Russian censorship efforts have prompted the Tor Project to call on the community to provide 200 additional WebTunnel bridges – entry points into the anonymized network that help people circumvent restrictions.
Tor is an anonymity tool that allows people in Russia and other countries with strict internet censorship to access the free internet. WebTunnel disguises the traffic as regular website visits, making it difficult for censors to detect and block it.
Russia’s media authority, Roskomnadzor, has increased its blocking efforts against popular hosting providers, VPN services, and apps in app stores. Roskomandzor has blocked Tor apps, bridges, and Tor-related mirrors in Russia, making many WebTunnel bridges inaccessible to users in the country.
“The need for more WebTunnel bridges has become urgent,” Tor project said in a blog post. If you've ever thought about running a Tor bridge, now is the time. Our goal is to deploy 200 new WebTunnel bridges by the end of this December to open secure access for users in Russia.”
Tor claims that its software remains effective in Russia, despite the shrinking ways to bypass detection.
Anyone who meets the technical requirements can operate a WebTunnel bridge. However, some system administration skills are required to set it up. The requirements include a static IPv4 address, a self-hosted website, a valid SSL/TLS certificate for encryption, and at least 1TB per month of bandwidth.
Tor warned that free shared DNS services are frequently blocked in Russia, as well as some hosting providers.
The non-profit is offering a Tor t-shirt for operators who run 5 or more WebTunnel bridges until March 10th, 2025.
“Tor WebTunnel bridges serve as an urgent and immediate way to bypass censorship in Russia,” Tor said.
Russia has blocked alternative methods to bypass restrictions, such as many legitimate VPN apps. Banks in Russia reportedly are instructed “to punish customers using credit cards to pay for VPN services.”
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