Help people bypass censorship: Run Snowflake
I spotted a post by Ali Reza Hayati and was inspired to install Snowflake. After just 10 minutes, I had already, in Snowflake’s words, helped 1 user circumvent censorship.
As a Tor user, I had heard about Snowflake before, but had never thought to contribute bandwidth before today, and before I read Ali’s appeal. He lives in a country where the Internet is heavily censored and where VPNs are the norm. With the events of recent days, his country’s Internet access has been severely downgraded as well.
It’s the least I could do and the least we all can do, especially those of us who are fortunate enough to live in countries where censorship is almost non-existent.
I won’t regurgitate Ali’s appeal but I will name my post the same as his. I even sent him an e-mail (encrypted, of course) and he managed to respond. I didn’t ask but for all I know, his response may have only been possible thanks to Snowflake.
A quick note on Snowflake
Apparently, Snowflake can be installed on the Tor browser itself. I have never been able to get it running on there; if anyone has managed to do this, please educate me.
Here is my Simple-Simon version of how to contribute your bandwidth to Snowflake users.
- On your regular browser (not Tor browser) install the Snowflake extension.
- Enable Snowflake’s extension after accepting the terms.
- Leave your browser open to keep Snowflake running.
If you can, please donate some of your bandwidth. It’s a tiny sacrifice we all can make to throw someone a lifeline.