this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2026
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I use Tor's Snowflake extension in my browser, and I've noticed that the counter of how many users it has helped circumvent censorship over the last 24 hours has been very high for a couple of days now, upwards of around 50 per day, where usually it's 2 or 3. I know there's a lot going on around the world right now, but is there anything in particular I've missed that could explain the sudden spike in Tor traffic (or simply just Snowflake bridge usage)?

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[–] SoupBrick@pawb.social 25 points 3 days ago (1 children)

This happened early December:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/09/australia/australia-social-media-ban-starts-intl-hnk

Platforms are checking ages via live video selfies, email addresses or official documents. According to Yoti, an age verification company whose clients include Meta, most users choose a video selfie which uses facial data points to estimate age.

[–] SlicedPotato@feddit.dk 5 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I read about it, but I'm not sure those companies allow signups from Tor.

[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Perhaps some do. Reddit has or at least had an onion address.
But last I checked, they were blocking Tor IP addresses... even on their onion address. Someone out there had to be smoking something.

I can imagine the Tor address used to be legit but now after banning vpns they banned onion addresses too completely forgetting that their own onion url exists.

So there's a reason, but then again not even realizing it still exists is exceptionally sloppy and ambiguous.

[–] UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You don't need to sign up, just appear to not be from the cousin fucking parts of America.

[–] fizzle@quokk.au 2 points 3 days ago

the cousin fucking parts of America.

Is this a reference to Australia?

[–] shish_mish@lemmy.world 22 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I have noticed the same and would also like to know why there has been such a spike,does anyone know?

[–] snoons@lemmy.ca 29 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The only thing I can think of is America invading Venezuela and kidnapping their leader. Despot or not, it's still a sovereign nation and that invasion has likely got a lot of people spooked.

[–] peopleproblems@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

It's usually a tactic that you do after war were declared.

This is straight up Mafia shit

[–] theherk@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago

I saw it mentioned a few times lately. If I had to venture a guess, I’d say because people are both talking about it more and governments are way overstepping there bounds on censorship and tracking.

[–] snoons@lemmy.ca 7 points 3 days ago

Biggest thing in the last day is American invading Venezuela and kidnapping their leader.

My guess would be the unrest in Iran and the regimes attempts to shut down the internet in that country to prevent organisation?