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Robert W. Gehl's posts Post Back to profile
Robert W. Gehl

Here's a totally wonky, ultranerdy piece of evidence for folks who want to argue that #Meta doesn't operate in good faith. It's based on a chapter of my book about the Dark Web (mitpress.mit.edu/9780262038263).

A thread... 🧵

15 Dec 2023 at 19:19 | Open on aoir.social
4 comments
Robert W. Gehl

So, back in 2015, there were multiple groups creating encrypted, anonymizing networks (many of which are still in operation today): #I2P, #Tor, #GNU, #Namecoin.

They went to the #IETF to standardize how browsers would handle their special top-level domains.

(I warned you this was nerdy).

The idea here was that if a user typed domain.i2p or domain.onion into a browser, the browser would leak that request to search engines or DNS servers.

2/🧵

15 Dec 2023 at 19:23 | Open on aoir.social
Robert W. Gehl

The various groups were working together, even though there were some socio-technical rivalries among them. For example, people representing Tor said I2P's documentation sucked. I2P thought Tor's domain name system was poorly conceived. That sort of thing.

But they all had common cause: prevent this obscure privacy problem.

Then #Meta (at that time, #Facebook) showed up.

🧵 /3

15 Dec 2023 at 19:25 | Open on aoir.social
Robert W. Gehl

Facebook was looking into setting up their own Tor hidden service, what would eventually become facebookcorewwwi.onion (the fact that I can recall that URL is a BIG DEAL, ask me why later).

So they partnered with Tor, specifically the now infamous Jacob Appelbaum (a serial sexual abuser -- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Ap)

Facebook's goal was to get IETF standardization so they could get a domain certificate for their .onion service. (Ask me why later, more nerdery).

🧵 /4

Facebook was looking into setting up their own Tor hidden service, what would eventually become facebookcorewwwi.onion (the fact that I can recall that URL is a BIG DEAL, ask me why later).

So they partnered with Tor, specifically the now infamous Jacob Appelbaum (a serial sexual abuser -- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Ap)

15 Dec 2023 at 19:30 | Open on aoir.social
Robert W. Gehl

While Tor, I2P, GNU, and Namecoin were working an RFC through the IETF process, Facebook and Tor/Appelbaum broke away from the group.

Why? Because they were bigger than the rest. Facebook was too important to wait for the piddly-little anonymizing projects, like I2P.

Tor was just too popular. That was the basic argument.

They broke off their own RFC, got it approved very quickly, and facebookcorewwwi.onion went live in 2016, complete with an HTTPS certificate.

🧵 /5

15 Dec 2023 at 19:32 | Open on aoir.social
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