In 2014, Facebook created a Tor onion address so that its more privacy-conscious users could connect to the platform through their Tor-enabled browsers. This community of users has grown, and to cater for them, Facebook is offering experimental support for connections to the platform through Tor on its Android App.
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Up until now, Tor users could access Facebook through a special onion address that Facebook had created two years ago – The Facebook over Tor page made it easier for certain users to connect to the platform securely. On Tuesday, in it’s announcement of the new feature, Facebook explains that
[quote]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.[/quote]
In the years that have passed, Facebook has been able to make this connection much “more efficient and reliable” and has been able to provide support beyond the Tor browser, thus offering connections to Facebook over Tor, via the Orbot proxy on Android devices.
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The feature is still being rolled out, but anyone who would like to try it needs to download Orbot Android proxy app. When that is set up, users can switch to Tor in their Android Facebook app settings.
Instructions are available here, if anyone is interested. Also, there will be updates on the Facebook over Tor page here