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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[–] 27 points 7 months ago (1 child)

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.

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  • [–] [S] 5 points 7 months ago (2 children)

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

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  • [–] 10 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 6 points 7 months ago

    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.

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  • [–] 22 points 7 months ago (1 child)

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

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  • [–] 12 points 7 months 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.

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  • [–] 7 points 7 months ago

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

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  • [–] 6 points 7 months ago

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

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