{"id":594600,"date":"2023-01-06T05:49:27","date_gmt":"2023-01-06T11:49:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/06\/whatsapp-launches-a-proxy-tool-to-fight-internet-censorship\/"},"modified":"2023-01-06T05:49:27","modified_gmt":"2023-01-06T11:49:27","slug":"whatsapp-launches-a-proxy-tool-to-fight-internet-censorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/06\/whatsapp-launches-a-proxy-tool-to-fight-internet-censorship\/","title":{"rendered":"WhatsApp Launches a Proxy Tool to Fight Internet Censorship"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When repressive governments<\/span> want to control their populations, citizens\u2019 access to the internet is often one of the first things to go. Since 2016, 74 countries around the world have shut down the internet for tens of millions of people\u00a0more than 900 times<\/a>. In recent years, Iran shut down the internet to\u00a0hide brutality against protesters<\/a>. Russia\u00a0rapidly increased its censorship<\/a> after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. And internet curfews in Myanmar left\u00a0people in information blackouts<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Internet shutdowns, at their worst, can involve connections being completely shut, while censorship measures can block access to specific websites or apps. Disrupting the internet is widely considered a\u00a0tactic to undermine people\u2019s human rights<\/a>. There are multiple ways people can try to\u00a0dodge censorship and internet shutdowns<\/a>\u2014although, there\u2019s no one simple way to restore connectivity for millions of people at once.<\/p>\n

Tools to help people get around censorship are increasing. Today, WhatsApp\u2014Meta\u2019s\u00a0end-to-end encrypted<\/a> messenger that\u2019s used by more than 2 billion people a month\u2014is expanding its anti-censorship measures.<\/p>\n

In particular, the company is making it possible for people facing censorship to use WhatsApp through proxy connections, potentially allowing them to communicate when a country has blocked the app. \u201cChoosing a proxy enables you to connect to WhatsApp through servers set up by volunteers and organizations around the world dedicated to helping people communicate freely,\u201d the company says in a blog post announcing the feature<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Proxies can help people avoid censorship by essentially disguising their traffic. If WhatsApp is blocked in a country, for example, officials doing the blocking are likely to stop devices communicating with WhatsApp\u2019s infrastructure. When someone connects to a proxy server, their traffic is routed through this server before being passed to\u00a0WhatsApp<\/a>. The extra step dodges filters and blocks that may have been put in place.<\/p>\n

Natalia Krapiva, tech legal counsel at internet rights nonprofit Access Now, says Meta\u2019s tool is a step in the right direction. \u201cWhatsApp can be viewed as a critical infrastructure in many countries, so when it goes offline, either because of targeted blockings or blanket internet shutdowns, people suffer as they are left unable to communicate and access life-saving information during critical events and crises,\u201d Krapiva says. WhatsApp says its encryption, which ensures nobody can snoop on your messages, including Meta, isn\u2019t impacted by using a proxy.<\/p>\n

WhatsApp isn\u2019t the first messaging platform to allow proxy connections, but the platform\u2019s scale makes it significant.\u00a0Encrypted chat app Signal<\/a> also allows people to set up and run proxy servers. It launched the service for\u00a0Android in February 2021<\/a> and then on\u00a0iOS in September 2022<\/a>, both in response to Iran\u2019s blocking of Signal.<\/p>\n

WhatsApp says it is also launching proxy connections now because of the ongoing internet disruption in Iran. The country has been shutting down the internet for several months, following nationwide protests over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody. Iran\u2019s internet blackouts and blocking of services, including WhatsApp, have further\u00a0crippled its economy and drawn international scorn<\/a>. (Analysts forecast that internet shutdowns\u00a0cost the world $24 billion in 2022<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The company says it started putting the capability for proxies to be used in WhatsApp in the final few months of 2022 and is launching it now as most people are using a version of its app that can support proxies. In its blog post, the company says internet disruptions, like Iran\u2019s, \u201cdeny people\u2019s human rights and cut people off from receiving urgent help.\u201d<\/p>\n

To connect to a WhatsApp proxy, people need to have the proxy\u2019s details. These can usually be found, when proxies are running, by searching social media. (Proxies aren\u2019t effective during full internet shutdowns where there is no connectivity). Proxy details can be entered in WhatsApp\u2019s iOS and Android apps through the Storage and Data menu, which is found in the app\u2019s settings. WhatsApp says people wanting to set up proxy servers can use ports 80, 443, or 5222, and a domain or subdomain that points to the server\u2019s IP address\u2014it has published detailed documentation on its\u00a0GitHub page<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the number of internet shutdowns and disruptions has increased in recent years, the available censorship circumvention tools have risen as well. Most commonly,\u00a0anonymity service Tor<\/a> and\u00a0VPNs<\/a> are used to get around government censorship, blocking, or filtering of apps and websites. However, new tools are also appearing:\u00a0Samizdat Online<\/a> allows Russians to access blocked news websites without any technical knowledge, and the\u00a0CENO browser<\/a> is built on peer-to-peer sharing technology, which the organization\u00a0says<\/a> reduces the reliance on international networks.<\/p>\n

Ksenia Ermoshina, a user experience researcher for CENO and researcher with the Center for Internet and Society CNRS and Citizen Lab, says CENO has been widely used during Iran\u2019s shutdowns, and WhatsApp\u2019s introduction of proxies may also help people communicate where the app is blocked. Ermoshina says proxies helped to keep\u00a0Telegram<\/a> online in Russia in 2018 when the\u00a0country unsuccessfully tried to block the messaging app<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There are some limitations to proxies though, Ermoshina says. \u201cThey can slow down your traffic considerably, in terms of calls, for example, or file sharing.\u201d Connections via proxies can also be blocked if authorities discover their details. \u201cVPNs and proxies are part of cat-and-mouse tools,\u201d Ermoshina says. Their developers are always trying to evade censors. The more people that run proxy servers, the harder it is for governments to take them all down.<\/p>\n

For people who are looking to avoid censorship, it is likely that a mix of anti-censorship tools will be useful. People should research the tools they are planning to use in the event of a future shutdown, if possible, and consider any risk that may be unique to them. \u201cDifferent users will have different needs, threat models, and technical skills, so one tool will not fit all,\u201d Access Now\u2019s Krapiva says. \u201cI do hope that Meta will ensure that they provide guidance to their users on what proxy servers can and cannot do, however, and how to use them securely, as the kinds of people who are likely going to be needing this feature the most will also tend to be the most at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Matt Burgess<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When repressive governments want to control their populations, citizens\u2019 access to the internet is often one of the first things to go. Since 2016, 74 countries around the world have shut down the internet for tens of millions of people\u00a0more than 900 times. In recent years, Iran shut down the internet to\u00a0hide brutality against protesters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":594601,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2432,46,4814],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-594600","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-launches","8":"category-technology","9":"category-whatsapp"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}