Live data from Hacker News

BBC News launches 'dark web' Tor mirror

bbc.co.uk

151–160 of 306 posts

Re: BBC News launches 'dark web' Tor mirror

#152
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Finally a good use for my license fee! While I agree that no news corporation should ever be censored and should be accessible to all including the "dark-web", the level of clickbait / fake-news level content on the BBC website is getting ridiculous in some areas and contradicts with their duty to be fair, impartial and balanced as the only UK state broadcaster privileged with a royal charter. Apart from the actual…

I agree strongly with this - there has been a slow but steady decline in the quality of BBC news content over the past decade or so. It's not even confined to clickbait, the articles are getting seriously dumbed down too - you'd think many of them were written for children! And it's not even confined to online - the news section on Radio 1 is an absolute joke these days - if the online content is dumbed down, then th…

A random selection of headlines shown on the linked page:

  "Undercover at a 'seduction bootcamp’"
  "The peasant whose binge drinking went global"
  "'Why I'm desperate to get rid of my bum implants'"
  "We spent a morning in Rick Astley's home studio"
This isn't even what I'd recognise as a bad day for the Beeb News site. Some days they just report on Twitter spats with headlines

  "Lizzo credits writer of 'DNA test' tweet after row"
reproducing each tweet in turn. ...actually that's from today too.

I well I suppose that makes a change from:

  "'I’m a Muslim artist inspired by the female body'"
  "On stage at a Jewish queer club night"
which I'm sure are great magazine content if that's your sort of thing but I'm not sure are really headline "news" IMHO (both also from today).

To be fair I guess having Tor access to that content is probably needed in some locations. I just wish it was presented separately to genuine news content.

Re: BBC News launches 'dark web' Tor mirror

#153
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/bbc/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/history/story/2007/02/0701...

The BBC is quite subtle. It's not fake news and what they report is factual, but the choice of what facts to report makes it crystal clear that they do have an agenda. A current example: Hongkong. They have headline reporting every time there is a protest while other protests in other countries, and arguably much more significant protests, barely get a mention. This is not a coincidence. Edit: A lot of the replies to…

>raltive importance of reporting in order to manipulate public opinion.

Well, state your bias? Why did you formulate it as "against China" and not "for people of Hongkong"?

Re: BBC News launches 'dark web' Tor mirror

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Like, how do I know any of those links aren't the NSA? Well, I've only linked to communities listed by the Tor Project itself. Otherwise, the same way you would check whether HN or your local tea store is the NSA. You do your own research, run your own risk analysis, and if you want to stay sane, by default you give people the benefit of the doubt. Generally, it's best not to run Tor relays from home as services wil…

Do you confuse relays with exit nodes? Which services block relays?

Exit nodes are relays. Node and relay are synonyms in context of the Tor circuit (guard/bridge - middle - exit). https://miro.medium.com/max/2560/1*j2aTFBQTd9e1PlFDjeKw1g.jp...

Being a Tor relay you participate in a public proxy network, so you automatically run risk that someone will harvest your IP address for whatever reason, e.g., lists for companies trying to prevent browsing via tor, etc.

Re: BBC News launches 'dark web' Tor mirror

#155
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Straight away in the article they spell it out and make the link between Tor and the dark web: > The Tor browser is privacy-focused software used to access the dark web Yes it is. But that's the worst thing it's used for. It's like saying 12-gauge shotguns are used for bank robberies... Ok, I'm stretching the point but it's needlessly putting the association of privacy focused browsing using Tor with the nasty shit t…

But you're using 'dark web' as if it necessarily implies "the worst thing[s]" and "the nasty shit" on Tor. The term 'dark web' doesn't refer to anything nefarious in itself — it simply means content accessible only via Tor (or some other software or network). Sure, many so-called Hidden Services offer illegal and immoral content, but the dark web is enormous . There are many more such sites offering ebooks and other…

It's also the case that onion services make up less than 3% of Tor traffic -- the perception that they are a very common thing people use on Tor is massively distorted by thinly-veiled smears by plenty of media outlets. The most-used onion service on Tor is (by a landslide) Facebook.

Re: BBC News launches 'dark web' Tor mirror

#156

Don't really see the point of this and am tbh slightly irked at a wastage of my licence fee.

Onion services provide additional anonymity to users of the service because none of the traffic ever leaves the Tor network. Personally I think it's a great thing that users can safely and anonymously access the BBC no matter where they are in the world. Even Facebook has had an onion address (http://facebookcorewwwi.onion) for several years.

Re: BBC News launches 'dark web' Tor mirror

#157
post #137
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In terms of non-exit Tor relays, it doesn't. In fact, for anyone looking at your traffic, Tor relaying is opaque, unlike legal torrents. As for exits, you'll be dealing with abuse reports from countless parties, including the off-chance that someone sends a death threat through your exit and you have may to fend off law-enforcement that still hasn't gotten the memo on Tor. In countries, like the US where any police e…

Even non-exit nodes can put you in a bad spot (my ISP didn't like it), you'll get blacklisted by quite a few places (because not everyone got the memo that middle nodes != exit nodes)

Yeah. If your ISP is manned by dipshits, they won't like Tor relays, just because.

It's also worth setting up a Tor relay to use a different external ip address. Because VPN/Procy whitelists employed by dumb web firewall products will temporarily blacklist all publically listed Tor relay IPs.

Here's a typical residential setup: ISP-provided broadband modem in bridged mode + some sensible home router with security patches you should be using anyway and the Tor relay server connected to the modem with a non-managed switch (if needed).

Please note that Bridges give help directly to individuals who can't access Tor, due to blockage in their home country. They don't use a lot of bandwidth and aren't listed publicly, so bad actors on the firewall market won't block them.

So, if you only have one IP address available and you want to do the internet at large a huge solid, just run a Bridge.

For anyone interested in running Tor relays, here's an intro to why your new box won't use all available bandwidth for a while https://blog.torproject.org/lifecycle-new-relay

Re: BBC News launches 'dark web' Tor mirror

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it worth it to donate, or to just pool a little cash and start your own? Like, how do I know any of those links aren't the NSA? I ask because I have 5-6 Raspberry Pis, a couple retired Supermicro boxes, and old Cisco gear that isn't doing much...

Both if possible. A Pi 3 can saturate its ethernet adapter (~50Mbps) running a Tor relay. It's reasonably straightforward to setup. You shouldn't run exit nodes from a home connection due to possible abuse. If a person uses it to do something illegal you may end up with law enforcement busting down your door. Relays are safe though.

I thought the consensus was that law enforcement can "crack" Tor these days (a la tracing the illegal traffic back to the source, not just the exit node)

Is this not the case, or is it not a black/white answer?

Post reply on HN