facebookcorewwwi.onion

facebookcorewwwi.onion is a site that allows access to Facebook through the Tor protocol, using its .onion top-level domain.[1][2] In April 2016, it had been used by over 1 million people monthly, up from 525,000 in 2015.[1] Neither Twitter nor Google operate sites through Tor, and Facebook has been applauded for allowing such access,[3] which makes it available in countries that actively try to block Facebook.[4]

facebookcorewwwi.onion
Type of site
Social networking
Available inMultiple
URLfacebookcorewwwi.onion (Accessing link help)
CommercialYes
RegistrationYes
Users>1,000,000/month

In October 2014, Facebook announced[5] that users could connect to the website through a Tor onion service using the privacy-protecting Tor browser and encrypted using HTTPS.[6][7][8] Announcing the feature, Alec Muffett said "Facebook's onion address provides a way to access Facebook through Tor without losing the cryptographic protections provided by the Tor cloud. ... it provides end-to-end communication, from your browser directly into a Facebook datacentre."[6] Its network address – facebookcorewwwi.onion – is a backronym that stands for Facebook's Core WWW Infrastructure.[5]

Prior to the release of an official .onion domain, accessing Facebook through Tor would sometimes lead to error messages and inability to access the website.[1] There are numerous reasons to use the Tor-protocol for legitimate purposes, such as for increased anonymity when connecting to Facebook.[9] ProPublica explicitly referenced the existence of Facebook's .onion site when they started their own onion service.[10]

Connecting to Facebook through Tor offers a way to access the site with a higher level of protection against snooping and surveillance from both commercial and state actors.[11] The site also makes it easier for Facebook to differentiate between accounts that have been caught up in a botnet and those that legitimately access Facebook through Tor.[11] As of its 2014 release, the site was still in early stages, with much work remaining to polish the code for Tor-access. It has been speculated that other companies will follow suit and release their own Tor-accessible sites.[11]

The site went offline at noon GMT on 13 December 2019, as the certificate used to provide HTTPS support expired. Facebook claimed the site would be back online within 1 to 2 weeks as they sourced a new certificate.[12] It went back online on 18 December.[13]

References
  1. Hoffman, William (April 22, 2016). "Facebook's Dark Web .Onion Site Reaches 1 Million Monthly Tor Users". Inverse.
  2. "Facebook Releases Special Link for Tor". PCMAG. Retrieved May 9, 2016.
  3. "The Torist: How to read a secret magazine on the darknet". The Indian Express. April 10, 2016.
  4. "Facebook opens up to Tor users with new secure .onion address". BetaNews. November 1, 2014. Retrieved May 9, 2016.
  5. Muffett, Alec (October 31, 2014). "Making Connections to Facebook more Secure". Protect the Graph. Facebook. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
  6. Lemos, Robert (October 31, 2014). "Facebook offers hidden service to Tor users". Ars Technica. Retrieved October 31, 2014.
  7. arma (October 31, 2014). "Facebook, hidden services, and https certs". Tor Project. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  8. Duckett, Chris (October 31, 2014). "Facebook sets up hidden service for Tor users". ZDNet.
  9. Murdoch, Steven J. (February 6, 2015). "Is Tor still secure after Silk Road?". Phys.org. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
  10. "A More Secure and Anonymous ProPublica Using Tor Hidden Services". ProPublica.
  11. "Why Facebook Is Making It Easier to Log On with Tor—and Other Companies Should, Too". Fast Company. November 10, 2014. Retrieved May 22, 2016.
  12. "Our onion service, facebookcorewwwi.onion, is temporarily unavailable while we await renewal of our TLS certificate". facebook.com. Facebook over Tor. December 13, 2019. Archived from the original on December 14, 2019.
  13. "Facebook over Tor". www.facebook.com. Retrieved December 29, 2019.
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