[tor-bugs] #32781 [Circumvention]: Investigate alternative method to share bridges and Tor Browser budnles based on social network protocols

[Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki]

#32781: Investigate alternative method to share bridges and Tor Browser budnles
based on social network protocols
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     Reporter:  hiro           |      Owner:  (none)
         Type:  defect         |     Status:  new
     Priority:  Medium         |  Milestone:
    Component:  Circumvention  |    Version:
     Severity:  Normal         |   Keywords:
Actual Points:                 |  Parent ID:
       Points:                 |   Reviewer:
      Sponsor:                 |
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 Tor is currently using bridgedb to distribute bridges to censored users.
 Bridgedb uses email distribution mainly which is not very effective when
 facing a high efficient censor like the GFW.

 Some papers [1] have suggested methods based on social networks. These
 work under the assumption that we can only limit the censor ability to
 block servers.

 Similarly gettor is using various storage service to provide alternative
 links to download tor browser bundle when torproject.org website is
 blocked.

 I suggest decentralization protocols like retroshare [2] could be an
 alternative solution to share bridges and tor browser bundles to trusted
 parties. Furthermore retroshare supports already a variety of services [3]
 that could be used to communicate with users that need help circumventing
 censorship.


 [1]
 https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/popets.2016.2016.issue-4/popets-2016-0026/popets-2016-0026.pdf
 [2] https://retroshare.cc/
 [3] https://retroshare.readthedocs.io/en/latest/#features

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/32781>
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