Italian Anti-Corruption Organization Launches Whistleblower Forum on Tor
The Italian National Anti-Corruption Authority (ANAC) has launched an online whistleblower platform (forum) on the Tor network. This initiative aims to support the organization’s main mission: exposing illegal activities such as corruption within government agencies. At the same time, ANAC strongly supports individual rights and values the ability to maintain privacy online.
Why Was the Forum Created on the Darknet?
Millions of people use Tor daily to avoid censorship and surveillance. The anonymity and privacy provided by Tor (note: simply using Tor does not make you completely anonymous) allow journalists to share confidential information and activists to discuss and coordinate their actions. Ordinary citizens also use Tor to avoid being tracked and to access blocked resources.
Although Tor has long faced criticism for its potential to facilitate crime, its anonymity can also be used for good. Whistleblowers—those who leak information about bribery and corruption—can be protected and assured that their identities will remain hidden.
Since Edward Snowden used Tor to send documents to a journalist from the NSA, these services have been available on secure platforms like GlobaLeaks and SecureDrop. Tor is also gaining popularity in countries with repressive regimes, where access to internet resources and various applications is restricted.
About the GlobaLeaks Project
GlobaLeaks, created by a group of Italian programmers in 2011, is now an open information platform (a kind of media outlet) that allows anyone—including the general public, activist groups, government agencies, media organizations, and corporations—to access leaked data about government activities, kickbacks, bribes, and political rumors. Essentially, the site is a web application running on onion routing, enabling journalists to communicate anonymously without fear of being identified.
GlobaLeaks is currently developed and managed by the Hermes Center for Transparency and Digital Human Rights.
About the Italian Anti-Corruption Organization
The Italian National Anti-Corruption Authority based its platform on GlobaLeaks, inspired by the idea of onion routing and the advantages it offers. Italian national law requires all companies and government organizations to integrate their information management and protection systems with the state information system, which can put whistleblowers and journalists investigating corruption at risk.
Additionally, last year the Italian National Assembly passed a law allowing the anonymous adoption and integration of IT systems for informing the public. This law also considered Tor as a platform for mass information dissemination.
Tor Goes Mainstream
Tor is becoming mainstream, as more and more nonprofit and media organizations are adopting it at an accelerated pace. (Remember Wikipedia’s presence on the darknet?) People have realized how important true anonymity can be for good causes.
The famous Tor network recently received major technical updates with the release of the third version of the Onion service, which is expected to significantly increase the anonymity of services on .onion domains. There are also plans for further improvements as Tor transitions to Firefox ESR v60, which will use all the latest features of Firefox Quantum. Additionally, Mozilla has recently started including some of Tor’s unique features, such as anti-tracking, in the latest versions of its browser.