Adding Tor support on Android
We created a Tor onion address at https://www.facebookcorewwwi.onion/ in 2014 to make it easier for people to connect to Facebook securely from Tor-enabled browsers. This change increased the security of Tor connections to Facebook by eliminating steps that required traffic to travel beyond the cryptographic assurances provided by the Tor network.
Since then, a sizeable community of people has grown to use this feature and help us make it more efficient and reliable. We commonly receive requests for additional platform support beyond the browser, and thanks to a project initiated by a summer intern at Facebook and subsequently picked up by our Protect and Care team in London, we are now offering experimental support for using Facebook over Tor via the Orbot proxy app for Android devices.
We're releasing this feature over the next few days to seek feedback which will help us create a great experience for using Facebook over Tor on Android. To get started you can head over to Google Play or the Orbot F-Droid repository and download Orbot: Proxy with Tor.
You can also find more instructions on the Tor Project’s Android page.
New Preference Switch
After installing Orbot, visit your Facebook “App Settings” menu to enable the feature using a new preference switch. Further information and updates will be posted on the Facebook over Tor page.
Android Engineering for Facebook over Tor was provided by the Facebook London Protect and Care Team. Thanks especially to Will Shackleton, Nick Tuckett, and Rahul Parsani for all their hard work. Thanks also to the Guardian Project for Orbot, and the Tor Project.
