How to Access the News on Tor

When people face censorship, accessing up-to-date and accurate information becomes difficult. Censorship takes many forms, and cutting people off from sources of news, and other information is one of them.Thankfully, there are ways to access current and unfolding news stories online when the regular avenues are cut: Tor. A number of leading news outlets maintain websites on the Tor network, allowing anyone to access information and news from around the world, regardless of location, censorship, or otherwise.So, here's how you can use Tor to access all manner of news websites, no matter where you are.

What Is Tor?

"Tor" refers to the Tor Project, a non-profit organization that receives funding from numerous sponsors, including US federal agencies, private foundations, tech companies, and individuals. At its core, the Tor Project promotes open internet access for everyone, no matter where they are, free from censorship and surveillance.

Tor's two biggest assets are its Tor network, which you access through the Tor browser. In short, the Tor network uses onion routing to protect user privacy. All data sent on the Tor network is wrapped in multiple layers, ensuring it passes from origin to destination while protecting from surveillance, interference, or otherwise. Our guide to how onion routing works explains the process in more detail, but in (very basic) essence, this is how the Tor network's encryption protects your data in transit.

How Do I Access the Tor Network?

To access the Tor network, you need to download the Tor browser. The Tor browser is a heavily modified Mozilla Firefox browser that includes all of the necessary privacy extensions and custom configuration files required to access the Tor network. It comes preconfigured out-of-the-box, and unless you know what you're doing, it's best to leave the security and privacy settings alone. A misconfigured Tor browser could expose your data or that you cannot access the Tor network.

Visit the Tor Browser download page and install it onto your system. Once installed, you use it as a normal browser, although you'll need special onion addresses to access sites hosted on the Tor network. An onion address is usually a long alphanumeric string followed by the .onion top-level domain. You can access regular websites through the Tor network, too, though when you do so, your traffic passes through the Tor network and back out into the clearnet (the regular internet) via an exit node.

Because of the extra encryption protecting your data, you'll find the Tor network and Tor browser slower than your regular browser. The additional security is worth it in certain situations, but most security experts don't advise using the Tor browser as your daily driver. It's not really built for that, and some of the privacy settings will break certain features on websites you visit regularly.

How to Access News on the Tor Network

Now, several news outlets maintain onion sites on the Tor network, giving people the chance to access a news source in times of need. Please note we're not contending that the news you can find on the Tor network is unbiased or has any sort of political leaning. Some sources are less biased than others, and you can make of that what you will. This article merely directs those affected by surveillance and censorship to a place where they can access a source of news.

1. BBC News

The BBC has operated an onion site for years, allowing people worldwide to access its news and journalism. The BBC News onion address is:

https://www.bbcnewsd73hkzno2ini43t4gblxvycyac5aw4gnv7t2rccijh7745uqd.onion/