software application itself, which allows access to prohibited content and contributes to the commission of criminal offenses," Roskomnadzor said.

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Tor (formerly an acronym for "The Onion Router") is being used for bypassing censorship and surveillance, visiting websites anonymously, and accessing Tor hidden services (.onion sites).

For example, Twitter listed Tor as an officially supported browser after the access to the social media platform was heavily restricted in Russia.️Tor has been a target of Russian censorship, too. According to the Tor Project itself, last December, some Internet providers in Russia started to block access to Tor. Users can still access Tor using so-called bridges.

Bridge relays are Tor relays that are not listed in the public Tor directory.