BBC News starts Tor mirror on the darknet to combat internet censorship

BBC has released a .onion mirror of its news site. The site can be accessed via the Tor browser. BBC started this initiative in a fight against internet censorship. The site aims to simplify access to world news for residents of oppressed countries.

The website, bbcnewsv2vjtpsuy.onion, can only be accessed with the privacy-focused Tor browser. This allows users to bypass government surveillance and censorship. In the past, countries such as China, Iran and Vietnam have tried to block access to BBC News, the broadcaster writes. Through the new mirror, users in such countries still have access to independent world news.

The darknet site is based on the international version of BBC News, and is accessible to everyone via a .onion URL. In addition to the Tor browser, the .onion link can also be visited with other browsers that have a Tor function, such as Brave. Mozilla is also currently working on a Tor mode for Firefox. The normal BBC News URL also works in the Tor browser, but via the onion URL the connection is end-to-end encrypted and it is difficult to falsify the domain name by, for example, spoofing.

Tor stands for The Onion Router. Tor sends traffic over the internet through a very complicated route. The connection uses nodes for this. These are usually computers and servers of volunteers. The connection ends at a so-called exit node. The website thinks the connection request is coming from this node. Thus, the identity and location of a Tor user remain unknown.

Tor is often used by criminals, but it also has many legitimate goals. For example, the tool is often used by journalists, lawyers and human rights activists, and to circumvent censorship in countries where the internet is cut off.

The new BBC mirror via the Tor browser