You’ve probably never needed to access Twitter or any other web from the dark web. However, Twitter has considered this option, and offers its users the possibility of accessing the social network from alternative domains . In today’s post we will show you all the tools that you can use -in a completely official way- to access Twitter through secondary channels , something that could be useful if you travel to a country where censorship is applied or in the event of an apocalypse. Go for it.
What is the Dark Web and why would you need it to access Twitter?
The dark web has many names, such as ‘Deep web’ , and you may have heard more than once barbarities around this term. We could define the Deep Web as a set of pages that are not accessible through search engines such as Google or Bing and cannot be found directly by adding the URL by hand in a normal browser such as Google Chrome or Safari.
The dark web pages use a non-standard protocol, and are designed so that they can only be accessed with a specific browser that guarantees both the anonymity of the user and the server. When we access one of these websites, the browser will have previously taken care of losing our trail by making us go through several proxies .
As the Dark Web is an anonymous platform, it is not surprising that it is used for illegal purposes. In fact, it is known that organizations such as Interpol or the FBI have their own Tor nodes, which have been used more than once to intercept cybercriminals.
However, the fact that there are users who misuse the darknet does not mean that the darknet cannot be used for completely legitimate purposes . The greatest utility of the Tor network for ordinary users like you or me is to circumvent censorship.
There are countries that prohibit access to Twitter and other social networks. It is done for pure population control. As there is no contact between the individuals of a population abroad, a government can secure its position. The most paradigmatic case is China . Chinese citizens are banned from accessing Twitter. However, in February 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic unleashed chaos in that country, many of its citizens were able to access Twitter and post videos, images and information that came to explain that the version that their government was giving was totally adulterated. All of those people were able to access Twitter using alternative means like the Tor network or even a VPN at best.
However, there are more factors that can mean that one day you will not have access to certain Internet websites. Recently, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused many Internet services to charge Russian users, who saw their connection to certain websites limited, despite the fact that they were not directly responsible for the war. Although it may seem appropriate, censorship is always a scourge, since it restricts freedom of expression. If Russia decides to cut off access to Twitter —for example—, or vice versa, the world will be left without knowing what happens inside that country, even silencing journalists of different nationalities who are there with the aim of reporting. For this reason, Twitter has a couple of backdoors created by themselves that will allow us to access safely in these cases.
What do I need to access Twitter from the Deep Web?
Take note of the following tools.
Tor Broswer
It is an open source browser designed to navigate The Onion Router , which is what the dark web is called, because it works with several layers that act as layers. It is a modified version of Mozilla Firefox developed by the non-profit organization The Onion.
Tor Browser is available for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android mobile phones. In this second case, you can download it both from Google Play and from online repositories like F-Droid, which will be useful in case you are in a country that also limits access to the Google store, something that unfortunately is also quite common.
Another very interesting option if you have a computer and you are going to have to dodge censorship very often is to use Tails Linux in Live CD mode (we do not recommend that you install it on your hard drive). It is a Linux distribution designed for privacy , bypassing censorship and avoiding tracking. The system is totally shielded at the security level and contains Tor Broser as the default browser . You can create a flash drive with this system and boot your computer with this distribution when you need it. Another positive point of Tails is that you won’t leave a trace on your computer. There won’t be a Tor icon on your desktop, and by using it as a Live CD, your search history and any information you’ve entered into the operating system before publishing it on the Internet will be gone the moment you shut down your machine or remove the flash drive from the USB port.
Alternative domains
Once you have the browser installed on your machine, you will need to access Twitter . But beware, because on the dark web, finding websites is not as easy as going to Google. In fact, Google is blocked when browsing through TOR, so you will have to use alternatives like DuckDuckGo if you want to make use of a search engine.
With Tor started, you would be able to access Twitter through its regular domain (ie twitter.com). However, if you have problems, there is an alternative that you can use to access the social network through a domain of the TOR network . The address that you should paste in said browser is the following:
https://twitter3e4tixl4xyajtrzo62zg5vztmjuricljdp2c5kshju4avyoid.onion
On the other hand, there are two other domains with an ‘onion’ extension that allow access to certain limited features of Twitter in case the previous option fails. They are the following addresses:
twitterhbmit57bzbcjnujedrn7uk73geo4ackio4lxdj6t7w6f4zsid.onion
twitterhpgjerufcvrmzerg2novpipy42rk3anvb5b7np4zggm4rwaqd.onion
With all this and a little care , you will be able to publish tweets and contact other users of the social network privately, even if you are in a place that prohibits access to the Twitter server.
