I Tried the Android App That's Helping People Around the World Bypass Censorship Laws
An in-depth look at testing the new Snowflake Volunteer Android app built on the Tor network to help users in censored regions access the internet safely.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
- Tor Project teamed up with Bloco app studio to release Snowflake Volunteer for Android
- Allows users to donate a slice of their internet connection to help others bypass censorship
- Connections are disguised as standard video calls over WebRTC protocol to avoid blocking
- Users can configure settings to run only on unmetered Wi-Fi networks or while charging
Technology journalist David Nield recently tested out a brand-new application called Snowflake Volunteer, developed through a partnership between the Tor Project and the Bloco Android app studio. The core mission of this app goes far beyond merely keeping your own web browsing secure; it empowers you to donate a portion of your mobile internet connection to help individuals living under strict censorship restrictions get online.
Governments in certain countries frequently attempt to block access to the Tor network by restricting the relay nodes that route traffic to conceal user identities and locations. Because the directory of these relay nodes is public, authorities can easily block them. The Snowflake technology circumvents this obstacle by disguising a Tor connection as a standard video call using the WebRTC protocol, which is typically unrestricted, allowing traffic to successfully bridge into the Tor network.
Attempting to block Tor's relay nodes often forces authoritarian governments into a difficult dilemma: either risk crippling large portions of their domestic internet infrastructure or allow protocols like WebRTC to pass through unhindered. This inherent design makes Snowflake an exceptionally resilient tool against digital censorship.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
Getting started with the application is designed to be as straightforward as possible. After installing it from the Google Play Store or F-Droid, the initial task involves exempting the app from battery management rules so it remains active in the background. From there, users simply toggle a switch on the main screen to ready their phone for incoming connections, requiring no user accounts or complex configuration menus.
During a roughly four-hour test run, the journalist recorded six separate connections, transmitting a total of 3.2 megabytes and receiving 17 megabytes of data—a remarkably low usage level that produced no noticeable bugs, performance drops, or battery drainage issues. Users can also tap the settings icon to restrict connections exclusively to unmetered networks like Wi-Fi, limit operations to times when the phone is charging, or cap the number of simultaneous users.
From a security standpoint, individuals volunteering their devices face no risk of state identification. To censoring entities, the traffic simply appears as a standard audio or video call connection with no static IP address list available for blocking. Furthermore, Tor's multi-layered encryption ensures that volunteer devices serve strictly as entry points without possessing any capability to monitor or view the browsing activities of connected users.
Source: Lifehacker
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