I've heard a lot of people on the left argue that Tor is likely backdoored because it was created by the U.S. Navy for spies to communicate and is still funded by the government. Yasha Levine has written a lot about this:

He also appeared in TrueAnon episode 50 to talk about this.

On the other hand, a lot of people in the crypto and tech community disagree with this. They believe that Tor is not backdoored for one or both of the following reasons:

  • Tor is open-source and has been audited.
  • The U.S. Government would never do such a thing.

They also point to a leaked NSA presentation from 2007 that admits the NSA can't deanonymize Tor users.

What are your thoughts?

  • femboi [they/them, she/her]
    ·
    4 years ago

    And don’t forget the cooperation of every american ISP and probably a bunch of other NATO ISPs too. Long story short, if the US gov ever has a reason to target you specifically, maybe just don’t use the internet anymore

    • eduardog3000 [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Long story short, if the US gov ever has a reason to target you specifically, maybe just don’t use the internet anymore you're probably screwed unless you are ready and able to physically defend yourself or just leave the country.

      But if you want to avoid giving them a reason to target you, tor is very useful.