The Tor Project has announced the launch of WebTunnel Bridge, a new way to bypass internet censorship and improve privacy in general.

You already know that Tor is an open source project whose main goal is facilitate anonymity and privacy when browsing the Internet in dictatorships or other censorship countries. It has its own communication network system and tools like the Tor Browser that pursue the same goal: preserving user anonymity at the network level.

Depending on the environment, the default Tor browser and network connections may not work due to blocking or censorship. This is the problem that so-called “bridges” are trying to solve. They work in the same way as a physical bridge connecting inaccessible sites, and Tor has several, as noted in this WebTunnel Bridge announcement:

“The development of different types of bridges is essential to make Tor more resistant to censorship and to stay ahead of adversaries in a highly dynamic and constantly changing censorship environment. This is especially true as we move through the 2024 global election megacycle (including the US presidential election), the role of technology in circumventing censorship becomes crucial in defending Internet freedom«,

The main idea behind WebTunnel Bridge is to obfuscate everything to do with Tor. It is designed to mimic encrypted web traffic (HTTPS). In other words, automated systems that monitor network connections for certain characteristics or patterns will not be able to connect WebTunnel Bridge traffic to Tor.

Another positive feature (to avoid censorship) is that it can be configured to be on the same network endpoint as the website, i.e. the same domain, IP address and port. Anyone who checks the connection manually by loading the address in a web browser or other tool will notice that the site is loading. And with no indication that the same connection could also be used to power Tor.

WebTunnel can be used as an alternative to obfs4 for most Tor browser users. While obfs4 and other fully encrypted traffic is intended to be completely different and unrecognizable, WebTunnel’s approach to impersonating known, typical web traffic makes it most effective in scenarios where the protocol whitelist and network environment are disabled by default.

The new webtunnel option should help Tor users around the world, especially in more restrictive environments that outright block regular Tor use. You can find all the information in this link.