Facebook originally created a Tor onion address at https://www.facebookcorewwwi.onion/ in 2014 to allow users to more securely access the social media network from TOR enabled browsers. This change has increased the security of Tor connections to Facebook by simply eliminating the steps that required traffic to travel beyond the cryptographic assurances provided by the Tor network.
Since Facebook originally created the Tor Onion address, a sizeable community of people has grown to use this feature and help Facebook make it more efficient and reliable the company stated in a post address.
The company has said that they have commonly received requests for additional platform support beyond the browser, and that thanks to the project that was originally created by a summer intern who was working in the company at the time and was subsequently picked up by Facebook’s Protect and Care team in London in which the company has now stated in the blog post that they are now offering experimental support for using Facebook over Tor via the Orbot proxy app for Android devices.
Facebook has said that this new feature will begin to be rolled out over the next few days and the company is looking to obtain feedback which will help the company create a great experience for using Facebook over Tor on Android.
If you wish to take part in the trial, all you need to do is to head over to either Google Play or the Orbot F-Droid repository and download Orbot: Proxy with Tor.
Once you have done this, you will need to head over to the Tor Project’s Android page where you will find out more instructions on how to use this new feature trial.
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.
